Lighting, Shadows help, angel wings!

[biskit27]

Ok, so I have this image that I've been working on. My bfs label shot a few videos recently, and this shot is from on set while they were shooting. The girl asked me to help her fix up some of the pictures they took while shooting, and I have everything just about done, with the exception of the wings. As is obvious, the light doesnt shine through the board that was used for the base of the wings the same way it shines through the edge of the wings(all feather), er it doesnt shine through at all.

Ive tried, adjustment layers, color replacement, dodge/burn, etc etc etc, and I cant think of a way to do it well.

I have the orig high-q one if anyone wants to look at that,
but I'd love to see what you guys can think of, thanx!

[mistermonday]

I am not sure if this is headed in the right direction, but here goes.
I converted the image to LAB and selected the dark section of the wing and used a curve to lighten it to match the outside lighter border. Now with a uniformly toned wing, I duplicated the background, slected almost all of that wing and added a layer mask to it. Next I applied a gradient to the mask itself going from White at the tip of the wing to black at the inside closest to the model. Now selecting the image instaed of the mask, and clicking on a darker tone closer to the model, applied a curve to brighten the wing. As you do so, the wing tip will begin to blow out sooner because it is brighter. I stopped here but you could go on to use a filter or layer style to create some light striations onto the background. You could also tone down the other wing and add some color or texture to it.
Hope this helps
Regards, Murray

[bart_hickman]

This wasn't that hard to fix, but the method I used might seem technical. However, I have to put the kiddo's to bed at the moment, so I'll have to leave you hanging!

Here's the result so you can possibly let me know if it's what you're looking for.

Bart

[biskit27]

hmm, guesses, hmm, was something done with levels of seperate color channels?

totally clueless here, lol

yeah, its basically great, id love to know how you did it, the wings though look a little pinkish, lol,

whatd you do, tell meeeeeeeeeeeeee,
lol

[biskit27]

hmmm, did u brush over it?

[bart_hickman]

Murray's instructions sound similar to mine although I did it in the RGB color space.

I'm attaching the layer palette. The levels adjustment layer gets the luminance of the shady part of the wing to be correct. Above that is a color balance layer to make the color of the wing match. The effects of those two are masked by the mask called "Select dark part of wing". You have to hand brush this part or make a careful selection of the dark part of the wing. Since the front of the wing needs more lightening than the back, I used a gradient to create a second mask to blend the effects of the adjustment layers so they do less brightening as you get towards the back of the wing.

The blending mode of both groups is "pass through". For the benefit of PSP users, the pass through mode doesn't exist so you'll have to make a duplicate of the original and put it in the group under the adjustment layers. PSP users will not need two groups because PSP allows you to stack multiple masks directly on top of each other.

After brushing the lower mask as best as I could, I moved around the upper mask a bit to position and scale the gradient just right.

Then I created a blank layer on the very top and used the healing brush to smooth over the less-than-perfect boundary between dark and light wing areas. PSP users would use the scratch remover here.

Typically, I would use a single curve adjust layer in place of the levels and color balance layers because that's my preference and I think I can get better color matching that way. However, I thought the curve layer might seem more mysterious when explaining. You can use just about whatever you want to convert dark wing to light wing.

Clear as mud eh?

Bart

[palomino]

I did a curves adjustment layer and masked it where needed and then used the diffuse glow -- I figure if part of the image is already blown out, why not go with it and maximize the whole ethereal glow thing...Hopefully this won't look posterized from the compression....good luck.

-Kate

[Flora]

Hi biskit27!

Welcome to RP!

I followed a different path and here is the result... I'm on my way out right now, but I'll explain what I did later today ...

Great job everybody!!!!

[rrustic]

I am too much of a noob to help you out but Flora's wings are beautiful.
That was an excellent job Flora.
Since I am just learning, I think I will read everything you (Flora) have posted.
I should learn alot.

Rich

[KR1156]

after using curves to balance out tone in the wings, i used a Cooling photo filter adjustment layer to give it a different look and feel. also blew out the left edge of the wing a little bit to as to the illumoinated feel.

[Photomaster]

My Angel Retouch Process:

1. Original Photo
2. Selected dark area of wing. Copied to new layer. Used 3 adjustment layers: Curves, Hue/Sat., Brightness/Contrast to match rest of wing. (Selection must be active [Marching Ants On] for these layers.)
3. New Composite Layer (Cntrl+Alt+Shft+E) Used Clone tool to blend edge of adjusted wing area with rest of wing. Did Exposure adjustment to overall image (Photoshop CS2 tool - Skip if not available.)
4. Hue/Sat adjustment
5. New Composite layer
6. Copy Composite layer. Apply Filter, Render, Lighting Effects: Adjust Spotlight on face. Erased unwanted dark areas revealing layer below.
7. New Layer set to Overlay, fill with 50% gray. Paint light and dark areas with brush set at 10-20% opacity. (Background, face dress, petals)
8. New Composite layer
9. 2 adjustment layers: Color Balance, Photo Filter-Warm
10. This step is easy but sounds complicated: Make a new composite layer. Duplicate the new composite layer. Make a copy of the original image layer. Place the copy of the original image layer between the two composite layers you just made. Select the top most composite layer and with the eraser set at 10% opacity, begin erasing areas of the dress, to lighten, until you are satisfied with the results. If you mess up this layer, delete it and recopy the other composite layer and try again.

With this retouch I chose to emphasize the face and wings.

Note: I probably should be using Layer Comps but I haven't learned how to use them yet. All in due time.

[Flora]

... So glad you liked 'my' wings ....

I work with Photoshop CS2 and the basic steps I used in your picture are:

* Duplicated the background Layer and named the duplicate 'Match Color'

* Working on the Match Color' Layer, to correct the yellow (indoors lights) cast the image had, I went to Image>Adjustment>Match Color ... and the only thing I did here was to 'check' the 'Neutralize' box in it ... (great eh? )

* Duplicated the Match Color' Layer and named the duplicate 'Equalize' (I now have 3 Layers)

*Working on the 'Equalize' Layer, I went to Image>Adjustment>Equalize ... That brightened the whole image a lot .... Too much actually .... but the darker part of the wings looked just great!!!

* At this point, keeping the ALT key pressed, I clicked on the 'Add New Layer Mask' button at the bottom of my Layers' Palette , to create a 'black= Hide All layer mask for the top (Equalize) Layer ...

* Once created, the black layer Mask will hide the top Layer from view so you'll think you are back to square one or, in this case, to square two ... the 'Match Color' Layer step ... Not really ... select a fuzzy Brush, make sure your foreground Color is set to white, click on your Black Mask to activate it (Attachment 1) and paint white on the darker parts of the wing (don't worry, you are not really painting on the image but on the mask which now partially white will show the great lighter wing underneath!). Change the Opacity of the brush to 30-40% (Attachment 2) and paint white on the still darker parts of the 'outer' wing ...

My Mask + workflow up to here (Attachment 3)
My result after this very easy steps (Attachment 4)

After this, I also used the Healing Brush "to smooth over the less-than-perfect boundary between dark and light wing areas" as Bart said ...

I used Levels to increase the contrast on the feathers a bit.

If you are not very familiar with Layer Masks yet, this Tutorial might help.

Hope this helps ....

[KR1156]

Flora, thanks for pointing out the Match Color adjustment. I never played with that function and now am getting a lot of good results from it on other images!

If only they made it as an adjustment layer!

Mike

[Flora]

Originally Posted by KR1156

Flora, thanks for pointing out the Match Color adjustment. I never played with that function and now am getting a lot of good results from it on other images!

If only they made it as an adjustment layer!

Hi Mike,

small jewel isn't it? .... It came from Kate aka Palomino ... (thanks Kate!!! ) ... depending on the cast, 'Neutralize' could turn lightly cyan ... but if you 'fade' it a bit it really works small wonders!!!!

And I couldn't agree more about having it handy as Adjustment Layer .... but now that I think of it, I could write an action for it .... You surely know how to write actions .... if not, let me know and I'll post it here...

[Kraellin]

i just had to have a go at this image. but i'm afraid i'm not going to be much help here, at least as far as the lightening of the darker part of the wings. i did do that, but it was only part of the overall i did. so, forgive me for a bit of a hijack here, since what i did was to do a little photo art on the picture. it's a great picture and i'd invite you to post it in the photo art section so others would take a go at it as well.

craig

[palomino]

Thanks Flora -- I do love the match color function--it is a simple way to oust color casts. It is a great idea to make it into an action/adjustment layer. That is the best thing about this forum...everyone's ideas come together to benefit the whole group! Cheers!

-Kate

[Kraellin]

took a shot at the actual wing problem.

craig

[Cameraken]

Hi Biskit.

Just an idea.

Ken

[nebgranny]

Hey Ken:
Any way you can have the light be behind the wing? I am working on a picture where I have rays coming down from the shy but having a problem getting it behind the figure instead of it showing over the person in the photo. I am using psp for that effect not photoshop. Just a thoughtKen. Neb

[Kraellin]

neb,

make a new raster layer under the one of the foreground. put the rays on the new layer and the other layer with the foreground will naturally block the remaining rays from showing through.

ok, wait. that assumes you have things on the originals separated out in layers and not all on one.

ok, you can do this if the original picture has the person and the background on the same layer. make a new raster layer, put the rays on it and have the layer on top of the other layers. then simply erase the rays you dont want coming over the person. that shld work.

craig

[bart_hickman]

Here's another idea.

I made a layer with the sunburst on it and then put the masked angel-person in front of that--so that blocks the rays. Then make a second, weaker sunburst on top of that. So it looks like one sunburst partially blocked (which it is.)

I attached a quick result (I didn't try to make the mask very good.) along with a layer stacks for PSP and PS.

Bart

[Cameraken]

Hi Neb.

Craig beat me to it, Thanks Craig.
Neb, Doug has written a good tutorial on this.

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=163

Hope this helps.

Ken

[nebgranny]

Thanks Flora Craig Bart and Ken:
I am going to try all the suggestions. The one photo I have the lighting come through is a very special picture of a young girl my sister who passed away very suddenly 2 years ago was a nanny to for three years. The young girl is now 20 and in college and works in our Capitol building. I know my sister loved her and is very proud of her for all she is doing with her life. I am sending this to the girl but did not want the rays over her face. So will try to redo it. Thanks for all the help!! Neb

[nebgranny]

Craig:
The suggestions do not seem to be working. I am using psp9 for this. The bg layer has been converted to a raster layer leaving the bg transparent. I have all three things on the same layer...bg..person looking down from heaven.....the sky...and then the rays or the sunburst effect in psp9 . So when I add a new layer and go to put the rays on they do not show on the set screen. Trying to erase ..well due to bg being transparent you know what happens when I go to erase, am I doing something wrong?? Any other suggestionson how to get the effect I want?? Neb

[bart_hickman]

Hi Neb,

To put sunburst on its own layer, create a layer filled with black, then put the sunburst on that. Then set the blend mode of the sunburst layer to "screen".

Bart

[nebgranny]

Got It...Thanks Bart and Craig. This was important to me !! Neb

[Kraellin]

neb,

attached is a very crude example of what i was saying. i hope you can make things out ok with the compression. just in case you cant, i'll explain a little bit.

the 'bottom' layer is the background layer. we first just duplicate that into another layer and turn off the original background layer to prevent ruining the original picture.

next, i added a new raster layer on top of the copy of background layer. into this i added the 'guy in the sky' image into the upper left corner.

i then added another blank layer on top of that one. as bart suggested, i painted this all black, but i just used a 50% opacity for the fill brush. i then set this layer and this layer only to 'screen' blend mode.

onto the black layer i added the sunburst rays AND 'illumination' lighting. because this last layer is on top of all the others, the rays also are over all the others. so, we simply use the eraser ON THIS SAME LAYER to erase those rays which show up over the people. we leave the rest of the rays alone.

and that's pretty much the basics of it. there are other ways to do it, but this is the simple way and it works for what you're trying to do.

i'll also give you a little explanation of layers and how to use them. you've got to kind of think in 3 dimensions when you use layers. you are not only working with width and breadth, but you are also working with depth because you are stacking one thing on top of another. the thing that is on top is the one that is going to show up.

layers is like working with transparent glass panes stacked on top of each other. if you have 3 layers or 3 panes of glass and you painted one pane red and put it on the bottom, and another pane painted blue and that one is in the middle, and you painted another white and that one was on top, you would only see the white. however, if you scraped a little of the white off the top pane you would see some of the blue showing through. and if right beneath that you scraped some of that blue off, you would see red. and that's the simplicity of layers.

now, there are other things that complicate all this, but you dont need them for what you're doing at the moment, so i wont try to explain them at this time. just remember 'panes of glass' when you're working with layers and it should help. photoshop and psp both do this the same way. and both, i think, always have the layers stacked the same way... the one at the top of the layer stack is the 'top pane of glass'. i know this is true for psp, both version 9 and 10.

i looked at your last post and you've got some things goofed up there. just start over using what i said. if you have trouble with this, stop and post what you did and we'll try and work it out.

craig

[Kraellin]

Originally Posted by nebgranny

Got It...Thanks Bart and Craig. This was important to me !! Neb

oops. you posted just before me ok, good going!

craig

[nebgranny]

Craig:
Your post is not in vain. I printed it out for future reference. Thanks for taking the time to write out the directions and explaination. Between you and Bart I learned a lot. My problem is that I forget things if I do not do them over and over, and after completeing a project I go on to somethng new. So I have been printing things out and putting them into a file for future reference!! Thanks

[Kraellin]

neb,

you're welcome

and trust me, i do the same thing...forget how to do something and the same as you, if i dont do them over and over, they're lost. i look back on some of the stuff i've done and go, 'how in the world did i do that?'. happens all the time

craig