Image Help - - Lighting, Shadows help, angel wings!

biskit27 · #1 03-08-2006, 07:41 PM

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 · #2 03-08-2006, 09:00 PM

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 · #3 03-08-2006, 09:14 PM

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 · #4 03-08-2006, 09:30 PM

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 · #5 03-08-2006, 09:35 PM

hmmm, did u brush over it?

bart_hickman · #6 03-08-2006, 10:20 PM

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 · #7 03-09-2006, 12:29 AM

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 · #8 03-09-2006, 03:01 AM

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 · #9 03-09-2006, 04:02 AM

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 · #10 03-09-2006, 10:06 AM

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 · #11 03-09-2006, 08:00 PM

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 · #12 03-10-2006, 08:46 AM

... 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 · #13 03-10-2006, 09:29 AM

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 · #14 03-10-2006, 01:34 PM

Quote:

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 · #15 03-10-2006, 02:25 PM

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