Help needed with using light on background

[junipaire]

Hi

Does anyone have any good tips or tutorials about lighting they wouldn't mind sharing, just can't seem to get that nice artistic lighting that good portraits have. What lighting methods do you use, I have Painter IX and Photoshop 7 are there any decent lighting effect to be used with these to create good shadows. Or any decent actions that create artistic shadows and light.

The picture I did the other day of two of my brothers dogs looks good but needs lighting of the background better as it looks like they are just placed in that background as I got rid of the original grassy field they were in to try and create a more artist background.

Just wondered anyway if anyone had any tips.

Click here for my question on background creation.

Philip

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by junipaire

Hi

Does anyone have any good tips or tutorials about lighting they wouldn't mind sharing? I just can't seem to get that nice artistic lighting that good portraits have. What lighting methods do you use?

Are there any decent lighting effects to be used with these to create good shadows. Or any decent actions that create artistic shadows and light.

The picture I did the other day of two of my brothers dogs looks good but needs lighting of the background better as it looks like they are just placed in that background as I got rid of the original grassy field they were in to try and create a more artist background.

I have Painter IX and Photoshop 7.

Philip

Actions for lighting: I've not seen any.

Plugins/filters:
* Although I use it seldom, sometimes the built-in Photoshop Filter > Render > Lighting Effects can work.
* Plugin: Mystical Lighting - www.AutoFX.com: Way overpriced in my opinion and dog slow when I tried it.
* Plugin: Light 2 - Very reasonably priced (compared to AutoFX)
http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/light-2/light2down.php

General Photoshop technique for enhancing shadows:
* Apply a Levels or Curves adjustment layer
* Adjust settings to make things "darker" [your call on degree]
* Invert (Ctrl + I) [to mask the effect]
* With the adjustment layer active airbrush white in areas of the image where you want to increase shadow effect (white will "reveal" the effect of the adjustment layer).

Does this help?

~Danny~

[junipaire]

Cheers Danny

I'll try some of them tips, Did read on another forum the Innographx one that one lady had to create a little drama to a photo and create a nice shadowy effect was to use a black layer and just simply having the eraser tool opacity turned low and create a kind of spotlight effect on the person, it looked good what she did, dunno how easy it would be to get it to look like she did though as havn't tried it yet.

Thanks again

Phil

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by junipaire

...create a nice shadowy effect was to use a black layer and just simply having the eraser tool opacity turned low and create a kind of spotlight effect

A layer filled with black has possibilities, too. That's a good suggestion.

Instead of using the Eraser tool, consider adding a layer mask instead. I believe you will find it's easier and more forgiving. You can experiment, change your mind, modify opacity, add/delete and modify a layer mask. Once you erase, even though this is a totally black layer, replacing erased pixels would be more difficult to match opacity of surrounding pixels.