Adding Light With Photoshop
Sometimes the light isn’t perfect in pictures. Fortunately, there’s Photoshop! I’ll often use this to accent things in images or fill in light in portraits. Were starting this edit out with our color adjustment layer already in place. The reason being, it will help the “light” were adding, to look more natural in the image. If you need help with adding color adjustments, see my article on my basic editing process here.
As you can see here, Ive already added the color lookup layer thats adding a bit of contrast and color adjustment. Well need to make a new blank layer in between the background and color lookup layer. First, click the background layer, then click the new layer button (2)
We now have the blank layer in the middle, this will be where we paint the light on the image. Now click on the paint brush tool (1) select the color white by clicking on the color palate (2) and then select white (3) click ok (4)
Now we need to set up our brush. click the brush setup button (1) then bring the hardness all the way down to 0% (2) Adjust the size to about the size of the engines in the image (3)
Make sure you have the correct layer selected (1) and then click on the image where you want to add the light (2)
Set the layer we painted the light on to overlay (1) and change the opacity to look reasonable (2) Hint: the blending method overlay works well if the area your adding light to is somewhat evenly exposed, if its not, then “soft light” will work better for you.
Heres the before and after, looks pretty good right? Who doesn’t like a bit more focus on the turbine blades??
Heres the final product, after cleaning up the golf cart, trash cans, ground power connections, and adding a bit more contrast and tonal changes. Happy Photoshopping!
