In this lesson we will look at a very important and, I would say, basic technique for working with spatial effects using the example of an ordinary portrait of a girl, onto which we will superimpose the morning light breaking through the window blinds. The main subject of the lesson will be handling the Displacement Map, thanks to which we will achieve the necessary refraction of the shadows from the blinds along the surface of the model's face. You will also have to pay a little attention to color correction and turn the photo into warm morning tones.
1 Step
As I said, we will be working with Photoshop's Displacement Map engine to bend the shadows from the blinds to match the natural features of the face, hands and hair, so the first thing we need to do is create a displacement map. Displacement maps are nothing more than a black and white image that Photoshop uses to determine how to shift pixels. First, let's create a black and white version of our image. There are quite a few options for doing this, but my favorite way has always been to switch the photo to the Lab Color color scheme, which in the best possible way extracts brightness values.
To convert a photo to the Lab Color color scheme, go to Image > Mode > Lab Color.
2 Step
When you convert an image to a Lab Color scheme, visually nothing happens, but in reality a lot happens. We separate the brightness values from the color in the image, and in order to see what actually happened, we need to switch to the Channels palette, which is located next to the Layers palette. There we will see several channels: “Lab”, “Lightness”, “a” and “b”. Here the “Lightness” channel represents the lightness values of the pattern at each point, and its resulting color is determined by the values of the other two channels “a” and “b”. The top “Lab” channel is not actually any channel. This is the result of overlaying a lightness channel and two color channels on top of each other.
Click on the “Lightness” channel and select it:
Once you go to this channel, you will see your main image turned to black and white:
3 Step
To create a Displacement Map, we need to transfer the black and white channel to a new document. Therefore, right-click on the “Lightness” channel and select Duplicate Channel from the drop-down menu.
A corresponding dialog box will open in front of you. Specify New in the Document field. Thus, we created a new document based on this channel instead of simply duplicating it in the same window. Click Ok.
Now we have two documents open on the screen: one contains the original image, and the other contains a duplicate of its “Lightness” channel. Now we have to work with a copy of the black and white channel - we need to adjust it a little to successfully use it as a Displacement Map.
4 Step
Displacement maps are useful when they have good contrast. So let's increase the contrast of our document using the Levels correction. Press Ctrl + L to bring up the Levels dialog menu.
In the center of the dialog menu, you'll see a histogram showing the current tonal range of your image. The histogram has three small sliders at the bottom. Drag the black slider to the right until about the point where the histogram starts to go up. This will darken the darkest areas of the document. Then drag the white slider to the left - to the place where the histogram almost ends. This will make the light areas of the image even lighter.
Once you've finished working with the curves, click Ok and check the image below.
5 Step
In the case of my photo, I want the shadows from the blinds to follow the girl's face, arms and hair, but I don't want the surface behind her to act as a displacement map as well. I want the shadows in those areas to be perfectly even, as if the light were falling on a completely flat surface. To achieve the desired effect, I need to fill these areas with a flat white color. To do this, use any selection method (Lasso Tool, Pen Tool, etc.) and select the entire area around the girl. Basically, you need to select everything except it. Don't worry about thin strands of hair - they won't affect the overall result much.
6 Step
Now open the Edit menu at the top of the screen and select Fill, or use the hotkeys Shift + F5. In any case, the Fill dialog box will appear in front of you, in which you need to select the white color White in the Use field.
Make sure the Mode is set to Normal and the Opacity is set to 100%, then click Ok to exit and fill the selection with white.
Press Ctrl + D to deselect.
7 Step
Well, we are almost ready to use our image as a displacement map. The only thing left for us is to remove all the sharp transitions between light and dark areas. To do this, we will use the standard Photoshop filter - Gaussian Blur. Open the Filter menu at the top of the screen, select Blur > Gaussian Blur. The Gaussian Blur dialog box will appear in front of you. Increase the blur radius (I used about 4px). For high resolution images you can set large values- 6-7 px.
This is what you should get as a result of applying the filter:
8 Step
So we have a finished displacement map. All we need to do now is preserve it. Therefore, by pressing Ctrl + S we call up the file saving menu and name our map “window-blinds-displace.psd” (make sure that the file type is selected.psd).
That's all for the displacement map. You can close this file saved for use as a Displacement Map; we won't need it anymore.
9 Step
Now we can switch to the actual blind shadow effect for the main image. Before you begin, you need to convert the photo back to the RGB color scheme it was originally in. To do this, call the Image menu again and select Mode, where you set the RGB Color scheme.
Once you apply the changes, you'll see the color return to your photo.
Looking at the Channels palette now, you will see that the “Lightness”, “a” and “b” channels have changed to the “Red”, “Green”, “Blue” channels, and the “Lab” composite channel has been replaced by “RGB” respectively.
Go back to the Layers palette - we won't need to work with channels anymore.
10 Step
We'll create a separate layer for the shadows from the blinds, so click on the create a new layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette.
11 Step
In order to apply shadows from blinds to a drawing, it is enough to start with basic black rectangles. Switch to the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M).
12 Step
Now create a rectangular selection - a stripe at the top of the document on a separate layer you created earlier.
13 Step
Once you have the selection you want, go to Edit > Fill and fill it with black, setting the Use field to Black.
14 Step
So far we have created a blank for the first strip of shadow. Now we need to multiply it. Switch to the Move Tool (V), and then hold down Alt and start dragging your black stripe down vertically (by holding down Shift, you will let the program know that you want to move the element strictly vertically). Even when you press Alt, you will see how the mouse cursor has changed to two arrows, which indicates that we will be dragging a duplicate of the figure, and not the figure itself. Even before starting this operation, you should make sure that you still have a selection on the screen - thanks to it, the entire procedure will take place on the same layer. Using this method, lower the duplicate black strip below the original one to the place where you would like to see the shadow from the next panel of the blinds.
15 Step
Continue duplicating the strips in this way until you fill the entire work area with them, as required by the idea. Once you're done, press Ctrl + D to deselect. As a result, you should get this:
If we look at the Layers palette, we will see that all our stripes are on one layer - “Layer 1”.
16 Step
At this stage, all our stripes look like just rectangles. To start giving them a shadow look, we need to smooth out the edges of them. To do this, we again use the Gaussian Blur filter. Open Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and drag the radius slider to the 9.1 px mark. In the preview window of the filter result, you can see that the edges are blurred quite well.
17 Step
Well, the stripes are already starting to take on less rigid outlines, but it still doesn’t look much like a shadow. One of the reasons our future shadow doesn't look like a shadow is because the black stripes are now just lying across the surface of the photo. We need to create the illusion that stripes of shadow flow around the girl’s face and smoothly bend around the imaginary relief of the entire scene. It was for these purposes that we created the displacement map at the beginning of the lesson.
Now you need to apply the Displace filter from the Distort filter group to the “Layer 1” layer. Go to Filter > Distort > Displace.
This will bring up the first of two filter dialog boxes. It determines the value of the influence of the displacement map on the original image, and we can change them thanks to the Horizontal Scale and Vertical Scale parameters. The higher specified values, the more Photoshop will shift the pixels. In our case, there is no need to shift the image horizontally at all, so set the Horizontal Scale option to 0. For the vertical displacement Vertical Scale we will set the value equal to 20 points. You can experiment with these numbers to see what works best for you. Make sure you check the Stretch to Fit and Repeat Edge Pixels options.
Click Ok and proceed to the next dialog box. This time you will be asked to select a displacement map file. As you probably realized, here you need to find the “window-blinds-displace.psd” file that you made at the beginning of the lesson.
Click Open and enjoy the result, in which the shadows flow around the girl much more realistically.
18 Step
Now all that remains is to set the transparency of our black stripes so that the shadow looks like a real one. All we need to do is lower the Opacity of the “Layer 1” layer. Reduce this setting to about 40%.
Now the shadow looks more or less realistic.
Step 19
We're probably done with the shadow for today. The work will be fully completed when we add warm tones to the photograph. Let's make the lighting look like gentle morning light. Click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and select the Color Balance adjustment layer type.
This adjustment layer will allow us to adjust the color tones for the shadows, midtones, and highlights in our image. In this layer's settings, start with the Shadows switch. Drag the bottom slider a little to the left, which will add a little yellow to the shadows. After adding some yellow, move the top slider a little to the right to increase the red tones in the image.
Once you've got the shadows done, switch to Midtones at the bottom of the dialog box and add yellow and red again, but this time to the midtones. After that, switch to Highlights and increase the impact of the yellow and red shades for the highlights. When you finish color correction, click Ok.
If you want to tone down the new color scheme a little, simply lower the Opacity of the Color Balance Adjustment Layer in the same way as we did with the Opacity of the shadow layer in the previous step.
In general, that's all! This is what our final result should be:
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Translated from the site www.photoshopessentials.com, the author of the translation is indicated at the beginning of the lesson.
So today we will make an animation of blinds.
1. Let's prepare our picture for animation. Let's open a new document and make a window frame using a mask. You have already learned this in previous lessons. 
Between these layers place a picture (in our case it is a landscape), adjusting it to the size of the frame.
2. Our working layer is “frame”. If you are not sure that you will not get confused in the layers (and we will have quite a lot of them), I advise you to assign a name to each layer by double-clicking on the layer name. 
3. Using a rectangular selection, outline each part of the frame and copy it (Ctrl+j) to a separate layer. As a result of this, we have three layers with rectangles - combine them. I made them white for clarity. We do not assign a name to him, because... we will delete it later. 
Return to the layer with the frame, without removing the selection, press Del. (“Open a window”) 
4. Now we need to make the shutter of the blinds, if you have a good eye, you can do it “by eye” or, by turning on the rulers (Ctrl + R), calculate the width of the shutter, taking into account that they will need to fill the entire “window”. Select it with a rectangular selection and copy it to a new layer (name it “blinds”). 
Go to Blending Options and give the flaps a “natural” look. For me it's like this: 
5. Now this layer needs to be copied as many times as necessary to cover the entire “window opening”, so take your time and make one copy at a time and, using the “move” tool, drag them under the previous “window”. 
I ended up with 17 layers.
6. Make another copy of the shutter, call it “blinds 1” and close all the eyes on the layers, leaving ONLY the “BLINDS” layers - merge the visible ones - we have 1 common layer left: dance3: 
Now we delete the unnecessary layer (which we did not assign a different name to).
7. Go to the “blinds 1” layer, it is located at the bottom, drag it to the top (it’s just more convenient to work this way). Go to free transformation (Ctrl+T or Edit - Free Transform) and slightly reduce our sash vertically. 
Now we make copies of the layer, as in the first case, drag them down. It is convenient to do this with the “blinds” layer turned on, trying to align the top part of “blinds 1” and “blinds”. It should look something like this 
.
And again we make a copy of the last layer, call it “blinds 2” and, turning off the eyes, merge the layers “blinds 1”.
Now our layers look like this: 
8. We repeat the procedure with the “blinds 2” layer (and subsequent ones), as well as with the “blinds 1” layer until the shutters turn into stripes (simulating rolled up blinds). 
As a result, I ended up with 8 layers - background, landscape, frame and 5 layers of “blinds”. You can immediately combine the background, landscape and frame layers into one layer. 
We decorate our picture as desired. This is what the layers should look like before going into animation 
9. Let's move on to animation. You can immediately set the time to 0.35 seconds, although we will change it on some layers. Check in the first picture in "Animation" the following should be included: background, 1 layer "blinds" and layer "girl". Make a copy of the layer by clicking on the square. 
Turn off the eye on the layer "blinds" and Turn on on the layer "blinds 1" .
We do the same with the layers “blinds 2”, “blinds 3” and “blinds 4” and continue in reverse order to the “blinds” layer - we do not repeat it. In total you should have 8 layers (if you, like me, had 5 layers of “blinds”) Let’s change the time on layer 1 (when the blinds are “closed”) and on layer 5 (when they are completely “open”) to 1 second.
Click on the triangle and admire your work. 
If you are satisfied with everything, save it as Gif - Save Optimized As. 
Happy creativity!
© by Mademoiselle Viv 
Hello! Today we will create an interesting and quite unusual frame for photos.
Lesson plan:
- Create a photo frame with the effect of blinds.
- We create a multi-level photo frame.
- Add a toning effect to parts of the photo.
- Create a photo frame with the effect of blinds.
Using the Rectangle tool, create any shape (oval, with rounded edges, or free-form). To show the principle of operation, I chose a regular rectangle. The main thing is to ensure that the aspect ratio of your figure is 2 to 3 or 3 to 2 for the future photo.
Step 3.
Rasterize the resulting layer and rename it Photo.
Now let's stroke the Photo layer. Here, as always, you can choose the size of the stroke and its color. I will have a stroke white, 17 pixels in size.
Step 5.
For further work, we need everything to be on separate layers. Therefore, we create a separate layer with our stroke. Now let's remove the extra part of our stroke. While holding down the Ctrl key, click on the pintogram of the Photo layer, go to the layer with the stroke and press the Delete key. For convenience, let's rename this layer Frame.
Select the photo layer and increase it by 1%
Now we need to divide our Photo and Frame layers into equal parts. You can turn on the grid and calculate by cells how many cells there will be in each part and then, counting these cells, divide our layers. But this method seems labor-intensive to me, and I suggest you use the Cutting tool. This tool is located in the toolbar in the tab with the Frame tool. Select the Cutting tool.
Step 8
In the dialog box that appears, we need to set the parameters of our division. For the frame I have in mind, I need to divide the photo into 7 parts, so I choose the value 1 horizontally and 7 vertically.
Step 10
Using the selection tool, I outline the fragment of the frame I need along the lines obtained as a result of cutting. Next, I check that I’m on the photo layer and press the key combination Ctrl+J. With this action I will copy the selected fragment of the Photo layer to a new layer, the same must be done with the Frame layer.
In order not to get confused in the new layers that appear, we rename the resulting layers. And we do the same for the remaining fragments. Don't forget to make a selection every time. This is the result you should get
Step 12
The cutting lines have fulfilled their auxiliary role and we no longer need them, so select the Cutting tool on the toolbar. Right-click on our frame and select the Delete fragments tab from the drop-down menu.
For realism, set a shadow to the Photo layers. I set the following parameters:
Step 14
To make it more believable, I created separate layers with the Shadow and, using Warp, adjusted the shadows from the photo.
For ease of work, I suggest grouping the Frame, Photo, and Shadow layers into separate folders. This is the result you should get.
Step 16
Insert the photo you like into the resulting frame. To do this, you need to copy the photo several times and, in turn, move each layer with a copy of the photo above the “photo” layer. And then apply an abtractive mask. This is the photo frame I got with the effect of blinds.
- We create a multi-level photo frame.
At the first stage, we got a good blank, from which we can create even more interesting frames.
Step 1.
Select Folders Photos 2, 4, 6 and reduce the height by the desired percentage, I got it by 8%
Now you need to change the order of the Photos 6 and 7 folders so that the Photo 7 folder is above the Photo 6 folder.
This is the frame I got as a result of my previous actions.
Insert the photo of your choice into the frame. This is how our photo frame started playing.
- Add a toning effect to parts of the photo.
To make the resulting frames even more unique and interesting, we can apply tinting.
The easiest way is to create a new Tinting layer above the Photo layer to which we want to apply tint, then select the color you like in the color palette and use the Fill tool to paint over our Tinting layer.
Apply a clipping mask of the Toning layer to the Photo layer.
We lower the transparency of the Toning layer or change the blending parameters of this layer and achieve the result we need.
These are the frames with the tinted effect that I got. I used portrait photographs, but these frames would probably be more suitable for landscapes or still lifes. Go for it))). We are very interested in what you come up with)))
Such frames are very convenient to fill using smart objects. The principle of making a frame is very similar, but there are still some nuances (perhaps in one of the lessons we will talk about them). This tool has only appeared since Photoshop CS6, so it is not very widespread yet. However, in our store there are several products using them. For example, here Or here you can ignore the fact of the presence of smart objects and fill in these frames in the usual way, using an edge mask. The end result will be the same, it will just take a little longer.
Learn more about smart objects and their possible application you can find out
But in this at the end at minute 26:30 of the lesson, I just show how using smart objects you can fill out such frames in a few seconds.
The lesson was prepared by the team of the “Photobooks for the Soul” website. Author - Ksenia.
Artists are fussy people. Regardless of what we are dealing with: composition, color or lighting - we tend to radically change our minds. Luckily, with Photoshop you can make major changes to your drawing without spending a lot of time. In this tutorial I will show you some simple and quick ways digital portrait lighting.
1. Black and white sketch
Step 1
To show you the types of lighting as clearly as possible, I will use a portrait as a base. We start with a simple sketch of the portrait using a hard round brush (B). You can find a photo for the drawing.
Drawing of a girl from EnvatoMarket
Step 2
Next tool Brush Tool(Brush) (B) fill the portrait with shades of gray. Stick to black and white tones to properly convey chiaroscuro with original photo. If you are a beginner, this is great way learn to draw chiaroscuro without being distracted by color.
Note that the light source is in the upper left corner, just like in the original photo.
Step 3
Having finished with the basic shading, we continue to draw more saturated shadows. For more convenient work, we draw on different layers. I wrote about my shading method using blending modes in this tutorial. When working with a drawing, keep the direction of the light source in mind at all times.
We continue to refine the drawing. Round hard brush(B) adding details. The portrait and background should be on different layers to make it easier for us to experiment with lighting later.
This is what the finished portrait looks like. If you have limited yourself to a minimum number of details in the drawing, then it is perfect for the following type lighting.
2. Spotlight effect
Step 1
Let's first try to create a spotlight effect. I was inspired by this portrait.
This effect can be easily replicated using an existing light source in our portrait. Create a new layer and set its blending mode to Multiply(Multiplication). Using a soft round brush of dark gray color, paint soft shadows on the right side of the model.
Draw more shadows on the neck and hair, focusing Special attention direction of the light source to correctly convey the falling shadow. We darken some areas more strongly, as in the photo example above, to give the work more drama.
Step 2
Let's add even more light to our composition. Create a new layer and set its blending mode to Overlay(Overlap), add highlights to the left side of the face and hair. To get clear, neat strokes, use a hard round brush ( Hardness(Hardness) 100%). To create a shining effect, use a soft eraser (E) to carefully erase the hard boundaries of the strokes.
Create a new layer under the portrait to add soft lighting to the background. This will enhance the effect, since light has the ability to be reflected on surrounding objects.
We're done with the first effect! Perhaps this is the most easy way creating dramatic lighting in a portrait. Let's move on to the next effect!
3. Blind effect
Step 1
I think everyone had the imprudence to take pictures in front of the window. Because the blinds are blocking Sun rays, the result is an interesting shadow in the form of stripes, which gives the portrait an atmosphere of mystery. Let's try to replicate this effect using a technique similar to creating a spotlight effect. First, we delete the original layer with highlights, since for this type of lighting we will use a completely different lighting scheme.
I used this photo as an example.
Create a new layer above the shadow layer. Using a hard round brush, draw straight horizontal lines running across the entire width of the portrait. While drawing the line, hold down the Shift key so that the strip is perfectly straight. Then press Ctrl+T to free transform and rotate the lines diagonally.
Step 2
Now let's blur the lines a little. Activate the desired layer and go Filter- Blur-GaussianBlur(Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur), Radius(Radius) set to 20 pixels. If the lines on the face still look too rough, take an ordinary soft eraser (E) and carefully draw them in problem areas.
Blurring will make the effect more realistic.
Step 3
Now we need to add highlights. Pay special attention to areas where the sun's rays touch the model. In these places we make the highlights more expressive and do not forget to add a couple of strokes on the right side for contrast with the shadowed area. We continue adding soft highlights to the left side of the portrait. With this kind of lighting, a fairly limited amount of light gets through the blinds, so don't overdo it.
Sometimes we notice dust particles in the rays of light. Therefore, to complete the effect, we draw many small white dots in the illuminated areas.
Easy, isn't it? I like to create effects like this because they are popular and look impressive.
4. Halo effect
Step 1
The halo effect is very interesting guy lighting when the edges of an object are outlined by bright light. Many examples can be found in silhouette photos, but the halo effect can also be achieved in normal lighting.
In this work, I will use this stunning photo as an example.
We will completely change the direction of the main light source. On the layer under the model, draw blurry white spots.
Step 2
Next we will draw a shadow. As in the previous section, we work on a new layer in blending mode Multiply(Multiplication). This time we concentrate the shadow on the background, as well as on the face, to create an unobtrusive silhouette effect. A dark background will also contrast well with the halo effect.
We continue to draw shadows that fall on the model at an angle to correctly convey the lighting. Concentrate the shadows on the face and neck to achieve more volume.
Notice that, compared to the original portrait, the angle of the shadows has changed since we moved the light source.
Step 3
Once we're done with the shadows, we can start working on the outline to achieve a halo effect. Use a small white round brush with a hardness of 100% to outline the model. Don't try to make the lines perfect, otherwise the work will look unrealistic.
Also, don't limit yourself to just the outline. Use white strokes to cover a little more hair to make the drawing look more voluminous.
We continue to add highlights and bright details. On a new layer in blending mode Overlay(Overlap) draw more bright highlights around the head and along the edges of the hair.
This is what the finished effect looks like! Just by painting shadows on the face, we completely changed the lighting scheme.
5. Colorful light
Step 1
Who doesn't love color?
When I saw this photo, I wanted to repeat a similar effect. For this we will use the original black and white portrait as a basis.
First, create a new layer under the gray background and fill this layer with white. Then we reduce Opacity(opacity) gray background up to 35%. Paint the hair and lips with a light peach color on a new layer. Change the blending mode of this layer to Subtract(Subtraction). This mode will automatically darken painted areas without losing detail.
Step 2
Fill the new layer with a bright blue color and set the layer blending mode to ColorBurn(Darkening the base), reduce Opacity(opacity) up to 25%. Then, on a separate layer, paint the right half of the document with a bright red color, set the layer blending mode to PinLight (Spot light) and reduce the opacity to 39%.
To achieve a truly unique and interesting effect, experiment with different colors and blending modes.
Now let's enhance the effect. To do this, add light blue on a new layer and pink colors and set the layer blending mode to Overlay(Overlap). Duplicate this layer twice by pressing the key combination Ctrl+J.
Since we added bright colors for a portrait, they should be reflected on the model’s skin and hair. On a new layer in blending mode Color(Color) on the model’s face add red and blue shades. We also paint the model’s lips red.
Thanks to the red and blue shades on the skin, the work now looks more holistic and harmonious.
Step 3
Now let's add some drama using a rich shadow at the bottom of the portrait. Same as in the previous steps, use the blending mode Multiply(Multiply) to enhance the shadows on the right and bottom of the document.
Shadows will instantly add realism to your work! Don't be afraid to constantly experiment to find new ways and solutions to stylize your drawing.
It's time to paint the highlights! Using a hard round brush (B) we paint beautiful bright highlights on the hair. Use both colors on both the right and left sides of the design, experimenting with how much blue or red ends up on the opposite side.
We continue to work with color so that all elements of the drawing look more holistic and harmonious.
This lighting option is radically different from previous examples, thanks to two-color tinting.
With highlights, you can add drama to any dull portrait.
Even if your basic portrait is much simpler than mine, still keep experimenting with different types lighting. Study as much as possible big photo to develop your skills.
Repetition is the mother of learning. The examples presented above are quite simple to implement, but very effective in honing your drawing skills.
I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
