Lori submitted the photo below to the digital
photography tutor page to be critiqued.
| Ed liked the
photo, and felt that it was a lovely shot as it was. However, always
keen to offer suggestions, Ed thought a little manipulation
using Photoshop could be tried.
The manipulation
Ed had in mind was to add shafts of light to the
photo.
Lori's photo has pools of light in it already, and
some mist would have created some nice shafts of light
naturally. |
But as with most things in digital
photography - if the element you were looking for wasn't there when
you took the photo, you can always add them afterwards!
Have
a look at the two photos below
(roll
your mouse over the image to see the two photos).
![Photograph of lone saguaro - submitted to digital-photography-tips.net by Doug Weber](https://www.digital-photography-tips.net/images/xmorning-walk-before.jpg.pagespeed.ic.L69zhpj-sx.jpg)
Ed's photo is the one
with the shafts of light added.
So
how was this achieved?
Using the full version of Photoshop,
create a new fill layer. Fill this layer with
a pale yellow colour (choose a colour to mimick natural
sunlight).
Then add a layer mask to
that layer. Fill the layer mask with pure black. This effectively
completely hides the yellow colour of the fill layer.
Now we
have to 'punch' some holes in this mask to allow the yellow to shine
through.
On the layer mask draw 'fingers' using the
polygonal lasso. In the
select menu, choose feather -
this will soften the edges of the 'fingers' that you have just
drawn.
In the dialog box add a fairly high number (the
number depends a lot on the size of image you are using - the
bigger the photo, the higher the number nees to be). Try '20' to
start with, and see how you get on.
Once selected, fill this
selection with pure white. To do this go to Edit
and choose Fill. Then choose white in the
Use drop down box.
This will now let your
shafts of light shine through!
Then tidy up your photo (maybe
the shafts of light should go behind some objects in the scene -
Ed removed some of the shafts of light in Lori's photo that
go behind the trees).
This is easy to do. On your layer
mask, paint on it with the paintbrush tool; using either black or
white. Black will hide the shafts of light, white brings them back
in.
Once you're happy with the result, make sure you have the
Layers pallette open, and adjust the
Opacity setting of the fill layer, until it looks
more life-like.
Finally, flatten your photo.
It should
be stressed here that Ed really liked Lori's photo as it
was. Adding shafts of light like this makes an interesting effect,
but without a good starting photo, it wouldn't amount to much - so
many thanks to Lori for supplying the 'raw materials'!
Have a photo you'd like Ed
to critique? Click here to submit your photo to the digital photography
tutorials page
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