PSDTUTS - Photoshop Tutorials and Links - Add Dynamic Lighting to a Flat Photograph

Add Dynamic Lighting to a Flat Photograph

In this tutorial I will show you how to spice up a fairly dull and flat photograph. It's very easy and fast! From flat photo to uniquely lighted style.

Source Photos

For this tutorial we'll need two photos that I took, you can grab download them to follow along. These are my photos: castle photo and clouds photo.

What We're Making

Here's the composite we're making, click to see a larger version:

Step 1

First of all, my apologies for this step, I waited for a good 20 minutes but that car didn't move so I had to take the photo with it!

Anyway just use the Patch Tool (J) to remove the car and the Clone Stamp Tool (S) to recreate the pattern of the bricks where it used to be.

If you've never used the Patch Tool, there are a couple of ways to use it. First make a selection as you would if you were using the Lasso tool, then click inside the area and drag with your mouse. Depending on whether you are using Source or Destination as your checked option you will either move the image inside the selection, or move the whole selection around. The Patch tool will blend the area you choose in when you let go. You can also use patterns and transparency. All in all it's a great tool.

Step 2

Once the van has been removed, apply Filter > Render > Lighting Effects to make the light coming from the top right.

Step 3

With the tool that You prefer, create a selection of the part that you want to hide. For example I used the Pen Tool (P) to select the sky and the buildings around the castle. With the selection active Add a Layer Mask.

Step 4

Duplicate the Background Layer, desaturate it with CTRL-SHIFT-U, apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with 4 pixel radius and set the Blending Mode for the Layer to Overlay.

Step 5

Now we need a photo with clouds and the rays of the sun coming from the right. I used this photo of mine that was perfect for this situation.

Send it to the back of the other layers.

Than duplicate it and set the copy layer to Lighter Color.

Step 6

Duplicate again the original background photo (Layer 1) and put the this new layer before the Layer 1 copy.

Set the Blending Mode to Multiply.

Step 7

Now turn off the visibilty of the two castle layers, go to the Layer 1 copy and merge the visible in a new layer with CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-E.

Than desaturate it with CTRL-SHIFT-U, set the Blending Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 50%.

Step 8

Make a new layer on the top of the other.

With a Large White Soft Brush, matching the size of the light of the sun, just make a round spot.

Than apply the Luce filter that you can download freely or use the previous tutorial about Lighting Through Clouds here on PSDTUTS, to make this light coming through the clouds. Set the Blending Mode to Overlay.

This is an example with black background to demonstrate the effect.

Step 9

Just Burn the dark side of the castle and Dodge the light part of it with a Large Soft Brush. By doing this we make it seem that the light is coming from the clouds and hitting the right side of the castle, leavin the other side in darkness.

At this point we're almost done but the image is overall quite dark and our blur earlier has left it slightly too blurry, so we'll fix that next.

Step 10

To finish the image, create a new layer above the rest and go to Image > Apply Image, use the settings "Merged", "RGB" and "Normal" for blending. This will create a new layer above the rest holding a copy of the image. Set this layer to Screen and about 70% opacity. Then go through each layer and apply Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and use the settings Amount: 250% and Radius .2px (Use a larger radius for larger images). This should sharpen the image back up to give us a good final result.

Click on the image below to see a larger version:

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