22 22 DIGITAL CAMERA DIGITAL CAMERA^ APRIL 2020 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
hotoshop was designed for exactly this type of job! Creating
a surreal effect like this is a fun thing to do. Although it requires
a bit of patience and decent observational skills, if you work in
separate layers you’ll find the job far easier. Working across
layers enables you to return to different parts of the image
and keep tweaking them until everything is matching perfectly.
My own start images are on the disc if you want to practise with these, but
if you want to use your own shots, find something that has been taken against
a white background, as it makes it far easier to blend the two images together
(providing your light bulb has also been shot against white).P
Have a
light bulb moment
Claire Gillo shows you how to blend two
images to put a scene into a light bulb4 | PHOTOSHOP1
Clone
Open the light bulb start
image and duplicate the
background layer. Go to the Clone Tool
and remove the inner part of the light
bulb. (Hold Alt/Option and click to
select the clone point, and brush over
the unwanted part of the light bulb.)
While you’re doing this, keep as many
of the reflections intact within the bulb
as you can: you’ll need these later.2
Add the tree
Import your other starting
image of the tree over into the
light bulb image as a new layer. Reduce
the Opacity of the tree layer to 50%
and place into position.
You may need to adjust
the scale of the image
(Ctrl/Cmd+ T). Press
Return once you’re
satisfied with the
scale and position.3
Layer Mask
Add a layer mask to the
tree layer image. Using
a hard black brush on the mask,
paint away any parts of the tree
image outside the light bulb. Once you have
gone carefully around the outside, you can
increase the Opacity of the tree layer back
to 100% and fine-tune your selection. Next,
get a soft brush at 50% Opacity, and paint
around the edges of the light bulb to soften.4
Curves and colour
Click the Adjustment Layer
icon in the Layers Panel
Curves, then click it again and select Color
Balance. Right-click on each of these new
Adjustment Layers and select Create
Clipping Mask. Any adjustments you
make to these layers will now only be
applied to the layer below. You can
return to tweak the settings on
these layers after the next stage.5
Blending Mode
Duplicate your cloned light
bulb image at the bottom
of the layer stack and drag it to the top.
Change this layer’s Blending Mode to
Screen and Opacity to 35%. This
creates the impression that the image
is inside the light bulb. At this stage
you can return to your Curves
Adjustment Layer to darken the
image down; use the Color Balance
Adjustment Layer to add a hint
of yellow to the highlights.6
Fake reflection
Finally, let’s add a fake
reflection to the top of the
light bulb. Add a new layer and make
a small rectangle shape using the
Rectangle Marquee Tool. Paint this in
with a white brush, then deselect (Ctrl/
Cmd+D) the rectangle. Change the
Opacity of the layer to 70%. To distort
the shape, go to Edit > Transform > Warp, then push
and pull the points into a curved sausage shape. Blend
the edges of the fake lightstrip by adding a Layer Mask
and running a black brush at a reduced Opacity around the edge.Before
After