1
CHOOSE YOUR SUBJECT
Before we get stuck in, open up your image in Photoshop. To
keep things organized, we renamed our image to suit today’s
tutorial so when we save it, we won’t need to rename the PSD file.
We also made a duplicate original layer to copy in case we need
to go back to the start or take things from the original picture.
>> The first thing we need to do is select the subject. There are
a few ways to do this—you could use the pen tool, the magic wand
tool (if the object has a strong contrast from the background),
the lasso tool, or the quick selection tool. However, one of the
easiest ways is to head up to the select tab at the top and from
the drop-down menu click subject, and it automatically selects
that for you. If it doesn’t highlight enough of the subject, use the
quick selection tool to tidy things up.
2
BLACK AND WHITE CHOICES
Once you are satisfied with your selection, head into the
layers panel and open up a group layer with your main
layer selected. After this click, make a mask of this—the mask
button is found in the same place as the group icon. When you
apply a layer mask to a group, it makes it possible to manipulate
multiple layers with just one layer mask [Image A]. We are now
going to change the image to black and white to desaturate it.
This icon is in between the first two and is called the adjustment
layer icon, click on that and find black & white.
YOU MAY HAVESEENTHISLIGHTING EFFECT used in advertising, films, and portrait shots.
Bathing the main focal point of your image in some immersive lighting focuses the attention
there and is a great way to highlight what really matters in your shot. In this tutorial, we will
be using layer masks, blending modes, and gradient maps. It’s also worth checking out our
previous tutorial on gradients for illustrators to get a feel for how gradients work.
These techniques will combine to give the illusion of two separate light sources hitting the
main subject. You can expect a more rewarding outcome if you start with an image that has
strong shadows and highlights or a strong contrasting background. You can create this effect
naturally in the photo studio with lightboxes and color acrylic films but we know that method
isn’t the easiest or most practical way to achieve the effect. We will be heading over to Unsplash
to pick out a license-free image from Emrecan Arik to use for our tutorial. If you take your
own imagery and have something that fits the criteria then go ahead and practice on your own
material. The best way to get familiar with these techniques is by repeating them and if you have
a range of images, you can try this on a few of them. – SAM LEWIS
YOU’LL NEED THIS
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
CC 2020
https://www.adobe.com
>> Now click on the left thumbnail icon on the black
and white layer, this allows you to change the foreground
and background colors if they aren’t already the default
colors. These are black as the foreground and white as
the background.
3
ADD SOME COLOR
Head back to the adjustment layer icon and select
the gradient map option. This is where we will
start to create our highlight colors. The foreground and
background colors that we set before this step will be
used in the gradient map bar you will see in the right
properties panel.
>> Click inside this gradient bar and it will open up a
gradient editor pop-up window and you will see another
gradient bar. You don’t necessarily need to change
anything else other than the color in the bottom right
indicator on the bar.
>> Double click on this to change the color. You can
change this to any color you like, but for this tutorial,
we are using a bright blue. Then click OK on both open
windows to close them down. The gradient map assigns
a color to corresponding brightness levels. You will now
notice in the gradient bar colors to the left are mapped to
the darker tones in the image and vice versa [Image B].
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58 MAXIMUMPC HOL 2021
R&D
