TECHNIQUES 20 PRO SECRETS FOR DYNAMIC LIGHTING
- GENERATE CAUSTIC LIGHTING
0 5. UNDERSTAND SUB SURFACE SCATTERING
Caustic lighting is the term used to describe light
that has been reflected or refracted by a curved
surface or object, often projected onto another
surface. It is a naturally occurring effect and is
often captured in photography, but creating it from
scratch is more difficult. It is most commonly
encountered in 3D artwork, as most modern 3D
programs support caustics, which use complex
algorithms to work out how light would react to an
object that would cause the light to reflect orSub-surface scattering (SSS) is when light shines
through a translucent object. This journey through
an object causes the light to be reflected at lots of
different angles, giving a scattered effect. Like
caustics (Tip 4), this is a naturally occurring light
phenomenon and you probably barely recognise it
without specifically looking for it, however its
absence can throw a whole image off balance and
make it feel unrealistic. A common example in
digital artwork is working with skin – skin without
SSS feels flat. Again, it is a common setting in 3Dprograms, which can generate realistic SSS on
renders, which can be enhanced in Photoshop. It is
not just skin, however, as any material that can pass
light would be affected. This example by illustrator
and motion graphics designer Georgia Black (www.
georgiablack.com) shows how SSS is important to
still-life setups too: “The effect was achieved using
the sub-surface scattering material and physical
renderer in Maxon Cinema 4D R16, with touch-ups
and post-production done in Photoshop CC 2015,
compositing a multi-pass render.”ANDY MCINTOSH SHARES THE PHOTOSHOP
SECRETS BEHIND THESE CREATIVE RETOUCHES
TO ACHIEVE A RANGE OF DIFFERENT EFFECTSDodge and Burn: “The pie was put together from five different
shots and retouched into a final image. Tsection of the pie was achieved with Dodhe lighting for each ge and Burn on a 50%
grey layer set to Oopacities of black and white to get the correct highlights and verlay. We then painted with different
shadows. set to Multiply.”The cast shadows were added on a separate layerAdd subtle coloured lighting:two photo lights to enhance the car. T “We shot the Jeep using he car was cut from
the background. Sto Color blending mode, which were masked with soft olid colour layers were added and set
masks and set to different opacities. Espots were drawn using the Pen tool, filled with a solid ach of the sun
colour set to Sthen individually moved into place. Tcreen or Overlay on different layers and he car was worked
on separately with a combination of highlight and shadow layers and airbrushing layers set to different opacities.”Blurred lighting effect: “We added creative blurring to a
series of skateboarding images by first taking two photos: one shot at high speed to capture the detail and
the second shot at a low shutter speed to give us the blur effect. The shots were then layered in Photoshop and the
blur layer was set to Sairbrushed and retouched. Many more airbrushed layers creen, before the blur layer was
were added on top of the blur layer to build up the blur lighting – each of these was set to Screen or Overlay and
different opacities to build different lighting effects.”Paint with light: “The Porsche lighting was enhanced by
painting with light. We used the Bone for highlights and one for shadows. Brush tool on two layers, oth these layers
were set to Shighlight layer and with black on the shadow layer. Toft Light and we painted with white on the his
allowed us to add or subtract light as we needed it. We also added spotlight layers also set to Soft Light. We then
airbrushed just a dab of white on these layers so we could easily move the lighting around anywhere on the car.”- ENHANCE
LIGHTING WHEN
RETOUCHING IMAGES
BeforeBeforeBeforeBeforeBlurretract. The image shown here is a great example
of caustics and was created by 3D generalist and
designer Sun Ho Shin (www.helixd.kr) using 3ds
Max and V-Ray, with the brightness and contrast
adjusted in Photoshop.
It is also possible to create a similar kind of effect
in Photoshop alone, however it takes time and is
quite fiddly, so most artists either use a Caustics
Generator (for example, http://www.dualheights.se/
caustics) or a pre-made caustics texture.©SunHo Shin© GeorgiaBlack© PSDInnovative 2015 /© Mark RoeSports Photography© PSDInnovative 2015© PSDInnovative 2015© PSDInnovative 2015