Achieve Brilliant Lighting Effects in PhotoshopBy Mark Jay CaccamDesign 55 Comments

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Lighting effects can make or break any digital artwork.  When done properly,

lighting can add visual impact, draw the viewer’s eye, convey depth and

emotion, and tie together all the elements of the piece for a quality finished

result.  However, achieving brilliant lighting is not always an easy task,

particularly for newer digital artists.  Perfecting contrast, color variation,

sharpness and depth will help make your digital art more enticing.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn the essential process of achieving brilliant lighting

effects in Photoshop.  Using default brushes, blending options and a few stock

images, you’ll learn step by step a variety of techniques that you can use in your

own digital artworks to achieve professional results.

This is tutorial is jam packed with tips, shortcuts and techniques, and each detail

is explained to allow beginning users to follow along.  But even if you’re an

advanced user, you’ll be inspired and take away some useful new ideas for your

artwork.  Let’s get started!

Tools Requiredo Adobe Photoshop CS2 (or higher)

Final Image Preview

Step 1 – The Background:Start by creating a new canvas, sized 1970×1320 pixels.  Then, grab this custom

background that I made (click the image for the full size):

Next, we’re going to combine this with another background, so click the image

below or visit the following link and download this

background:http://jakezdaniel.deviantart.com/art/Texture-3B-108044404

Next, reduce the ‘Fill’ option of this second background to 79% (see screenshot

below):

Step 2 – The Foreground:Now, we need our foreground subject image.  We’re going to use this little rocker

boy.  You can use the following image that I used: http://tonya-

tjphotography.deviantart.com/art/Rocker-6-86012281 or you can use any of your

own images that you desire.  One thing you’ll notice about this image is the hair,

which will be a bit difficult to extract.  Software such as Vertus Fluid Mask can

easily extract these images, but for this tutorial, I will be extracting it manually

using the pen tool and I will apply some cutting techniques.

Using your pen tool, slowly trace around the subject, then go to the “Paths” tab

and then right click the path you made, make selection, and then you have your

foreground subject.  If you’re a bit unfamiliar with extraction techniques, read

this article on Types of Extraction in Photoshop.

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Notice that there are still some white edges left in the hair, so again you can use

the pen tool to cut it off.  You could manually try to remove only the white area,

but I found it quicker and more effective to give him a haircut.  And for finishing I

used a soft brushed eraser and Layer>Matting>Defringe (width 1) and resized it

to fit the document.

http://design.creativefan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/image-6.jpg

Now we will make some shadow for the boy, which will help create depth for our

image. For the shadow I used a soft brush, 200px using black color to  brush the

perspective shadow (see below screenshot or use your judgment).  Then, go to

Filter>Gaussian Blur>30px to give it a more natural feel.  Reduce the opacity if

necessary, erase some overlapping black parts caused by the gausian blurr, and

you should have a result like mine:

Now, we need to make the boy seem less ‘pasted’ onto our background.  To do

this, we’ll burn the edges of the boy a little bit, using the burn tool with the

settings of 100px, Range: midtones, Exposure: 50 and then go to

Layer>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast.  Check the use layer clipping mask and

apply the following settings:

Add some crack to the walls to have more details and add visual impact.  You can

use a stock image, or the following brush: Download.

Step 3 – Adding Abstract Elements:

I used a rendered C4d.  There are packs of C4D renders all over the internet,

deviantART is a great place to start.

Resize it and use desaturate (CTRL-SHIFT-U) to make it pure grayscale.  Next,

move it into your desired position, for this image, I wanted to make it seem as

though it was the boy’s wings.

Next, erase some areas that you don’t want in your image.  It should match the

foreground subject and the shadowing we created already, in order to allow the

perspective to remain.  You can use the selection of your foreground subject to

remove areas and make it seem like the render is wrapped around the subject.

Duplicate the C4d layer, then bring back the duplicated one to the bottom of the

layer’s boy.  By doing this, you can add a backup of unwanted erased parts, and

you can make the render feel more solid.

Next, we use the same C4D render, desaturating it and resizing it.  Slowly we can

add more elements, varying the size to achieve our desired effect.  Erase any

unwanted areas, and try to build your render around the boy.

Step 4:In making the light effects, I only used default tools in Photoshop.  Using the pen

tool for illustration, you can draw some paths and stroke them.  Create a new

layer, then set your brush to white, 7px, soft (hardness set to 0%).  Next, draw

paths along the subject where you want light to appear.  While the pentool is

active, right click on the surface, choose stroke path, and check the ‘simulate

pressure’ option.

Open the blending options, and apply the following settings to your layer.

Duplicate the line layer twice, and then blur the duplicated one.  Filter->Blur-

>Gaussian Blur at 10px.  Duplicate it again, and make a new group and then set

the blending option to linear dodge (see below screenshot).  Linear dodge is one

of the most powerful layer modes in achieving quality lighting effects.

Next, make a new layer and then fill it with black and set the blending options to

linear dodge.  Grab the brush tool, and brush a little bit of red in his shoulder and

use this command CTRL+F three times (to blur it again).  This will enhance the

glow effect from the lighting.

Repeat this process and try to make some brush adjusments make it bigger or

smaller.  Try making it 10px,5px,3px, whatever you want.  Try to put some it to

the bottom layer of the boy.  Here’s how it looks after my illustrations and

repeating the process of previous grouped layers.  Just experiment use soft

eraser to fade it some parts nicely.  I used motion blur to achieve some

movement in the piece.  Overall, I had 7 groups for the lighting effects.

Step 5 – Extra Effects:Add some small particles, like it’s splashing away from the boy.  In this step, I

used a nebula stock.  There are many available

through http://resurgere.deviantart.com/ orhttp://hameed.deviantart.com/

gallery/?3949421#Stock:

Place it on canvas and change the blending option to Linear Dodge, then

desaturate it to make it black and white.  This will add some extra contrast to our

image, apart from just the red.  Now that it is desaturated, you can duplicate and

place it anywhere you want, just play around to see what gives a good result.  I

suggest putting some of it behind the boy, to create a nice illusion and enhance

the depth.  Erase any unwanted parts using a soft eraser.

Step 6 – Smoke:

I added some smoke, for the original work I used a stock image of smoke. 

Unfortunately, I was unable to find the same image I used, but I will still show you

the erased parts of the smoke.  There’s plenty of free stock images of smoke

(check http://sxc.hu for example) and see what works for you.  If you want the

same image that I used, it is available below:

Simply paste this smoke image into the document, move it over the boy and set

the blending mode to ‘Screen’ or ‘Linear Dodge’ depending on your desired

result.  You can adjust your layer order to achieve the appearance of the smoke

behind or in front of the lighting effects.

Step 7 – More Effects:Next, we can add awesome lighting effects to dramatically increase the visual

impact of the piece.  First create a new layer (CTRL-SHIFT-N) . Fill it with black

and change

the blending option to ‘Linear Dodge’.  Grab the rectangular marquee tool, and

use your gradient tool (from white to transparent), then erase the sides a little to

make it softer.

Step 8 – Final Lighting Adjustments:

We are almost done.  Now we will add some more red lights to incorporate the

extra color into the piece.  We’ll be using a soft brush, paint bucket and blending

options here.  Create a new layer, fill it with black, change the blending option to

‘Linear Dodge’.  Use the brush, and then refer to the screenshot below:

We’re essentially done now, but we should make some adjustments to achieve

better depth and sharpness.  Create a new layer, and ‘Apply Image’ (CTRL-ALT-

SHIFT-E).  Next, go to Filter->Sharpen->Sharpen.  Then, apply a curves layer by

going to Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Curves.  Apply the following settings:

After applying the curves, add a layer mask (Layer->New Layer Mask) and erase

some of the curves layer (particularly around the head of the boy.  Reduce the

opacity to 42%, and then you can add your own gradient maps and adjustments

if you so choose.  Here’s my result after adjustments:

ConclusionYou can add any more effects you want, but for now I’m satisfied with the result,

and hopefully you are too.  Remember to keep experimenting, as small changes

can have incredibly different results and you never know what may end up

looking incredible.  Hopefully you learned something from this tutorial, and

thanks for reading!

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