Lighting Effects - The Photoshop: Professional Retouching and Compositing Tips, Tricks, and Techniques - page 162

The light in our pictures determines the mood and directs the viewer's attention. And when
it comes to retouching techniques, creating and adding lighting effects is one of my favorite
things to do.
Without a doubt the best way to learn about light (how it looks and how it interacts with ele-
ments) is to just get out and observe. I have folders full of snapshots that I've taken purely
for reference. Photographs of clouds, street lighting, shadows, reflections, and so on, and
I'm continually adding to it. Why? Because when I'm adding lighting effects in Photoshop
I have something that I can refer to rather than merely guessing how it should look. This
alone has saved me hours of head scratching and time trying to make something look right.
In this chapter I take you step by step through lighting effects that I use regularly in my
own work. I use some to enhance areas of a picture and some for special effects, but they
are all effective and quick and easy to create.
The World's Simplest Lighting Effect
This has to be the world's simplest lighting effect. When you see how it's done you'll say,
“Really—is that all?”
This technique is used to mimic what we see when the outer areas of a light source are vis-
ible in a picture, as opposed to seeing the bright center point. You can see the effect and
how it has been added in the opening image of this chapter. The light is coming from the
top, suggesting that a light source is above the two people in the boxing ring.
1. With the image file open ( Figure 3.1 ) add a new blank layer to the top of the layer
stack, and name it light .