Lighting Effects - The Photoshop: Professional Retouching and Compositing Tips, Tricks, and Techniques - page 199

Figure 3.42
6. To refine the edge a little by controlling exactly where it appears, Shift-click each
blue light layer so that they are all highlighted and selected, and from the Layers
panel fly-out menu choose New Group From Layers. Name the group blue chest .
7. Add a white layer mask to the blue chest group by clicking the layer mask icon at
the bottom of the layers panel. With a black, soft-edged brush, paint on the image
to conceal the light in areas you don't wish it to appear ( Figure 3.43 ) .
Figure 3.43
Tip
Painting with a larger brush removes the light much more realistically. The smal-
ler the brush, the more obvious the brush strokes. Also, control the brightness of
the effect by using the Opacity setting on the blue chest group.
In Figure 3.44 , you can see the final image with the background added, and how this tech-
nique has been used to add the blue light onto our superhero's chest and hands. It's also