- x Awal x
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- Exalted Heroic Member
Posted by: RogueWolf I77V
Thanks for the great input. I actually had that in mind, but I was in a rush lol. Any tool suggestions for getting a nice lighting effect?
I recommend using a combination of tools overall. I am not sure how extensive your knowledge of Photoshop is but I would use a combination of Gradients, Layer Masks, Air Brushing, and Blending modes. Blending modes are a very powerful tool if you can master their use.
For example, Blending modes are broken up into sections and in each section their is a blending mode that sort of represents that section the best. These main blending modes are; Multiply, Screen, and Overlay. In Multiply, anything that is black will appear transparent but anything that is white will be opaque. For Screen it's the opposite. Anything black is transparent and anything white is opaque. Overlay is sort of a combination of both. It makes blacks darker and whites brighter but anything that is 50% gray will be transparent.
Knowing this, you can use a technique I use frequently while retouching images. I make a new layer on top and fill it with 50% gray [Edit>Fill]. Then, I set the blending mode to Overlay to make it transparent. Next, I use the Burn and Dodge Tool to add shading/highights to the image below. Since the shading layer is transparent you can see exactly where on the image below you want your shading/highlights. This method is known as a "Non-Destructive" method.
Non-Destructive methods of editing are preferred because there is no change to your original image. For example, if I changed my mind and didn't want the shading on my image I can simply turn off the shading layer or delete it and I still have my original image intact versus painting shading directly on the original image, which is destructive.
Hope some of that made sense to you lol, it's always difficult understanding stuff like this when you can't see what I'm talking about.
Also, I recommend looking up Scott Kelby. He's the president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and is the best selling Photoshop Tutorial author for his "Down & Dirty" Photoshop books. I have every single one of his books and I have to say they are all awesome. I learned a ton from his books.
Hope this helps with your endeavors. Keep 'Shopping my friend!
[Edited on 07.06.2011 4:21 AM PDT]