Highlights and Shadows

[GreyArea]

Hi, all. Right now, I mostly work with black & white nudes and what I want to do is have a highlight at the edge of a figure with the rest shadowed out. I know the best way to do that is to make sure the lighting is right when the shot is taken, but I haven't had the opportunity to take shots of my own yet, so I'm working with other people's images. I'm including two tasteful examples below to show what I'm talking about. Basically, I want to make the first image look more like the second. How can I push the highlight to the edge like that? How can I make it so there's just a highlight along the left edge of her arms and face? Using the burn tool works fairly well, but I run into a problem when the original image was taken with soft light. Anyone know how I can change the lighting in an image from soft light to hard light to create more contrast between the shadows and the highlights? I know there's a filter you can apply, but I've tried that and it doesn't quite give me the look I want.

Thanks everyone. ^_^

 

[peta62]

I do not think you can make it as if it was shot with correct lighting, since the shades in that case are very specific and you have no chance to fake them in my opinion. Of course you can do it as an art work, where I would start with defining edges, thickening them ( for example by motion blur ), creating gradients for masking the darkening operations. I would expect a lot of manual work inside the process too.

 

[GreyArea]

I do not think you can make it as if it was shot with correct lighting, since the shades in that case are very specific and you have no chance to fake them in my opinion. Of course you can do it as an art work, where I would start with defining edges, thickening them ( for example by motion blur ), creating gradients for masking the darkening operations. I would expect a lot of manual work inside the process too.

That sounds like a good idea. How do I define the edges? I'm relatively new at this.

Thanks very much.

 

[peta62]

That sounds like a good idea. How do I define the edges? I'm relatively new at this.

Thanks very much.

That depends on a situation, when edges are sharp enough, you can use just the Lasso tools, sometimes you can use other tools, sometimes you have to take a pen and select manually. Often you can play with contrast, sharpening filter, colour channels in another layer just to get a good mask. I would recommend you some tutorials about selection, there are definitely very good in Kelby's training videos, but you can find others for sure.

You are welcome.

 

[GreyArea]

I think the gradient idea will work, but do you have any ideas how I can get the gradients to follow the contours of the body and face?

Thanks again.

 

[peta62]

I think the gradient idea will work, but do you have any ideas how I can get the gradients to follow the contours of the body and face?

Thanks again.

Hello,
I think this is the time for manual work and I am sure it will be a lot of work. I tend to have the picture as it is, to get it right with camera, but my very good friend who we work together with, also transfers a lot of work to Photoshop to change shapes, even to create illusions that were not in reality, so I know how much work it is. You have no choice since you have to work with already done photos, I know it is tough, but I hope your results will pay off for you. I will be glad to hep wherever I can. Good luck and post some results.
Cheers,
Peter

 

[peta62]

High lights and shadows in image do not depend on the quality of the printer.Such a variations are created by using adobe photo shop type of software and later we get the hard copy out put.So it depends on the qualities of the web designer first.

Wrong thread ?

 

[Savage]

I do not think you can make it as if it was shot with correct lighting, since the shades in that case are very specific and you have no chance to fake them in my opinion. Of course you can do it as an art work, where I would start with defining edges, thickening them ( for example by motion blur ), creating gradients for masking the darkening operations. I would expect a lot of manual work inside the process too.

Gona agree with Peta62 here, but I was able to do some lighting effects with no actual manual manipulation and create this image:

1. filter>render>lighting effects: used white light from the left, and a small circle with normal light hitting from the left.
2. Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map: used a Black to white gradient to add some contrast with the light.
3. Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast: scaled it until I got the desired look

idk if this is what you want or not, but i figured it might help you on your way.

 

[ibclare]

Wrong thread ?

spam. deleted post; banned member.

 

[Dataflow]

how about something like this

 

[ibclare]

There might be a way to figure out an automatic method to do the edge glow such as your example shows along the profile, like duplicating layers, creating outer glows or inner shadows with light instead of black, rasterizing the layer effect, blah, blah, blah. But I think the best way might be to select the area you want to highlight, create a layer above, get a medium soft brush, and paint the highlight where you want it. You don't have to worry about the area outside the selection getting painted since only the selected area will be affected.

Here's an example. With apologies and thanks to Dataflow who made the great manipulation above. Sorry about the rough selection edges: