- Applying "Looks" Using Creative Profiles
- Virtual Copies- The "No Risk" Way to Experiment
- Using Presets for One-Click Looks
- Creating Your Own Presets
- Creating Presets That Automatically Adapt to Your Image's ISO
- Other Places to Apply Presets
- Changing Individual Colors
- How to Add Edge Darkening (Vignette) Effects
- The "Gritty City" Look
- Creating a Matte Look
- Making Great Duotones
- Creating Black- and-White Images
- Sun Flare Effect
- Painting Beams of Light
- Making Streets Look Wet
- Quick and Easy Spotlight Effect
- Adding a Light to the Background
- Getting the "Orange and Teal" Look
- Creating Panoramas
- Creating HDR Images
- Creating HDR Panos
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Quick and Easy Spotlight Effect
We create this spotlight effect using the Radial Gradient masking tool, which allows us to draw a circle or an oval, and then we can use the tool’s sliders to brighten, darken, or make any other standard adjustment to either: (a) any areas that appear inside the oval, or (b) all the areas outside the oval. This is an awesome tool for creating a bit of drama by adding anything from a soft pool of light to a beam of light (by using a really thin oval).
Step One:
I use this technique to lead the viewer’s eye to my subject, since our eyes are drawn to the brightest part of an image first. One thing I love about this technique is that it gives the appearance of your subject being brighter. But, because we’re not actually brightening them—we’re darkening the area around them—it doesn’t actually make your subject brighter or overexpose them. Here, the whole image looks kinda flat, but we’re about to change that. Click on the Masking icon (seen circled here), in the toolbar beneath the histogram, and then in the panel that appears, click on Radial Gradient (as shown here. Or, you can just press Shift-M).
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Step Two:
To create your spotlight, click-and-drag down over your subject to create an oval shape (like you see here). Once the oval is in place, you can change its shape by clicking-and-dragging the white control handles on the top, bottom, and sides. To rotate the oval, move your cursor just outside of it and your cursor will change into a two-headed arrow. You can then click-and-drag to rotate the oval in the direction you want (as shown here). To reposition the oval, click anywhere inside of it, and then drag it right where you want it.
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Step Three:
Next, scroll down to the adjustment sliders and drag the Exposure slider to the left to around –1.80. Now, this will make the center of it really dark, but we want the opposite of that—we want everything outside the oval dark. To do that, at the top of the panel, turn on the Invert checkbox (as seen circled here), and now you’re darkening the area outside the oval. To better match the angle of the setting sun, you might want to rotate the oval a little more (like I did here), and move it so the brightest part of it (the center) hits more on her face (I dragged it up a bit, too). By the way, the transition between the brighter area and the darker area is nice and smooth because the edges of the oval have been feathered (softened) to create that smooth transition (if you want a harder or more abrupt transition, just lower Feather amount at the top of the panel. I have it set to 50 here).
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Step Four:
Here’s a before/after. Note: If you’d like to add a second spotlight to your image (though this particular image doesn’t have an obvious area that needs a second one), Right-click on the edit pin inside your oval and choose Duplicate “Mask 1.” This puts another oval right on top of your current one, so the area outside of it looks even darker. But, you’re going to change three things: (1) Turn off the Invert checkbox. (2) Click-and-drag this second oval someplace else in the image you want to lighten instead (resize it, if you need to). And then, (3) drag the Exposure slider to the right to brighten that area. There ya have it—an instant spotlight (or two!).
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