This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
After Midnight
In the previous lesson, you learned how to turn the clock ahead by warming up a picture. Now, I'll show you how to transform a picture taken during daylight hours into one that looks as though it were taken at midnight—on a night when the full moon was shining brightly.
First, think about how a picture taken by moonlight differs in light quality from a picture taken at noon. The nighttime picture is cooler, has less saturated colors, and looks softer than a daytime picture. Knowing that, you can make the appropriate enhancements in Photoshop.
Here's a picture I took of a jaguar in the Belize Zoo (Figure 3.21). To cool off the picture, I went to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance (Command-B: Mac or Ctrl-B: Win) and used the sliders to boost the Blue and Cyan tones (Figure 3.22). Next, I chose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and used the Saturation slider to slightly desaturate the image (Figure 3.23). To soften the picture, I went to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and added just a touch of blur (Figure 3.24).
)
Tech info: Canon EOS 1v, Canon 28-105mm lens @ 105mm. Exposure: 1/250 sec. @ f/8. ISO 400.
)
)
)
The resulting picture is cooler, less saturated, and softer—with one more added touch (Figure 3.25). I used the Burn tool (press O: Mac or Win) to slightly darken the area around the jaguar to create the impression that the big cat was standing in a beam of moonlight and the surrounding area was in a shadow.
)
By the Light of the Moon
There are other ways to create a midnight effect. One is to use the Midnight Sepia filter (also available in Blue, Green, and Violet versions) that's found in Nik Software, Inc.'s Photoshop-compatible plug-in Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0. (www.niksoftware.com). Let's look at what this filter can do.
When you open the Midnight Sepia filter, you get a dialog box with controls for Blur, Contrast, Brightness, and Color (Figure 3.26). You can select a custom effect.
)
My picture looks like an evening shot immediately after applying the Midnight Sepia filter (Figure 3.27). It looks OK; but as always, and I mean always, I play around with other adjustments to see how a picture can be enhanced—because I feel that in Photoshop, a photograph is never finished. I went to Fade > Edit and faded the filter to 62% (Figure 3.28). Then, I chose Image > Adjust > Color Balance and increased the Cyan and Blue tones in the picture (Figure 3.29).
)
)
)
The final image creates the impression that the jaguar was photographed at midnight on a moonlit night (Figure 3.30).
)
Here's another example of how Nik's Midnight filter can make a straight shot look a bit more creative by softening and darkening it (Figure 3.31).
)
Tech info: Canon EOS 1v, Canon 70-200mm lens @ 200mm. Exposure: 1/125 sec. @ f/2.8. ISO 100.