Realistic Lighting Tutorial
By Depplain
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2nd Jan 2010 •
3,087 views
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4 comments
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Creating that perfect graphic is something we all want to achieve. But to do so, numerous aspects need to be considered. The cutting must be neat and the blending should look natural. In additional to this the lighting of a graphic must be correct. In this tutorial I will be teaching you how to create realistic looking lighting.
For this tutorial I’m using Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, but any version is acceptable.
First, cut out your horse and blend it with the background as usual. I’m using stock from GloomWriter.deviantart.com (background), EquineStockImagery.deviantart.com (horse) and finally my own stock- Depplain-Graphix.deviantart.com (sky)
As shown in Image One the graphic looks nice, but it doesn’t have the ‘Wow factor’. To start of were going to locate the light source our graphic. In my case, the natural light would be coming from the yellow clouds over the horizon as, at this time of day, the sun is setting.
Now that we’ve located our light source we need to decide the type or colour of lighting that would be occurring. I’d say for this graphic the lighting would be a vibrant gold or yellow. Now select you choice of colour from the colour palette.
Using the ‘Gradient’ tool (gradient type ‘Foreground to Transparent’) with ‘Radial Gradient’ selected, draw a line from the centre of the light source (remember, the yellow clouds) to just past the centre of the horse as shown in Image Two. Change this layers Blending Mode to ‘Overlay’ and set the Opacity to about 25% or whatever you feel suits best. Your graphic should now look something like Image Three. Notice the glow that reaches out across the horse? If you can’t see this make sure the Gradient layer is the top layer.
Were almost done now! All I have to do is darken the left side of the graphic, because that area is furthest away from the light source. Therefore it wouldn’t be as light as the areas close to it.
On a New Layer, select the Gradient Tool a second time, but with Black selected as the colour and Linear Gradient set as the function. Draw a line from outside the graphic on the left side to the horse (See Image Four). Lower this layers Opacity to around 50% or whatever suits best and your graphic is complete. |
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T W I
Very helpful tutorial!
Very helpful tutorial!
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Jan 2, 2010
• 1,980 views
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Hopeful Haven
Thanks for the awesome tutorial! This is so helpful! I'm going to try it out as soon as possible :)
Thanks for the awesome tutorial! This is so helpful! I'm going to try it out as soon as possible :)
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Jan 2, 2010
• 1,999 views
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Caraphernelia
Thank you so much! I will try it out soon =]
Thank you so much! I will try it out soon =]
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Jan 2, 2010
• 2,028 views
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Depplain
I'm glad it was so helpful =)
I'm glad it was so helpful =)
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Jan 3, 2010
• 1,984 views
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