Photoshop Compositing Secrets - Matt Kloskowski [24]
STEP FIVE:
While we’re here, there’s one more thing we can adjust: Notice how bright his jeans are? They’re one of the brightest things in the photo and really the last thing we want to draw attention to, right? But there are some headlights in the background photo that would probably be casting some light on them. So, let’s even this out with some selective brushing. Select the Adjustment Brush tool (K) from the toolbar up top (the fifth icon from the right), then set the Exposure slider to −2.00 and the Brightness slider to −25.
STEP SIX:
Using a pretty small brush, paint over his jeans to darken them. It doesn’t have to be perfect here, so don’t spend too much time on it. Just darken the general area, so it doesn’t look so distracting, but leave the back of the jeans alone, so it looks like the light from the car’s headlights is shining on them from behind. Click OK when you’re done to return to Photoshop.
STEP SEVEN:
Next, let’s add some motion behind the motorcycle—we have a couple of cool tricks to help do this. First, we’ll add some motion blur to the motorcyclist. But, remember, his layer is a Smart Object. We won’t have the control we need to apply a blur directly to this layer, so we need to put him onto a regular layer. Click on the layer with the motorcycle to make it the active layer, and then Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the layer’s layer mask to load the selection around him.
STEP EIGHT:
Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy that selected area (the entire motorcyclist) onto its own layer. The image looks exactly the same, but now in the Layers panel, you’ll see the Smart Object layer and mask, and a regular layer containing only the motorcyclist on top of it.
STEP NINE:
With the new layer active, go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Set the Angle setting to −11, set the Distance to 250 pixels, and click OK.
STEP 10:
Obviously, the blur wouldn’t normally be all over his body, so click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a white layer mask to this layer. Then, with your Foreground color set to black, get the Brush tool (B), and paint over the mask to hide the blur from everything except the right edge of the motorcyclist, so it looks like the panning camera left some motion blur (even though we know the camera wasn’t panning). To soften the blur a little, at the top of the Layers panel, lower the layer’s Opacity (here, I lowered it to 73%).
STEP 11:
Here’s another lighting trick to give the appearance of motion: Click on the Background layer to target it, then click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Gradient. In the Gradient Fill dialog, change the Style to Angle and then click on the gradient to open the Gradient Editor. From the Gradient Type pop-up menu, choose Noise, set the Roughness to 61%, and then from the Color Model pop-up menu, choose HSB. Drag the white knob under the S (Saturation) slider halfway to the left and then drag both knobs under the H (Hue) slider toward the middle, under the blue area, so the gradient becomes blue (the color of the tunnel). Lastly, click the Randomize button until you see something similar to what I have here in my gradient.
STEP 12:
Click OK to close the Gradient Editor and go back to the Gradient Fill dialog. Move your cursor over onto the image and with the Move tool, reposition the center of the light source over to the bottom right, where the vanishing point of the tunnel is (as shown here). Click OK to close the Gradient Fill dialog. Now, if you change the adjustment layer’s blend mode to Soft Light, you’ll drop out all of the black that was in the gradient and you’ll only be left with something that looks more like a ray of light. I lowered the layer Opacity a bit, as well, to soften the effect.
STEP 13:
Right now, the effect is applied to the entire image, but you’ll