Photoshop Compositing Secrets - Matt Kloskowski [30]
STEP SEVEN:
Okay, things are looking better, but we need to help the portrait fit into the background better. Part of what’s wrong here is that his skin tone has too much color compared to the muted background we’re using. This is why I love working with Smart Objects when doing my composites. Since we originally opened the basketball player photo as a Smart Object, it’s easy enough to adjust. Double-click on the Smart Object thumbnail to reopen the photo in Camera Raw. Drag the Vibrance slider to −40 and it’ll take some of the red out, and then increase the Temperature slider to 5250 to warm the photo up a little, too. Click OK when you’re done to go back to Photoshop.
STEP EIGHT:
It’s looking better, but we still need to add some contrast/edginess and a little more of that desaturated look. We’ll need a duplicate of the basketball player layer for this trick, but you can’t just duplicate the layer the way we’re used to doing it, because it’s a Smart Object. Instead, Right-click on the Smart Object layer and, from the pop-up menu, choose New Smart Object via Copy. That makes a duplicate that we can work with and not affect the original layer.
STEP NINE:
Double-click on the image thumbnail on the top copy layer to go into Camera Raw again. In order for this edgy trick to work, we need to have a black-and-white photo. So, click on the HSL/Grayscale icon (the fourth one from the left beneath the histogram) and turn on the Convert to Grayscale checkbox at the top of the panel. Go back to the Basic panel and increase the Fill Light setting to +30 to brighten the shadows a little, too. Click OK when you’re done.
STEP 10:
Change the blend mode of the top copy (the one we just converted to black and white) to Soft Light and reduce the Opacity to around 80%. This adds a little more contrast, but also gives the photo more of that edgy and slightly desaturated look. You can always try the Overlay or Hard Light blend modes, too. Sometimes they work well, but they have a little more punch to them than Soft Light.
STEP 11:
Next, we’ll do some dodging and burning on Tyler’s skin. This is another finishing technique that helps add some depth and dimension to a person’s skin. Go to Layer>New>Layer. In the New Layer dialog (seen here), change the blend Mode pop-up menu to Soft Light, then turn on the Fill with Soft-Light-Neutral Color (50% Gray) checkbox, and click OK. This adds a new layer filled with 50% gray, but because it’s set to Soft Light, it appears transparent, which makes it perfect for dodging and burning, because it gives us an easier way to see our dodging and burning areas (by just changing the blend mode back to Normal).
STEP 12:
Now, grab the Brush tool (B), and choose a medium-sized, soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker in the Options Bar. Also, lower the brush Opacity setting to 15%. This lets us build the amount of dodging and burning we do with each stroke.
STEP 13:
Here’s how dodging and burning will work on this new layer: We’re going to paint in black over the dark shadow areas and anything we want to darken to make them darker. Then, we’ll paint with white over the brighter highlight areas to make them brighter. Start by pressing D to set your Foreground color to black, then paint with black along the outside edges of his arms where the natural shadows are falling to darken them a little. I don’t think we have to darken all the shadows, though, just the ones on his arms and maybe even his shoulder to make it a little darker.
STEP 14:
Press X to switch your Foreground color to white to brighten the highlight areas. I painted along the inside of the forearms, his shoulders and upper arms, and his face. Don’t forget, since you’re working with a low-opacity brush, the more you brush, the more you’ll build up the brightening or darkening effect. This one is hard to see, but if you turn the layer visibility on and off, you’ll definitely see the results. You might even try pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the dodge/burn layer to see what it looks like