Photoshop Compositing Secrets - Matt Kloskowski [62]
STEP 11:
One of the last things we need to do is add some lights to the background. You’ll see there are two lights hanging from the ceiling pretty close to him, and he’s got some fairly hard light on his shoulders and arms. So, let’s work with that and enhance it a little. Click on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a new blank layer, and then drag it to the very top of the layer stack. Press B to get the Brush tool from the Toolbox, and press D, then X to set your Foreground color to white. Using a medium-sized, soft-edged brush, click once on the light at the top right of the image, then press-and-hold the Shift key, and click again toward the bottom middle of the image to draw a straight (but soft) line. (Note: I used a Wacom pen here to create my lines, so if you’re using a mouse, your lines may be wider.)
STEP 12:
Repeat this process of clicking on the light, and then Shift-clicking somewhere else near the bottom of the photo to create some fake light beams. It’s okay if they’re different sizes, because we want them to be a little random. And, you don’t need many. Just seven or eight beams should do, as seen here.
STEP 13:
Next, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to about 70 pixels to blur the lights. Click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a layer mask to the layer and then, using a large, black, soft-edged brush, paint away the lights from his body and the opposite side of the image. If the light beams look too bright, just lower the Opacity of the layer.
STEP 14:
Press Command-J to duplicate the layer, then go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal to flip the layer. Using the Move tool, move the duplicate layer over to the other side of the image, on top of the light on the left (as shown here).
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Tip: Add Some Extra Grit
We’ve already got a lot of grunge here, but if you want some extra grit in the image, try using either the High Pass technique or Nik Software’s Tonal Contrast filter, both of which we used at the end of Chapter 8. In the final image here, I used the Tonal Contrast filter to add some extra grit to the background.
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Final Image
12. Sports Template
Creating sports templates and collages is another one of those instances that compositing seems perfect for. First off, people love sports. Whether it’s a young child, a high school or college student, or a professional, people love to see their favorite athletes in action. By mixing some text, team logos, and a cool texture, you’ve got all the makings of a season calendar, promo poster, or just about anything where you want to showcase multiple photos for a sports team or school.
Creating the Background
We’ll be creating a school’s sports calendar here, and you’ll see that most of the work for a composite like this is on the background. When we add the athletes in the next tutorial, you’ll see that it’s mostly just a quick selection and you’re done. But, the background has to look cool to pull it off. You not only need to leave room for the people, but also for the logos, graphics, and any text that needs to be added. So that’s where we’ll start.
STEP ONE:
Start out by going to File>New and creating a new image based on the size you want your final composite to be. In this example, let’s go with a 5×7 aspect ratio. Set the Width to 7 inches, the Height to 5 inches, and the Resolution to 240 ppi.
STEP TWO:
Next, open the background texture. This one is from iStockphoto (www.istockphoto.com). Just do a search for “background textures” and you’ll find plenty. Once you have your background open, get the Move tool (V), and click-and-drag it into the new image you just created, on top of the Background layer. Since it’s larger than the image we created, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to go into Free Transform, and press Command-0 (zero; PC: Ctrl-0)