Photoshop Compositing Secrets - Matt Kloskowski [76]
STEP 20:
Lastly, you know I always like to finish things off with an edgy sharpening effect. There’s a free way that I described in Chapter 8 (the concert composite) that uses the High Pass filter, but as I also mentioned there, I really prefer the effect I get from Nik Software’s Tonal Contrast filter, which is included with the Color Efex Pro 3 Complete plug-in. So, if you have it installed, choose Filter>Nik Software>Color Efex Pro and, in the Color Efex Pro window, choose Tonal Contrast from the filters on the left (as shown here). At the top right of the window, set the Highlight Contrast, Midtone Contrast, and Shadow Contrast settings all to 30, set the Saturation to 20, and then click OK to apply the filter.
STEP 21:
It not only has the effect of sharpening the entire image, but it adds a certain grit and contrasty effect that makes everything pop out at you. And, of course, feel free to reduce the layer’s opacity or add a layer mask to hide areas where it’s too intense. Here, I reduced the layer’s Opacity and painted with black, with a low brush opacity, on the layer mask on parts of the wall that became a little too gritty as a result of the Tonal Contrast filter.
Final Image
16. Advanced Commercial Composite
I added “Advanced” to the title of this chapter, because it takes a little bit of everything we’ve done so far in the book and puts it all together. While you don’t have to read the book in order, I do suggest that you work through a few of the other composites before trying this one. At this point in the book, you may or may not have noticed that most of the compositing we’ve done has been portrait-related. This means that the face, expression, or likeness of the person (or people) is the main part of the photo. Well, there’s another area of compositing that has a more commercial, or advertising, side to it. Sure, there are still people in the image, but the main point of the image isn’t to show off the people. It’s usually to sell something or make some type of statement. Now, I mentioned in the introduction that this book is more about portrait compositing. However, I wanted to leave you with one last composite that will, at least, whet your appetite for something that has more of a commercial nature to it.
Brainstorming for a Commercial Composite
Believe it or not, this is probably one of the hardest parts of this type of compositing. When the sky is the limit, it’s hard to focus in on just one idea. And when you finally come up with that idea, executing it is just as difficult. That’s why I thought it’d be cool to start off by showing the beginnings of the idea we’re working with here.
THE INITIAL IDEA:
With commercial composites, the initial idea usually comes from a client. Sometimes they’ll have a hand-drawn sketch, and sometimes all they do is verbally communicate what they want. In this example, the initial idea was to create an ad for a new (and fictitious) TV show called Extreme Green. It’s about a family that gave everything up to live green...well, almost everything. Sure, it’s a little quirky, but many commercial or advertising composites have a certain quirk-factor to them. That’s what makes them catchy. Even if you don’t draw, it’s a good idea to try to sketch something out. It gives you something to work from. Once you have a sketch, you can start thinking about how to make it a reality. And, once you have a sketch, you can show it around and brainstorm with other people. Commercial composites are in no way a one-person job.
PETE COLLINS
THE ROUGH COMP:
I highly suggest you create a rough Photoshop comp after the sketch phase. You’d do this for two reasons: (1) It gives you something to show your client to see if you’re on the right track. And, (2) it lets you work with “stunt” images to create the composite,