Question: Looking for a specific lighting effect

B
Posted By
BD
Jul 14, 2005
Views
608
Replies
9
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Closed
Hey, all.

I plan to take a specific picture in the near future, and am looking for suggestions on getting the effect that I want.

Picture a subject holding a candle – the picture has been stripped of color information, but I would like the illusion of the candle casting a ‘natural’ light color onto the subject. So the edges would be all grey, and as you get closer to the candle, the ‘yellow’ tinge to the lighting would get stronger.

I know how I could do this with the addition of some steps in Lightwave, but for Photoshop alone, I’m just not sure. Any wisdom would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

BD.
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K
KatWoman
Jul 14, 2005
"BD" wrote in message
Hey, all.

I plan to take a specific picture in the near future, and am looking for suggestions on getting the effect that I want.

Picture a subject holding a candle – the picture has been stripped of color information, but I would like the illusion of the candle casting a ‘natural’ light color onto the subject. So the edges would be all grey, and as you get closer to the candle, the ‘yellow’ tinge to the lighting would get stronger.

I know how I could do this with the addition of some steps in Lightwave, but for Photoshop alone, I’m just not sure. Any wisdom would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

BD.

this is how I would do it
leave color photo on background layer
dupe the layer
make a selection around the area you want to remain color, feather it a lot so it softly blends
create layer mask from selection
put a gradient on the mask
then use Hue/Sat, pull middle slider all the way left to turn the selection area BW
the masked area should remain color
B
BD
Jul 14, 2005
Might work. I’d have to work through the process you suggest to see –

But if I am reading correctly, this would result in the color information coming back to the subject, as well as the light. it’s not so much that I want the masked area to remain in color – I don’t want the subject’s skin tone to become natural – I’m looking for the effect of a B&W subject lit by a natural light. I’d have to introduce something artificial, rather than work with masks against the original color image.

Bit of a head-scratcher, this one. 😉
J
jenelisepasceci
Jul 15, 2005
"BD" wrote:

Might work. I’d have to work through the process you suggest to see –
But if I am reading correctly, this would result in the color information coming back to the subject, as well as the light. it’s not so much that I want the masked area to remain in color – I don’t want the subject’s skin tone to become natural – I’m looking for the effect of a B&W subject lit by a natural light. I’d have to introduce something artificial, rather than work with masks against the original color image.

Bit of a head-scratcher, this one. 😉

Go to http://tinyurl.com/98k7g
The image is a link to a photoshop document which will show you how this was done (right click and select save link target as…). The transparency of the topmost layer controls the fraction of the original color, which will contribute to the final result

HTH, Peter
K
Kingdom
Jul 15, 2005
(Peter Wollenberg) wrote in news:42d77132.4726734@
134.96.4.2:

http://tinyurl.com/98k7g

Think you mean without the light on the subject!

Have posted an example PSD up on ALT.BINARIES.PICTURES.UTILITIES look for LaTour-Candle light image example psd file

—
f=Ma well, nearly…
B
BD
Jul 15, 2005
Oh, that’s ideal! I should be able to work with that.

Thanks much!!
B
BD
Jul 15, 2005
And I guess if I wanted to avoid the original color scheme of the color image (ie the illusion of illuminating a fully B&W subject with color light), I could turn the colored layer into _only_ the color range of the candlelight, and then follow the same process.

Makes good sense now that I see an example. 😉
O
Odysseus
Jul 15, 2005
In article ,
"BD" wrote:

Might work. I’d have to work through the process you suggest to see –
But if I am reading correctly, this would result in the color information coming back to the subject, as well as the light. it’s not so much that I want the masked area to remain in color – I don’t want the subject’s skin tone to become natural – I’m looking for the effect of a B&W subject lit by a natural light. I’d have to introduce something artificial, rather than work with masks against the original color image.

What if you were to start with a Curves adjustment layer in the Hue blending mode, with horizontal curves to create an appearance something like that of a black and yellow/amber duotone, then to add on top of it a Hue/Saturation layer with a gradient mask, more or less as KatWoman described, to desaturate (and, if you like, darken) the ‘shadowed’ areas?

(Instead of the Curves layer you could just use a layer filled with solid colour — still in Hue mode — but this would make for a larger file.)

Another possibility would be to convert the image to greyscale, then to a duotone using Black and a warm colour. From there, converting to Multichannel mode will let you vignette the spot colour however you like over the greys.

—
Odysseus
B
BD
Jul 15, 2005
I like your last suggestion – I will experiment and see what I can make happen. 😉
J
jenelisepasceci
Jul 18, 2005
"BD" wrote:

And I guess if I wanted to avoid the original color scheme of the color image (ie the illusion of illuminating a fully B&W subject with color light), I could turn the colored layer into _only_ the color range of the candlelight, and then follow the same process.
Just remove the topmost layer, I’ve only introduced it to keep the result a little bit more natural.

Peter

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