In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll learn how to make the details of the image that are in the shadow better visible using the Photoshop tool. Introduced into Photoshop CS tool Shadow/Highlight - Lights/Shadows quickly became a favorite in photo retouching for its amazing ability to bring out details that were simply too dark to see clearly. Actually the team Shadow/Highlight - Lights/Shadows turned out to be so good that many users of the Photoshop program began to apply it to all images, even those that at first glance did not seem to need it.

The only real problem with the team Shadow/Highlight - Lights/Shadows was that its default settings often made the image look worse, making many users unsure when using this tool. In this tutorial, we will cover all the real power of this command. We will also look at how to save the default settings to give you a better starting point by using the command Shadow/Highlight - Lights/Shadows for future images. I'll be using Photoshop CS4, but older versions will work even better.

So let's get to the lesson.

Here is a photograph of a duck enjoying a swim in a small pond.

Unfortunately, the duck caught me by surprise and not wanting to miss the shot, I quickly aimed my camera and took a picture, forgetting to use my flash in my panic. The result was an image made up mostly of dark shadows and bright highlights and some midtones. Let's see if we can bring out more detail in the image using the command Shadow/Highlight - Lights/Shadows. Before we start, it's important to keep in mind that if the shadow areas in your image are so dark they're pure black, or so bright they're pure white, it will be very difficult to bring out detail, although this tool can work wonders. Since the standard image controls cause permanent changes to our images, we must take steps to protect the original image from harm. The original image is on the layer background in the layers palette. We will work with a copy of the image. Create a copy by clicking Ctrl+J, which Photoshop will automatically name Layer 1.

Choose a team Image - Correction - Light / Shadows (Image -Adjustment -Shadow / Highlight). The tool dialog box will open. If you haven't made any changes to the settings, a simple dialog box will open with only two sliders, one for lightening the shadows and another for darkening the highlights.

The default amount of shadows of 50% is usually very high and can make the image look washed out or in some cases even give it a strange, otherworldly look which is the reason why some people quickly exit the command and ignore it as useless. This is not true, because Highlights/Shadows can be incredibly helpful if we make simple changes to the default settings. Click on the slider and set the amount of shadows to 0%.

To open additional options, check the box Additional Options (Show More Options).

The dialog box expands to include more options for more control. Save your settings by clicking Save As Defaults.

The next time we open a team Highlights/Shadows, a dialog box will appear with options Shadows 0%, Lights 0%. Now let's see how to use the command Highlights/Shadows.

Extended Dialog Box Highlights/Shadows can seem a little intimidating at first, especially since the simplified version of the dialog only contained two sliders. The whole window is divided into three sections Shadows, Light (Highlight) and Correction. We will consider the section Correction later. First, let's look at the three sliders that make up the section. Shadows. first slider, Quantity, is a direct material. It controls the amount of shadow clearing. In the document window you can see and control your actions. I will expose Quantity 40%, but you may have a different value depending on your image.

By simply increasing the value quantities, I brought out a lot of detail in the shadow areas of the image. The photo already looks much better:

Below quantities - Tone Range Width. At its lowest value, the darkest areas will be affected. By dragging the slider to the right, you expand the range, showing more detail. I set the parameters to 60%. You start from your image.

Finally, the slider Radius determines how the adjusted areas of the image will blend in with the rest of the photo. If you set the value Radius too low, the image will appear flat and dull, and you may also see sharp transition areas between adjusted and unadjusted areas of the image. In general, a higher value Radius works best, though it depends on the photo. Look at the image while moving the slider Radius. I have installed Radius 70px.

Once you have set the value Radius, it is better to go back and correct the values quantities and Tone Range Widths. Experiment with the settings until you get a satisfying result. I'm going to increase Quantity up to 60%.

I set the values Quantities 60%, Tone WidthsRange 60% and Radius 70%. I think my photo looks much better now with much brighter, more detailed and natural looking shadow areas:

Many users use the tool Highlights/Shadows in Photoshop just to bring out the details in the shadows, leaving Sveta at rest. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. However, the section Sveta which you will find directly below the section Shadows, is specifically designed to bring out any hidden details in the light parts of the image.

Section Sveta contains the same three parameters - Quantity, Tone Range Width and Radius- what we just looked at in the section Shadows and they work exactly the same. In general, it is best to avoid making any major changes to Lights, as this can reduce overall image contrast, but minor adjustments can often help. After adjusting and then fine-tuning my sliders, I set the settings Quantities 10%, Tone Range Width62 % and Radius 80 px. Of course, your settings to your image will most likely be different.

Here is my image after darkening some of the highlights. The difference is subtle, but the water reflections aren't quite as bright as before, reducing their impact and bringing more attention to the duck. In addition, some minor details have been restored in the brighter areas of the duck feathers.

If you find after you've finished adjusting the shadows and highlights that your image has lost some of its original color saturation, you can increase the saturation using the slider. Color correction in section Correction, in the third section of the dialog box. The default value of +20 is usually good enough, but I'll increase it to +30 to make the colors a little more intense. Finally, the slider Midtone Contrast can be used to increase the contrast in the luminosity picture of an image. I'm going to increase my value Midtone Contrast approximately +20.

Here final result my work:

Translator: Vladimir Nesterov

In this tutorial, photographer Tigz Rice will demonstrate professional methods light and shadow work that involves using a Curves adjustment layer instead of brush tools. This means that you can change the settings at any time.

Darkening and brightening are techniques that have appeared since the time of the film. At the time, photographers used darkrooms to create higher contrast photographs than the original negative.

If you have ever used the Dodge Tool (O) or the Burn Tool (O), you must know that they give an instant effect and ruin the colors of an image. Today, Tigz Rice will show you methods of enhancing contrast that are harmless to photography.

Step 1

Open a photo in Photoshop and create a Curves Adjustment Layer. Rename it to "Dodge".

Step 2

In the properties panel where the adjustment layer is set, click on the hand icon under the word Preset. Find the lightest point in the photo, click on it and drag your mouse up to increase the brightness.

Step 3

Since we only need to improve the highlights and shadows in certain areas, we will work on the adjustment layer mask. First, fill it with black to hide all changes. Do this with the Paint Bucket Tool (G), or invert the color (Ctrl + I) /

Step 4

Now we will create another adjustment layer for the shadows. Create another Curves layer and name it Burn.

Step 5

Click again on the hand icon under the word Preset, click on the darkest point of the image and drag the mouse down. The entire photo will become darker.

Step 6

Fill the "Burn" layer mask with black.

Step 7

Now that we have layers for shadows and highlights, we can start processing areas of the image. Let's set up the brush. Give it 0% hardness and set the color to white.

Step 8

Reduce the opacity of the brush to 10-20%. Select the "Dodge" layer and with large strokes go over the cheeks, the center of the forehead and the bridge of the nose. To make areas of the photo brighter, brush over them several times.

Step 9

Decrease the brush size and work on detailing the eyes, lips and under the nose.

Step 10

Now we'll take care of the shadows. Select the big brush again and go to the "Burn" layer. Darken the area under the cheekbones and around the edges of the hair and jaw.

Step 11

Reduce the brush and increase the contrast on the eyelashes, eyebrows and lip contours.

Step 12

To make the shadows even darker, try changing the Blending Mode of the "Burn" layer to Multiply.

Step 13

Now you can experiment with the opacity of each layer to soften the effect a bit.

Perhaps the most useful means of quick correction is Shadows/Highlights menu command. If in your , and the captured object turned out to be too dark, using this command you can bring the photo back to life - the Photoshop program will analyze all the pixels and adjust them taking into account the brightness values ​​​​of neighboring pixels.

To perform this correction, select the command from the menu . Since this command changes the original image, you should probably duplicate the layer with Ctrl+J before executing it.

So, when you select a command, a dialog box will appear with two vertebral controls: Shadows (Shadows) and Lights (Highlights). Since Photoshop assumes that you want to lighten the shadows (and you usually should), it automatically sets the slider to 35% , and the second regulator is set to position 0% . To access the rest of the controls with this correction method, check the box Extra options at the bottom of the dialog box.

Note

AT previous versions photoshop software controller Shadows was automatically set to 50%, which is too much. In CS5, Adobe has decided to lower the default value to 35%.

Instructions on how to lighten shadows

Step 1

Duplicate the background layer by pressing Ctrl+J .

Step 2

Select a command from the menu Image - Adjustment - Shadows/Highlights. In the dialog box that opens, check the box Extra options to see all controls.

Step 3

Effect the Shadows control group to a position between 20 and 35 percent. Shouldn't be used big values, since in this case noise (graininess) will appear on the image.

Step 4

Tonal Width in the 50 percent position.

By moving this slider, you indicate to the program the shadows that need to be corrected. If you move the slider to the left, the program corrects only the darkest areas, if you move the slider to the right, a wider range is corrected. The default value of 50 percent usually gives good results, but if the image looks grainy, you might want to move the slider further to the left.

Step 5

Move the slider Radius to a position between 250 and 300 pixels.

When performing this adjustment, it looks at the brightness values ​​of neighboring pixels, and by moving this slider you specify which pixels to consider neighboring. Move the slider to the right to have the software analyze more pixels.

Step 6

In the input field Color correction Set the Adjustments control group to 0. Decreasing the value in this input field prevents Photoshop from changing the colors of the image, in particular from adding pink to skin tones.

Step 7

Leave the slider Midtone Contrast group of controls Correction in position 0.

Photoshop to increase the contrast slightly darkens the dark pixels and lightens the light pixels. Since the dialog box is typically used to lighten shadows, moving this slider too far to the right can negate the desired changes. To avoid creating such an inconsistency, leave the slider at 0.

Note

If you need to increase the contrast of an image, you can always create a Curves adjustment layer and change it to Brightness. In this mode, the adjustment layer will only affect the brightness of the pixels and no color changes will occur.

Step 8

Leave values ​​in input fields Clipping shadows and clipping highlights equal to 0.01 percent. Keeping these values ​​will keep light and dark pixels from losing detail (pure black or pure white).

IMPORTANT! If the shadows in your image are OK, but the lights need to be darkened, set the same values ​​in the Lights group of controls (it contains exactly the same controls). And, if you don't want to use the Shadows group of controls, don't forget to move its Effect slider to 0 percent.

Step 9

To compare the before and after versions of the image, toggle the visibility of the layer on and off.

This correction method excels at brightening shadows without adding unwanted tones to the image.

For even better results, you can adjust the Brightness channel in mode. At first glance, it seems complicated, but in fact, everything is simple. Follow these instructions:

Step 1 Create a duplicate of the original layer by pressing the key combination Ctrl+J.

Step 2 Temporarily switch to Lab mode.

Select an item from the menu Image - Mode - Lab. When Photoshop asks in the dialog box that opens whether to flatten the layers, click on the Don't do button. If your document contains , the program will ask you in another dialog whether they should be rasterized; in this case, click the Do not rasterize button.

Step 3 Select the Brightness channel.

Step 4 Select a menu command Image - Adjustment - Shadows/Highlights.

Check box Extra options and set the following values ​​in the Shadows group of controls:

• in the input field Effect - 20%;
• in the input field Tone Range Width - 50%;
• in the input field Radius - 275%.

After entering these values, click the OK button.

Step 5 Switch back to RGB (or CMYK) mode.

Compare results

If you need to correct highlights, use the same values ​​in the Highlights group of controls, remembering to move the Effect slider of the Shadows group of controls to position 0.

Noticed an error in the text - select it and press Ctrl + Enter . Thank you!

16.08.2016 29.01.2018

Hello! We will talk about how to make a shadow in Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop has a wide range of tools and functions with which you can add shadows to objects, we will look at the two most common ways to create shadows in Photoshop - using Layer Style and with the help Selections (Select).

The shadow is an integral part of any photo manipulation, logo, etc. Without a shadow, connected objects look unrealistic, like a glued appliqué.

• The main thing that a beginner needs to remember is that there are no absolutely black shadows in nature, there is always some additional color that dilutes the density of black.
• Keep in mind that the closer the shadow is to the object, the more saturated it is, the farther away, the more transparent.
• Take a closer look at the world around you, often pay attention to how objects cast a shadow - this will help you avoid mistakes when creating your collages.

How to make a shadow using Layer Styles (Layer Style)

"Hang" the picture on the wall using Photoshop. Let's open the image of the wall, File-Open (File-Open).

Let's place (File-Place (File-Place)) on canvas image with a painting, it is already separated from the background,

Left mouse button pull the corners inside the image to reduce the picture, while holding keysShiftandalt so that the proportions of the picture are preserved and scaling occurs from the center:

With help tool Move (move tool), tool shortcut key V, drag the picture a little higher:

On the panels layers make active the layer with the picture, double-click on it left mouse button- a window with settings will open Layer styles (Layer Style):

Put a tick in style layer Shadow (Drop Shadow):

In this box you can choose color, size, span (feathering), angle (direction of light), blending mode(mostly best to use mode Multiply, opacity shadows. While the window is not closed, you can manually move the created shadow with the mouse to find the best location for it. Also, at any time, you can again do double clickmice and make changes to the settings.

For our picture, I changed the angle to 90 degrees, because the wall is lit from above, changed Colour with black on the dark brown. You can see the settings in detail in the screenshot:

Here's how our little collage looks like after adding the shadow:

The effect of the plane has disappeared, and the collage has become realistic.

How to make a shadow in Photoshop using Select (Select)

This method is undoubtedly more difficult, but I'm sure you can handle it!

Create a new file (File-New(File— New)) with these options:

So we learned how to make a shadow in Photoshop. We hope the lesson was useful for you. Creative success!

Not all photos are taken in ideal conditions. Some of the shots are obtained with a not entirely correct exposure, some of the shots have to be taken in backlight, some may have an incorrect tonal balance and a narrowed tonal range. Tone balance and exposure accuracy are usually determined by a histogram - a graph of the distribution of tones in an image. By their appearance, one can draw conclusions about the tonal characteristics of the image, evaluate the information content of color channels, and detect imbalances. All tones of the image are usually divided into three parts. The extreme position is occupied by white points, or highlights (Highlights). These are the brightest areas of the image. The darkest areas are called black points or shadows (Shadows).

Figure 1.1 shows an example of a histogram for an image rendered in dark tones. "Slide" in the first quarter of the chart and "fall" in the lightest part of the tonal range indicate in large numbers dark and almost no light tones.

Figure 1.1. An example of a histogram of an image exposed in dark tones.

The next diagram in figure 1.2 belongs to the highlighted picture. This is evidenced by the concentration of tones in the right (light) part of the range.

Figure 1.2. An example of a histogram of a highlighted image.

It is widely believed among computer retouchers and photographers that images that are balanced in terms of the distribution of dark and light tones are of the highest quality. Figure 1.3 shows a histogram of one of these images.

Figure 1.3. An example of a histogram of a balanced image.

Figure 1.4 shows an example of an image that has high contrast. Images with extreme contrast are originals colored predominantly in black and white. The histograms of such samples have two pronounced peaks located at opposite ends of the tonal range.

Figure 1.4. An example of a high contrast image histogram.

By the appearance of the histogram, one more “diagnosis” can be made - posterization (uneven distribution of tones). This means that there are solid solid areas of considerable size in the image, and vice versa - some tone values ​​are not represented at all. The posterization effect is shown by the histogram shown in Figure 1.5. Among professionals, histograms of this kind are sometimes called "combs".

Figure 1.5. An example of an image histogram with a posterization effect.

If the histogram goes beyond the borders of the area on the right, there is overexposure and the photographer should correct the exposure by introducing a negative correction. If the histogram goes beyond the borders of the area on the left and at the same time does not reach the border on the right - there is underexposure.

Figure 1.3 shows the case when the histogram goes beyond the allotted area both to the right and to the left. This behavior can be corrected within certain limits (as long as the dynamic range of the sensor is enough) when converting a RAW file by reducing the overall contrast of the image. In this case, the width of the histogram peak in Figure 1.3 will decrease.

Unlike the examples above, when almost all the pixels in an image were edited at the same time, when post-processing photos, it often becomes necessary to correct only the highlights or only the shadows of the image. Sometimes you have to adjust both the highlights and the shadows of an image separately and still leave the midtones with minimal changes.

To solve such problems (separate image correction in dark and light areas), the Adobe Photoshop CS3 package includes a tool Highlights/Shadows. Typically, this tool is used to process back frames. However, it can be successfully used to correct frames with clearly defined areas. Svetov and Shadows. The main difference of this tool is that, unlike the standard contrast enhancement tools (Brightness, Contrast, Levels) that work with all the pixels of the image at once, it is able to perform selective, fine-tuning of highlights and shadows. To run this tool, you need to use the command Highlights/Shadows in the submenu Correction menu Image. Figure 2.

Figure 2. Launching the tool Highlights/Shadows

As a result, the Shadows / Highlights window will open, shown in Figure 3.

The main control here is the slider. Tonal Width. In the maximum position (100%), related zones are corrected most strongly (shadows, if the range width is set for shadows, and highlights, if the tone range width is set for highlights). If you set the Tonal Width to 50%, then the midtones will be adjusted, and the countertones (highlights in shadows and shadows in highlights) will not be adjusted at all. If the midtones do not need to be adjusted, the tone range width value is set to less than 50%.

In order to select the "area of ​​influence" of the tool, use the slider Radius respectively for shadows and highlights. If you set a certain radius value in pixels, then within the specified radius around the pixels that fall within its range, the program calculates the average value of the tone. From this value, it determines which area is light, which is dark, and which is grayscale. Accordingly, the larger the radius, the larger the scope of the operation. If you set the radius value in pixels to more than half the size of the image in pixels, then the tool will apply to the entire image, not just the highlights or shadows. Parameter value Radius you need to select empirically, focusing on the approximate size of objects in the frame in pixels. For example, if an object in a backlight image has a size of 200 pixels in diameter, then the radius value should be set equal to half of this value (100 pixels). If a landscape is being edited and there are no clearly defined objects in the frame, then the radius value should be set in the range from 20 to 40 pixels, depending on the image resolution.

To set the "impact force" the parameter is used Quantity for shadows and setting Effect for lights. The more Quantity- the lighter the shadow area will be, the more Effect- the darker the area of ​​highlights will be. However, very large values quantities and effect(over 80%) often lead to posterization in light or dark areas of the frame (see explanation at the beginning and help at the end of the article).

Consider the operation of the tool on specific example, figure 4.

The shot was specially shot in a strong back-key for this article. Let's open it in graphics editor Photoshop CS3 and use the Highlight/Shadow Tool, Figure 5.

This frame does not have a pronounced object, so we will conditionally consider it a landscape. Set the radius value to 30 pixels. Since we have a gap in the shadows here, and we will pull out the shadows, then the value Quantity we will tend to 100%, but remembering the posterization, we will set it equal to 80%. Meaning Effect we set it to 0, since bright areas are normal for us. The width of the tonal range in both cases will be set equal to 50%. Values Color correction and Midtone Contrast are 0. However, if necessary, the slider Color correction allows you to adjust the saturation of colors in light transitions. Slider Midtone Contrast allows you to select the desired balance between the bright and dark parts of the midtones. The need for this balance is due to the fact that the use of the tool Highlights/Shadows almost always leads to a decrease in the contrast of the image, since there is some kind of equalization of the brightness of the pixels. And changing the parameter Midtone Contrast you can make the frame less sluggish and more attractive.

Clipping shadows and clipping highlights- parameters that set the maximum values ​​that determine how dark (or light) the pixels in the image should be. Increasing this parameter will reduce the dynamic range of the picture and reduce the total number of tonal transitions. This parameter is not recommended to be touched, it is better to leave the default values ​​\u200b\u200bof 0.01%. If we change this parameter upwards, then the posterization effect will also begin to appear, but already due to the fact that very bright and very dark parts of the frame will be artificially truncated, to some very light and very dark gray values.

The result of the tool is shown in Figure 6.

posterization called the loss of the number of levels of the tonal range, in which the stepwise transition from one tone level to another becomes visually perceptible. Posterization appears as a sharp jump in gradational tonal transitions in a digitized image. In other words, there are so few levels, and the difference between two neighboring levels becomes so noticeable that it catches the eye of the viewer. An example of posterization is shown in Figure 7.

Comparative histograms of the image (Figure 4) are shown in Figures 8 and 9. Figure 8 shows that there are practically no midtones in the frame. Figure 9 shows gray tones in the brightness range from 0 to 75.