Shadow Work

A recent discussion on ASMP's email list touched on creating realistic shadows so I thought I'd post a quick tip here describing one of my favorite ways of creating realistic shadows when creating composited images in Photoshop.

The most important things to remember about creating shadows are: 1) Proper shadows tend to be subjective - imagining what the perfect shadow looks like will drive you nuts. Everyone will have a different idea of what looks right. 2) Studying real light and shadows will help you 'see' what a realistic shadow looks like more accurately, making your subjective opinion just a little bit better bit by bit.

When painting a shadow it also helps to remember that 'real' shadows tend to have different parts. If the object casting the shadow is resting on something (like the ground) it will tend to have a core shadow right where it lands on the ground. And there will be a softer, gradating shadow as it blocks the light from hitting the ground.

The image above is from a series of images I worked on with photographer Richard Radstone last year. In this particular one of the challenges was to wrap the accordion around the palm tree. That particular task generated my first tutorial on the website, www.psd.tutsplus.com, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/3YEVfT

And of course after wrapping the accordion around the tree it needed to have some shadowing added to make it look like it really belonged there which brings us back to the topic at hand.

Adding the shadows involved creating 2 layers, one for the core shadow, and the other for the cast shadow. In this case I used the Multiply blending mode for both shadows because I like the way the colors of the shadows blend more naturally with the objects in the image.

The way the colors of the shadows blend is very important because shadows do have their own color and this is affected by the color of the ambient light and the color of the object the shadow is landing on. Using the Multiply mode while sampling 'real' shadow colors tends to work pretty well for me.

So for these shadows I sampled a darker color from the palm tree and experimented with a few strokes before deciding on a final color. Remember the darker the color the stronger, darker your shadow will be - but you can easily adjust that with the opacity of your shadow layers.

After settling on the right shadow color I made one layer, called it "Core Shadow", set the blending mode to "Multiply" and then using a smallish brush I painted along the area where the accordion was touching the palm tree. To keep this shadow layer from splashing over onto the sky I clipped it to the palm tree's layer as a clipping group.

After painting the core shadow I then made another layer set to Multiply blending and called it "Cast Shadow". Then I used a much larger brush and painted in the softer cast shadow keeping in mind the shape of the accordion and the direction of the light the accordion would be blocking to cast the shadow.

To get the gradating effect of the cast shadow you can either use a low opacity brush and build up the strokes closer to the object, or use a layer mask, or use the Eraser tool (set to a low opacity) to erase it away until you're happy with the result. I alternately use all 3 methods at times depending on what strikes my fancy that day.

The point here is that the shadows are painted with 2 layers, one for the core and one for the larger cast shadow. By making them independent I can then play with the opacity of each one and use the Move tool to nudge them into the right place if needed.

Using this method I've found it's much easier to create shadows for everything from accordions on trees to vitamin bottles on white. Simple eh?

Steve Austin and Damage

Here's a recent image I worked on with the good folks at BLT & Associates. This version is a poster sized crop of the overall image which was built to also accomodate billboards as well.

Just to give you an idea of the work that went into this image Steve's head was stripped onto another body (there are 2 guys with a build like that? Yikes!). Detail was added to the neck showing more collar bone & muscle definition etc. Since the shot of Steve's head was pretty blurry & low res looking detail had to be added along with lots of sharpening. Thanks to Joseph at BLT for a new sharpening technique involving the HiPass filter and the Linear Light blending mode. Cool new trick!

The background is built from various shots of crowds. Finally the smoke and color treatment was added overall to create the dark moodiness of the overall image.

Jeremy Cowart and the Blue Girl

As a digital artist/retoucher I love collaborating with photographers producing beautiful images like this one from Jeremy Cowart. From the dramatic backlighting he used to the inviting look in her eyes Jeremy created a great shot and it was a pleasure to work with him in creating the finished image shown here.




In working on this image with Jeremy I wanted to keep everything very subtle. The model had this beautiful, enchanting look and I loved the dramatic lighting Jeremy used to make her seem almost angelic. With such a great starting point I mostly worked on eliminating many of the stray, fly-away hairs that were highlighted by the backlighting or that ran over her eyes and face. I also worked on showing off her beautiful skin by smoothing out the extra texture picked up by the side lighting. Then I added just a little more light in her eyes and added just a touch of highlight to her lips.



Before -- After

Click here to see more of Jeremy's work.

Syncing ColorSettings or What's Safe about "Safe CMYK"?

A recent post to the APA Digital email list brought up an important topic I thought would be good to discuss here. When Adobe bundled their programs in the Creative Suite the idea was to make life easier for users. As all the programs now work together seamlessly the process of creating placing them in layouts and then printing those layouts should be easier than ever.

And with a thought to making Color Management just as easy Adobe enabled coordinating all the Color Management preferences through Bridge. But there is a big ‘Gotcha’ hiding here that could mean big problems for photographers and designers.

You see the problem lies in a preference nick-named “Safe CMYK”.

Normally “Safe CMYK” would sound like a good idea. But the question “Safe for Whom?” applies here. You see there are 2 sides of the equation: The Creative side (photographer-designer) and the Output side (printers). What’s safe for one is not necessarily safe for the other.

Safe CMYK was designed for the Output side of the equation. It's safe for the guy who runs the printing press because it will cause the fewest problems with the RIPs these guys use when outputting files on their presses.

But this same Safe CMYK setting also means if you’re not using a RIP you’re very likely going to see bad color on your own outputs.

The problem comes down to this, Safe CMYK tells InDesign and Illustrator to ignore any profiles embedded in CMYK images that are used in those programs. This means these programs will now assume all your CMYK images are all set to the same profile as the default CMYK profile for the program.

So if your default CMYK profile is something like the commonly used “US Web Coated (SWOP) v2” but you used something like “US Sheetfed Coated v2” when creating an image that was placed in an InDesign layout when the layout is printed to the non-RIP controlled printer (ie and Epson inkjet) the colors could come out pretty far off from what you expected.

Not so safe now, eh?

Now the question comes down to: What to do?

Fortunately there is a simple answer that just takes a few steps I’ll outline here. Setting the preferences correctly for your Creative Suite programs will ensure your Color Management policies work the way you expect and you’ll get the results you’re looking for.

The way Adobe envisioned us synchronizing the Color Settings for all the Creative Suite programs is to use Bridge as the central place to set these preferences. By setting them here in Bridge all the Color Settings will be automatically set the same way which should ensure that colors look the same across all the various Creative Suite programs. If you go to Bridge and choose Edit>Creative Suite Color Settings you'll see a dialogue box like this:

Note that here I have North American Prepress 2 chosen. This choice is supposed to be good for users who are working with RGB and CMYK images in the US. The important thing to note here is the phrase "CMYK values are preserved". This is the 'Gotcha' I was mentioning earlier.

Bridge can still be used to "Sync" the Color Settings across the Creative Suite programs if you have a Color Settings File with the proper settings chosen. The catch here is that since the setting we're worried about is something InDesign and Illustrator use, not Photoshop, you have to make your Color Settings file in InDesign or Illustrator and then go back to Bridge to "Sync" the Creative Suite Color Settings.

Both InDesign and Illustrator work the same with regards to making this Color Settings file so let's take a look at how it's done in Illustrator. As with all the Creative Suite programs you can bring up the Color Settings dialogue by going to Edit>Color Settings. That will bring up a dialogue box like this:

You'll see the CMYK policy is set to "Preserve Numbers (Ignore Linked Profiles)". This is the dangerous side of "Safe CMYK" and means that any embedded CMYK profiles will be ignored. To fix this setting all you have to do is click on that setting and choose "Preserve Embedded Profiles" like shown here:

Now click on the "Save" button and give your new settings a name you'll remember. I called mine "Prepress 2 modified". Next go back to Bridge and bring up the Color Settings dialogue once again. Once you're there if you scroll down the list you'll see your new setting listed there. Below you can see where I have highlighted the file I made:

Now all you have to do is choose the new settings file, click on Apply and you're done.

Easy? Yes! More work than it should be? Definitely. But now that you know you'll be practicing truly "Safe CMYK" in no time.

First Things First

As an artist some issues such as Workflow tend to come across as being stuffy and boring. How many of us just want to get in and start working on creating something really cool? That's where the real fun is, right?

But running around in circles isn't much fun either. I'm thinking here of the times we jump right into the image adding color corrections, maybe a few effects etc. And then later decide to do the more boring spotting retouching out the little dust specks and stray hairs etc that are always somewhere in the photo.

The problem is what happens when we decide we need to go back and tweak the color, or change one of the effects. If you've done the retouching after those steps odds are you're going to have to do it all again because changing the image below changes the way your retouching blends in.

I see students and even intermediate level artists do this all the time. And it becomes one of the reasons why they hate the spotting and cleanup work all the more.

This is where the idea of Workflow comes in. If we keep in mind Stephen Covey's reminder "First Things First" and do the boring retouching/cleanup first we'd avoid that running around in circles and have more fun working on the cool parts of the image.

So my suggestion here is to get down and do the the basic, necessary parts first. This means starting off by doing the spotting and cleanup first then move on to creating clean masks for those parts you're going to need masks for, (how many times have you had to repair 4 or 5 copies of a bad mask?). And then going on to the fun stuff.

A little work here to start of goes a long way towards making all the work flow much easier. And you'll find you're having more fun along the way too.

Hmmmm.... maybe Covey had a pretty good idea, eh?

Pserpective Grids in Photoshop

Illustrators often will draw out perspective lines when beginning a complex illustration to help them keep everything looking just right.

The old way involves defining the vanishing point and then drawing a series of lines all intersecting and passing through that vanishing point. While effective this could be somewhat of a time consuming process.

Then while working with one of my students I recently discovered this great little trick for using Photoshop's Vanishing Point filter to render perspective lines. Now whenever I need them Perspective Lines are just a few clicks away.

To show you how easy it is take a look at this image of New York's Public Library:

The perspective on this shot is pretty exaggerated, but that just helps illustrate my point. If I wanted to add something to the front of the library, or maybe add another building next to it it would be a big help to have some guides that showed me how the vanishing point lines lay in proper perspective.

Now I know one of the common uses for the Vanishing Point filter is to be able to clone and paste things in while keeping the proper perspective. But using the Vanishing Point filter only works well if the object I'm pasting in is "straight" to begin with.

Suppose the new building I want to add already has some perspective happening in the shot? This is where some guides showing me the correct perspective could be really helpful. And luckily that's something the Vanishing Point filter can easily do.

By just following a few easy steps we can have those guides on a separate filter ready to help us keep everything looking right.

Step 1) Make a new layer so you have a place for the Perspective Grid to go. (Hint: give this layer a name that makes it easy to remember what it is.)

Step 2) Make this new layer the active layer by clicking on it in the Layers palette. Then go to Filter>Vanishing Point to bring up the Vanishing Point window.

Step 3) Using the Create Plane tool define a plane that follows the plane you want the perspective lines to follow. (I used the corners of the banner as an easy way to define the plane for the front of the library.)

Step 4) Once your plane has been defined expand it out to fill the necessary area by clicking on the handles in the middle of each side of your plane and dragging them out until they cover the area you need.

Step 5) Now here is the magic part: Looking at the menu bar in the Vanishing Point filter you'll notice a small icon that looks like 3 short horizontal lines with a tine triangle just to the left of those lines. Clicking on this brings up a submenu like this:























Here is a close-up of that submenu:






See where I've highlighted the "Render Grids to Photoshop" option? If you choose this and then apply the filter by clicking on "OK" in the upper right corner of the filter window Photoshop will now render out those grids to that new layer you made just before bringing up the filter. You should get something looking like this:




And now all you need to do when adding that new building is to make sure the lines of the new building follow the lines in the grid and you'll have everything following the same perspective.

Cool, eh?

Cafe: The Land of Flavors

Earlier this year Dennis worked on a campaign with photographer Richard Radstone featuring surrealistic scenes representing different regions in Colombia. This image highlights the coffee growing region that is known the world over for the great flavor of the coffee it produces.

In building this image Dennis began with a sky he had shot while on a trip to Lake Powell. Then he added in stock elements of the hills covered in coffee trees being careful to blend in the edges around the trees. Next he created the foreground by combining Richard's shot of a grassy meadow with the coffee cups and the model shot in the studio. Finally the rainbow steam was composed by adding shots of smoke with a rainbow gradient to get the colorful effect the client wanted. After retouching the model and removing a few extra wrinkles from his shirt the image was ready to go.

Here is a before and after image showing some of the elements used in creating the final image.