Hi, welcome back to the Photoshop Training Channel.
I'm Jesus Ramirez.
In this video, I'm going to show you a professional rim lighting technique in Photoshop.
The technique that I'm going to reveal to you today is a professional technique, used
in the film industry.
I didn't come up with the technique, but I recently did an Adobe Livestream, with my
good friend, Lisa Carney, who is a Professional Finisher in the film industry.
That means that she creates movie posters.
During that stream, Lisa opened up a .
psd file for the movie poster for X-Men, Days of Future Past.
And as she was going through the layers of that Photoshop document, she showed how the
rim light was created around the characters in that movie poster.
It's an amazing technique, and with Lisa's permission, I'm going to show it to you today.
And by the way, if you want to watch this Adobe Livestream, make sure that you click
on the link down below in the description.
Before we get started, I would like to thank Lisa for allowing me to show this technique to you guys.
So make sure that you go into Lisa's website, lisacarney.
com, and check her out.
You can look at her portfolio and see all the amazing work that she's done, including
the Spider-Man, Far From Home movie poster.
You guys already know that I'm a big Spider-Man fan, so I'm glad that a friend of mine got
to work on that project.
And I'm sure you'll recognize these movie posters.
You can let me know down in the comments below, which one's your favorite.
Also, make sure that you check out her workshops and her mentoring.
She has a lot of awesome classes at Creative Live, where she shows how she makes her movie posters.
So make sure that you check her out.
You can also find Lisa at Finishing Station on Instagram.
That's Finishing_Station on Instagram.
But anyway, this is going to be an amazing tutorial.
It's a really powerful technique for creating rim light.
It's completely editable.
You can adjust the color, brightness.
It's just amazing.
Why don't we get right into it? This is the document that I'm going to work with.
If you want to follow along with me, you can download this file.
There's a link to it down below in the description.
This document contains two groups: a background group, which contains three layers, this black layer,
a warm background,
and a cool background.
I'll work with the black background first.
Then, I have this woman group,
which also contains three layers.
This layer, called Woman, which contains our model, I have already removed her background.
You can see the layer mask here.
I want to get right into the rim lighting technique, so we will not spend time unmasking her.
But if you want to learn how to remove a background, then make sure you watch my crash course on
the selected mask work space.
I teach you all that you want to know about masking out backgrounds.
I'll place a link to that tutorial down below in the description.
The woman group also contains two adjustment layers: a warming photo filter, to make the
image warmer, and a cooling photo filter, to make the image cooler.
To create your own photo filter, all you need to do is go into the adjustment layer icon
and select
Photo Filter.
And from the dropdown, you can select
a warming filter or a cooling filter, totally up to you.
And let me just delete this.
So now that you know how the file is set up, we're going to work with the black background
in the original layer first.
We're going to use a technique called a channel pull, which will use an alpha channel to pull
or extract the highlights of our photo.
And will we use that extraction as the basis of our rim light.
To do so, go into the Channels panel.
Here you will see the RGB channels that make up our image.
The RGB channels are basically black and white images that determine how much red, green,
or blue light there is.
The bright areas in the channels indicate a lot of light, and dark areas indicate very
little light of the corresponding channel.
From this panel, you could also extract the brightness from the image.
But before I do that, I will create a brand new channel by clicking on the Channel icon.
Notice that the channel is black, indicating that there is no light.
Next, we need to make a selection around the highlights of the image.
You can do that in one of three ways from this panel.
First you can hold Ctrl and Windows Command on the Mac and click on the RGB Composite
thumbnail to load the brightness as a selection.
You could also load the brightness of an image as a selection by using a keyboard shortcut.
You can press Ctrl Alt 2 on Windows, Command Option 2 on the Mac.
Notice the number to the right of the channel.
It's the number 2.
You can use that same keyboard shortcut in the corresponding number to load a channel
as a selection.
For example, if you wanted to load the blue channel, you can press Ctrl Alt and the number 5.
If you don't want to remember keyboard shortcuts at all, then simply select the channel and
click on this icon from the channel's panel.
Anyway, in this case, we want to load the brightness of the image as a selection.
So I will press Ctrl Alt 2 in Windows, Command Option 2 on the Mac.
Then, I'm going to fill with white.
White is my foreground color.
So I'll press Alt and Backspace on Windows.
That's Command, Option, Delete on the Mac.
Now, if your layer doesn't fill, I was actually having some trouble filling there, that's
because you don't have an actual layer or group selected.
But if you select the group and then, go back into the Channels panel, and you press that
keyboard shortcut, Alt and Backspace, it'll fill.
So now, I've filled the luminosity of that channel.
Again, Ctrl D on Windows, Command D on the Mac, to deselect.
With the alpha channel we just created selected, I'll go into Image, Adjustment Curves, and
I'll use this adjustment to give my channel more contrast and make the highlights pop.
I can click here and drag down to darken the shadows, and click on this area and drag up
to brighten the highlights.
This is known as an s-curve, because it kind of looks like an S.
And it should make your highlights pop, like this.
Then, you can fine-tune the curves, so that you don't lose too many of the brighter shadows,
especially here, on her shoulder.
I could use them for the rim light.
And just press Okay when you're done.
Then, I can use the Dodge tool and make sure that Highlights is selected, and I'll reduce
the brush size by tapping on the left-bracket key on the keyboard.
And I'm just gonna bring out some of the highlights that I see here, on her shoulder, and I'll
do the same thing on the other side.
I just want those highlights to really pop, and I'm gonna use them to create my rim-lighting effect.
And I'm also gonna continue brightening the side, here, of her head, and I'll do the other side, as well.
That looks pretty good.
Then, I'm going to load the luminosity of this new alpha channel, as a selection.
Look at the number, Number 6.
So I can press Ctrl Alt and the number 6, or Command Option and the number 6.
Then, I'll click on RGB, and I'll go back into the Layers panel, and I'll create a new layer.
And I'll call this layer Highlight Channel Pull.
That's how I'm getting my highlights, from the channel.
Then, I'll Fill With White.
White is my background color, currently, so I'll press Ctrl Backspace.
That's Command Delete on the Mac.
Then, I'll press Ctrl D, Command D, to deselect.
And you can see the effect that that creates in our layer.
Now, to further enhance this effect, I'm gonna do one more thing.
I'm going to create a new layer, below that Highlight Channel Pull layer.
Then, I'm gonna go into my Woman group, and I'm going to scroll down and then, copy this
layer mask of the woman here.
So you can copy a layer mask by holding Alt on Windows, Option on the Mac, and clicking and
dragging a layer mask onto another layer.
And that copies it.
So I just copy that layer mask,
so that it has the same shape as the woman layer.
Then, I'm gonna fill with black.
Black is currently my foreground color.
So I'll press Alt and Backspace.
That's Option Delete on the Mac.
And if I hide the background, you'll see the result.
This is what you want, and you can just call this layer Container.
This is gonna contain our rim light, and we're gonna set this layer to Screen.
Screen makes black pixels invisible.
So that hides all the pixels in that layer.
In this Channel Highlight layer, I'm going to clip it to the layer below, Ctrl Alt G,
Command Option G on the Mac.
So now, this is our result.
It looks the same, but since we're separating everything, it's gonna keep everything editable,
and we're gonna be able to apply some really cool color effects.
Let me show you how.
Now that we've added this Highlight Channel Pull, what I could do is create a layer mask.
Hold Alt on Windows, Option on the Mac, and click, to hide all the pixels on this layer.
Then, I'm gonna go into the brush tool and paint with white to reveal the effect.
Doing it this way will allow me to selectively apply the rim light effect, and I can continue
painting on the areas where I want to reveal the effect, like so, before and after.
Also, there are some areas that don't really have any highlights, but you need to add some.
You can always create a new layer.
Press Ctrl Alt G, Command Option G on the Mac, and you can rename this layer and call
it Painted Highlights, because you can come in and paint highlights that you want in here.
For example, I can come in here and maybe paint some highlights
here, where there are no highlights.
Make sure that you have white as your foreground color, and just paint in the highlights, like so.
And, for example, her earrings don't have any highlights.
So I could paint in the highlights.
And I'm not being too precise.
I just want to show you how this works.
So you can either paint in highlights or use the highlights that are already found in your image.
I'll double-click on the handle to fit the image to screen.
That's the before, and that's the after.
I want to remind you that this is just a black and white image.
And what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to apply a color to this rim light effect, and
it's gonna be a really a powerful way of applying color.
Let me show you how this works.
I'm going to create a color-balanced adjustment layer.
I'm going to click on this icon, to clip it to the layer below.
And now, I can apply a color to the shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.
And notice that, in our black and white image, we have shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.
So for example, we'll start with the highlights.
Make sure that you check Preserve Luminosity, then decide what color your highlights are
going to be.
So you gotta think of how you're compositing your image.
So if we were working on a warm background, maybe you want to apply warm highlights.
So I can add yellow and red to those highlights, and it creates the effect that you see here.
And obviously, that color depends on your background or the effect that you're going
for, but I think that you get the idea.
Then, you can go into the mid-tones.
Maybe the mid-tones have a little more red, not so much yellow.
And then, the shadows have a lot of red and no yellow.
So you can individually target a shade and apply the color to it, making it a really
powerful technique.
Now, if I go back into the container layer, I can change that to the screen blending mode.
Notice the effect that I get on my image.
Now, it doesn't look very good, because we don't have a warm background, and we haven't
color-graded her.
But we can easily do that.
So what I'll do first is select the container layer, hold Shift, and click on the Color
Balance Layer and press Ctrl G on Windows, Command G on the Mac, to put this into a group.
And I'll call this group Rim Light.
Then, I'll go into my woman layer, and I'll color grade her.
So I'll add the warm filter.
There it is.
And I'll apply a warm background, so that you can see what that looks like.
And another thing that you can do, to enhance this effect, is brighten her up, because she's
back-lit.
You can use the curves adjustment layer for that and the new adjustment layer icon.
Select Curves, and in the Properties panel, you can add another s-curve, similar to what
we did in the Channels panel.
This is looking pretty good, and now that I have a background, I can probably adjust
the rim light effect.
It might be a little too red.
So let me go back into the shadows and reduce some of that red and maybe add a little bit
of yellow, just so that it matches that background better.
So this is without that rim light effect, and this is with it.
Really, really cool technique, as you can see.
And you can always keep adding to this effect.
I can create a new layer, and I can continue painting.
Maybe this one would just be an overall adjustment.
I'm tapping on the right bracket key on the keyboard, to increase the brush-tip, and then,
I'll just paint accordingly, like so.
Totally up to you, how intense you want to make this effect.
And if your boss, your art director, or you change your mind, and, instead of having a
warm background, you switch over into a cool background, you can easily change all of this,
because you can change the color grade.
So we went to a cooling color grade, and I can also go back into my color balance adjustment
layer and change this.
I can click on this icon to reset the color.
And now, I can go into the highlights and select, maybe, cyan and blue, and then, for
the mid-tones, cyan, as well.
Maybe more blue, it totally depends on the effect that you want to go for.
And in the shadows, maybe I could go for a little magenta, maybe, and maybe a little
bit of blue.
Totally up to you, how you want to apply this effect.
So in this case, actually, I don't want any magenta.
But as you can see, that is definitely an option.
So you can keep making these adjustments,
so that you can apply the color that you want to your rim light.
And everything is nondestructive.
So I can disable these layers to remove the painted highlights,
and if there's a highlight from the Channel Pull that I don't like, I can always select
the layer mask,
and I can paint with black to hide the effect, like so.
In this case, I do like the effect, so I'm gonna paint with white to bring it back on
both sides, like so.
I want to close the group, and you can see the before and the after.
As you can see, this is a very powerful technique.
It's completely editable.
The colors look amazing, and it's just an awesome, awesome way of creating rim light.
Let me know your thoughts, in the comments down below.
If you enjoyed this tutorial, make sure that you click on that Like button, now.
Also, I'd like to remind you that I started a new series in this YouTube channel, called
Copycat Wednesday.
Copycat Wednesday is a series, where I'll be recreating movie posters, album covers,
book covers, anything goes.
I've published one video so far.
The next one is coming on Wednesday.
If you want to see the previous video, I'll place a link to it down below in the description.
Also, I would like to thank my good friend, Lisa Carney, for allowing me to show you this
technique.
Make sure that you say Thank You to Lisa.
Check out her website, lisacarney.com,
and you can follow her on Instagram at Finishing_Station.
There's an underscore in between each word.
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Thank you so much for watching.
I'll talk to you guys again in the next tutorial.