I'm going to show you how to add dramatic window light and shadows onto your interior photos.
Hi, this is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I provided this photo of woman and a black and white image of shapes that we'll use to
form our window light.
Feel free to use your own shapes if you like.
We'll place it onto our subject by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + A to select it and Ctrl or Cmd + C to copy it.
Open the photo of your subject and press Ctrl or Cmd + v to past the shapes onto it.
We'll create a custom brush of these shapes.
To do this, go to Edit and "Define Brush Preset".
When the Brush Name window pops up, just click OK or press Enter or Return.
Now that we made the shapes into a custom brush, we can delete that layer by dragging
it to the trash or by pressing the "Delete" key" on our keyboard.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Exposure".
For the “Exposure”, I’ll type in minus 3, however, since every photo has its own
brightness and contrast, feel free to adjust this number.
With your Brush Tool still active, center your cursor over your image and click once.
The reason we're seeing the original photo through the shapes is because the black shapes
in the layer mask is masking out or concealing the adjustment layer from affecting the layer below it.
An easy way to understand how a layer mask works is this: White reveals and black conceals.
Make a copy of the adjustment layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Hide the top adjustment layer
and Shift-click the bottom adjustment layer to make it active as well.
We'll angle the shapes by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T to open our Transform Tool.
Go to the side anchor point and press and hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift on Windows
or Cmd + Option + Shift on a Mac as we drag the transform up to an angle we like.
Position it over your subject and press Enter or Return.
Double-click the bottom layer mask and go to "Feather".
Drag it to approximately 10 pixels or you could just type it in.
Hide the adjustment layer and make the subject active.
Make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J and drag the copy between the two adjustment layers.
Hide the copy of the subject and make the bottom subject active.
Open your Quick Selection Tool and click "Select Subject".
Photoshop automatically does its best to select our subject.
To remove areas of the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as we drag our tool over those areas.
To fill back in areas of the selection, just drag your tool over those areas.
To check your selection, press "Q" on your keyboard to see it as a quick mask.
Press "Q" again to revert it back into a selection.
Make the bottom adjustment layer visible.
We'll place it onto the photo below it into a folder by Shift-clicking the adjustment
layer to make it active as well and pressing Ctrl or Cmd + G.
With the selection of our subject still active, click the Layer Mask icon
to make a layer mask of the selection next to the folder.
We'll place the folder to the top of the Layers panel by either dragging it manually or by
pressing Alt or Option + the right bracket key on your keyboard twice.
Make the other layers visible and make the layer mask of the shapes active.
Feather it approximately 35 pixels or just type it in.
Press "v" on your keyboard to open the Move Tool and drag the background light shapes
to offset it from the window light on your subject.
Next, we'll make the shadows on our subject blend in better.
Open the folder and click the adjustment layer to make it active.
Change its Blend Mode to Multiply and reduce its opacity to 70%.
If you want to adjust the size of the window light, open your Transform Tool, and go to a corner.
Press and hold Alt or Option as you drag it in or out and drag it to a position you like.
Then, press Enter or Return twice or click the checkmark at the top.
We'll replace the bottom layer mask with the top one by pressing and holding Alt or Option
as we drag the top layer mask over the bottom one.
If you see this message, just click “Yes”.
Make the bottom layer mask active and feather it approximately 35 pixels.
As before, drag it to off-set it from the window light on the subject.
Lastly, we'll adjust the shape of the shadow over our subject to conform to its anatomical curves.
Open your Brush Tool an Brush Picker.
Pick a soft, round brush.
We'll adjust its size in a moment.
Make its Hardness: 0% and its opacity and flow: 100%.
Make the top layer mask active and check your foreground and background colors.
If its black and white respectively, press "x" to invert them.
We want white to be our foreground color.
To adjust the size of your brush, make sure the CapsLock key is off
and press the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Brush over areas of your subject to conform the shadows to them.
To remove areas of the shadow, press "x" to make your brush black and brush over those areas to remove shadows.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!