Hi, welcome back to the photoshoptrainingchannel.com.
I'm Jesus Ramirez. In this video, I'm going to show you how to change backgrounds and
keep the original shadows in Photoshop.
This technique will help you create more realistic composites.
You will learn to master shadows in an image, control their intensity, and color them so
that they match the scene.
This tutorial is filled with tips and tricks, so stick around to the end.
Okay, let's get started. This is the document that we're going to work with.
It contains a background layer and a layer with a microphone and headphones.
And what we want to do is make sure that the shadows of the original background appear
on the composite that we're going to make.
The first step is to cut out the object from the background. In this tutorial, we're not
going to focus on masking.
I want to make a concise tutorial, however if you don't know how to mask, I do have two
videos that I recommend watching so that you can mask your object.
I have a tutorial on making smooth selections. It's a really good tutorial that teaches you
a lot about masking.
So, I'm going to place a link to that video down below in the description.
Also, if you want to mask with vectors, which give you really sharp edges and is great for
man-made objects like this one,
then I will place a link to my vector masking tutorial right below in the description as
well so you can use either type of layer mask for the object that you cut out.
So, in this case, I already have a layer mask created.
It is disabled.
If you hold the shift key and click on the layer mask, it enables and disables the layer mask.
So, this is where we're going to start in this tutorial, with the object already extracted out.
What I want to do is make sure that the original shadows also appear on this composite.
So, the first step is to duplicate the layers, so I'm going to select the layer and press
Ctrl J, Command J on the Mac.
Then, delete the layer mask by right clicking and selecting delete layer mask.
I'm going to make a smart object out of the original image.
So, I'm going to right click and convert it into a smart object. Because I want to be
able to work non-destructively.
When I apply adjustments, working non-destructively means that you can come back and make changes
at any time.
Then I want to take the layer mask that we created to extract the object and place it
on the layer below, but at the same time, I want to invert it so that what's not selected
is selected and what is selected is not selected. So, it'll create an inversion.
So, I can click on the layer mask icon and hold Alt, Option in the Mac, and click and
drag to duplicate that layer mask onto the layer at the bottom.
Then, I'm going to select the layer mask and so that you can see what happens, I'm going
to click on this I icon to disable the layer on top. So, with the layer on bottom and the
layer mask thumbnail selected, I'm going to click on invert.
And that inverts the layer mask. And we keep the background in the shadows, but not the
headphones and microphone. Now, that is the long way of doing it, but I wanted to explain each step.
There's actually a way that you can do all this just in one step, so I'm just going to
delete the layer mask and I'm going to show you how to do it.
So, I'm going to click on the original layer mask and if I simply hold Alt and Shift, and
click and drag that layer mask onto the layer below, it does all of that just in one step.
So you can see we duplicated the layer and inverted it at the same time.
Once again, that's holding Alt and shift on Windows.
Option, shift on the Mac.
So now we have a layer that only contains the shadows, and from this point, all we have
to do is remove the white background and keep the shadows.
What you want to do is simply go into this dropdown, which are the blending modes,
and if you've watched my blending modes tutorial, you will know that the blending modes in this
category here all keep the dark pixels and hide the bright pixels.
So, if you select multiply, notice how we only keep the shadows and just a tiny little
bit of a background, and that's because the original background wasn't completely white.
So, we want to make the original background completely white.
So, I'm going to click on the layer thumbnail and I'm going to go into image, adjustment
levels and I'm going to click on the white point
and I'm going to drag it to the left to make all these pixels completely white so that
they disappear.
Then, I'll press okay. Now, we have an outline here that may actually be distracting to the
final composite, so what I'll do is I'll click on the layer mask icon and with a brush, I'm
going to paint with black. Notice how black is currently in my background color.
I can bring it to the top simply by clicking on this icon or pressing the X key on the
keyboard. The X key swaps foreground and background colors.
So with black as my foreground color, I'm just going to paint on the top part to remove
that outline, because I know I'm not going to need it.
I'm only going to need the shadow, so I'm basically painting away everything that's
not part of the shadow.
Then, I'm simply going to bring back the original layer where I extracted the headphones and
notice how we now have the shadows.
My selection wasn't perfect.
and I'm going to zoom in to this area so that you can see, notice how a missing part of
the shadow there.
All I really need to do is click on the shadow layer, and I'll actually call it shadow so
that you know what I'm clicking on. It's always a good idea to name your layers.
So, with this layer mask, click on it and paint with white so that you can bring back
some of the pixels that are just under the headphones so that they match. So, this look
much, much better than it did before.
Now you can see that. Also, we have a little bit of an outline here. Let me hide that by
selecting black as my foreground color and painting away that black outline. And that's
basically all you need to do at this point, just fine-tune those details. I'm not going
to take the time to go through every single detail in this composite, but the steps will
be the same.
One of the reasons that I asked you to convert the image into a smart object was so that
you could come back and make further adjustments.
For example, I can double click on the levels label, it brings up the levels adjustment
once again and with the center point, I can click and drag that to the right or to the
left to control the intensity of the shadow.
So, in your composite, you may need a stronger shadow or a much, much softer shadow. It all
really depends on the composite that you're working with. In this case, I'm just going
to press cancel and work with the original shadow. I think it works great.
Also, one other thing that I recommend doing is making that into a black and white layer
so that the colors of the shadow don't conflict with the colors of the scene. In this case,
the shadow doesn't have a color, but I'll still do that so that you can see the process.
I'm going to go into image, adjustment, black and white, and that makes it into a black
and white image. I don't need to make any adjustments, so I'm just going to press okay,
and you can see the black and white label here.
Now, one thing I should mention is in older versions of Photoshop, you cannot apply these
settings as a smart object. So, what you need to do is just simply use the adjustment layer
versions of that.
So, create a black and white adjustment or a levels adjustment, and then clip it to the
layer below. But in this case, in the newest version of Photoshop, we can definitely add
these adjustments to a smart object.
But anyway, let me show you what this layer looks like. I'm going to disable this layer,
hold shift and click on the layer mask thumbnail to see the original image.
So, we remove the color, and that allows us to have a shadow that doesn't have a color.
I want to fit this to screen and we actually want to add a color to the layer mask now,
and that's because shadows are never really black.
This looks pretty good,
but watch what a difference it's going to make once I apply a color to the shadow.
All I need to do is first click on the eyedropper and just click on the color of a shadow.
So, I'm going to click on the shadow here in between the two panels of wood, and notice
how it's not really black. It's a dark brown and that's what I want, so I'm going to select
that color and that color is now my foreground color.
Then, I'm going to go into the adjustment layer icon and click on the solid color fill
layer to create a layer that fills with that color, and the color is selected by default.
I'm going to press okay, then I'm going to press Ctrl, Alt, G, that's Command, option,
G on the Mac, to make a clipping mask that will tie this layer's transparency to the
transparency of the layer below.
And obviously this is not looking very good. All you really want from that layer is to
apply the color. I don't want to apply luminosity or anything else, just the color.
So with this layer selected, I'm going to click on this drop down and apply the color
blending mode. Now, look at the difference. I'm going to zoom in so that you can see.
I'm going to disable the layer, that's before, and that's after. It's a very subtle effect,
but I think it makes a huge difference. It makes it look much more realistic.
See that?
This is the original with the grayish shadow. This is shadow with the brown color, so I
think that looks much better and it helps the composite come together and makes it more cohesive.
So, I highly recommend doing that. And the way that I work and the way that I recommend
you work is working non-destructively.
Everything we've done has been nondestructive, so I can always come back and make adjustments.
I could go back into the levels adjustment by double clicking on it and this window comes
up and like I said before, you can continue adjusting the intensity of those shadows to
fine tune your scene.
You can press okay and those settings are applied. And at this point, the composite
is looking pretty good. I think that we're done with the shadows.
There were a few more things that we could add or change to make it more realistic, like
the reflection on the mic, but I think that we'll leave that for another tutorial.
Let me know in the comments if that's something that your interested in watching.
But anyway, I hope that you enjoy this tutorial.
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Leave your questions down in the comments below and I will see you at the next tutorial.