One of the most challenging aspects of creating a Composite is making realistic shadows, right?
But, what if you could use the original shadow of the subject in the new background?
Wouldn't that be amazing?
Well today I have a technique to do just that, very simply.
However, what if this technique doesn't work?
No problem at all.
We have got another one.
Either way you are covered, my friend.
So without any further ado, let's get started.
Back in the brilliant world of Photoshop and before we begin, how about an exceptional
resource that will make it super easy for you to follow along?
Here are the complete interactive visual notes for this tutorial with all the instructions
and downloads.
Thanks to our sponsor Milanote for creating an easy to use platform to organize all our
ideas.
With Milanote, you can easily capture inspiration from all around the web, whether it is a simple
image, link or video.
Once the ideas are in one place, you can use these to create mood boards or put together
a creative brief for your next big project.
It's like an endless creative wall in a design studio where you can place anything anywhere.
It's best for collaborations as you can send boards of your work to your clients or team
members to easily get feedback or simply brainstorm your ideas.
If you're a photographer, designer or any creative professional, you can chart out your
complete workflow that matches your process and easily track every project efficiently.
Whether it is planning a photoshoot, or storyboarding, they have templates for everything so you
don't have to start anything from scratch.
You can also add text notes, photos directly from your iPhone using the milanote iPhone
app.
For all other devices, you can easily access it with your browser.
Creative professionals from the most prominent companies use Milanote, from Google, Apple,
Nike and guess what, even Adobe.
And the best part is, you can get started for free.
Try Milanote right now using the link in the description.
PiXimperfect subscribers get 20% off Milanote Pro version forever.
Just use the code PIX20.
Back in Photoshop and here we have the subject open with a clean nice shadow which we propose
to us with the new background.
However, the first thing we need to do is to separate the subject.
And by the way, if you want to go ahead and download this for and follow along, you already
know what to do.
Check the links in the description.
Now, since we are using Photoshop CC 2020, we will use the Object Selection tool.
You can use any selection tool of your choice.
This is just my favorite at the moment.
So, the Object Selection tool is inside the Quick Selection tool group.
Just select the Object Selection tool and then just make a rectangle around the subject
or, right now, the Lasso is selected, we can change the mode to Rectangle.
That's pretty easier.
And now let's make a rectangle.
Now, Photoshop is going to use its AI and kind of..Wow.
That was fast.
Now, we need to tell Photoshop that this was the area which was not supposed to be selected
and this area is not the subject.
What do we do?
Again, hold the Alt key or the Option key and drag a rectangle around it.
That area will be subtracted automatically.
That's amazing, isn't it?
Now this area additionally has also been subtracted.
We need to add that back.
Let's change the mode back to Lasso and this time, hold the Shift key and then add back
this area.
Perfect, isn't it?
Now, let's do the same for this area as well.
Hold the Alt key or the Option key and then let's subtract this area.
Wow.
Look at the selection.
It's so nice, isn't it?
Look at this area, we need to subtract that as well.
Hold the Alt key or Option key and just make a selection around it and let Photoshop do
the magic.
Now, we need to still subtract this area.
Hold the Alt key or the Option key again and let's do the same for this area.
Now, it didn't do a pretty good job.
So, we're going to have to go back to the Lasso tool and kind of add that.
So, hold the Alt key or the Option key and then simply make a selection around it.
Now, I'm not making a perfect selection.
You can take all the time in the world to do that.
But, we have less time here.
We don't want to kill so much time.
Alright, once we have the selection made, we can just first make a duplicate of the
Background layer by just dragging it to the New Layer icon and then with the selection
active, click on the Mask button and we can name this Subject.
All right.
Now, this layer, the Subject layer, just has the subject extracted with the mask.
Now let's turn back on the Background.
The next step is simply extracting the shadows.
However, have look at the wall where the shadow is falling or any surface where the shadow
is falling.
It is best, and you will be lucky, if the surface is clean and smooth.
But in this case, there is a discrepancy.
Have a look at this, the wall has a line that we need to get rid of before we start extracting
the shadow.
So, make a copy of the Background layer.
With the Background layer selected, press Ctrl or Command + J, and this is kind of temporary,
to just remove this line.
And how do we remove that?
Well, we can use the Clone Stamp tool, we can use the Spot Healing Brush tool, we can
use the Healing Brush tool or since we are using the latest versions of Photoshop, the
Content Aware Fill has gotten really, really good.
So, all we have to do is to select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and then make a selection around
the discrepancy just like that.
And then, first of all, let's just turn off the Subject layer so that we can have a look
at just this layer, and then let's go to Edit and then Content Aware Fill.
Now, it should automatically do the job.
I don't think I have to make many changes here.
It's fine.
Just hit OK.
Now you can take the time, do whatever you want.
Once it's gone, press Ctrl or Command + D. Now we have a clean surface.
Now, the hand is not looking right.
We can take care of that later.
Don't worry about it.
If you turn on the subject, see, it's fine.
All we have to do - turn off the subject.
We can easily use the Clone Stamp tool to cover that up.
So create a new layer on top of that, select the Clone Stamp tool, make sure the Sample
is Current & Below.
Now, take a sample by holding the Alt key or the Option key, click to take a sample,
and then just simply paint.
Now you will notice that this is a bit lighte, if you zoom out.
All you have got to do is to darken it.
So, simply go to Image - Adjustments and then Curves, directly applying it right there and
just take it down.
Click a point in the middle and take it down.
That kind of looks better.
Once you're satisfied, just hit OK.
Now, you can merge both of these layers - select Layer 1, hold the Ctrl or Command, select
the Background Copy and then press Ctrl or Command + E. And you can name this Shadow.
All right.
Now, we need to make a selection based on the brightness levels.
Let me ask you a question.
What is a shadow?
A shadow is an area where the light does not reach.
And what about the area where the light does not reach?
What do we call it?
Dark, right?
So, we know that shadows are dark.
So what if we tell Photoshop to make a selection of the dark areas?
Or in other words, what if we tell Photoshop to make a selection based on the brightness
levels?
Wouldn't that be perfect for extracting the shadow?
Of course it will be.
And to be more specific, we can use Channels in this case.
So let's go to the Channels.
You can use the RGB channels to make a selection directly based on the brightness levels.
But, if you want to dig deeper, let's just browse through the Channel.
So, here's the Red channel, the Green channel and the Blue channel.
We need to find out which Channel has the highest contrast between the shadow and the
surrounding areas, which channel has the darkest shadow.
In this case, I can see that the Red channel, have a look at this, has the darkest shadow.
So, all we have got to do is to hold the Ctrl or Command click on the thumbnail of the Red
channel, it will make a selection based on that, and then let's come back to RGB.
Let's come back to the Layers panel.
Just click on Layers.
However, at this point, the bright areas are selected and the dark areas are not selected
when the Red channel was selected.
We need the opposite of that and to get the opposite, what do we do?
We simply invert.
Press Ctrl + Shift + I or Command + Shift + I to invert.
Now, let's create a Solid Color Adjustment layer based on the selection.
So, click on the Adjustment layer icon and then choose Solid Color at the top and choose
Black as the color.
Hit OK.
Now we don't need this Shadow layer, we can just simply delete that and rename this as
Shadow.
All right, you can now turn on the Subject and turn off the Background and have a look,
we have the shadow extracted.
And look, the transparency is so well maintained.
Now you can easily add any new patterns or backgrounds.
Let me just show you a couple examples.
With the Background layer selected, we are going to just create the pattern below the
shadow.
So, click on the Adjustment layer icon and then choose Pattern.
And this is a nice pattern, isn't it?
So let's go ahead and choose some other pattern from here.
There are lots of patterns that we can choose from the trees, grass, water, lots of them.
So, let's choose this pattern, this is also a nice pattern, we can also go with this one.
All right, now you can increase the scale if you want to make it bigger.
So, I want to keep it this big and hit OK.
Isn't that perfect?
Look at the shadow.
It's so good, isn't it?
Also, if you want to clean up the selection, it's pretty simple.
All you've got to do is to go to the Subject Mask.
Since the shadows already there, it will be covering the hair anyway.
So, select the Mask of the Subject and then take the Brush and just paint with black,
inside of the mask, not inside of the layer.
Just here in the Mask.
Look.
Well, they have gone you covered.
This area is fine.
Again, what did I tell you?
You can take all the time in the world to make the perfect selection, but have a look
at the shadow.
Isn't that amazing?
Now let me show you how this would look in a completely new background.
So here we are in our Finder or Explorer, we're going to drag the new background and
drop it into Photoshop.
Just here.
And you can adjust it all you want, I'm going to make it a little bigger and place it beneath
the shadow, click it and drag it, just place it beneath the shadow.
Have a look, that's looking nice, isn't it?
However, in this case, we need to make a few adjustments.
If you look at the Shadow Mask, hold the Alt key or the Option key, click on the Mask of
the Shadow, it's not very clean, because it's taking up texture from the previous wall.
So to clean it, it's going to be pretty simple.
We can apply Curves directly.
So with the Mask selected, let's go to Image - Adjustments and then Curves.
Now, we need to make this shadow area even darker, we need to make the dark areas darker.
And to do that, take the slider on the left to the right, just like so.
Also, you can use the hand inside of Curves to make it even simpler.
So have a look at the hand right there, just click on the hand and click and drag it down.
We need to make this area as dark as possible.
All right.
That's totally dark.
Now, we need to brighten this shadow area up, click and drag it up, bring it back to
Normal.
Now we are looking at something.
Once you're satisfied with this just hit OK.
You can easily clean these areas up by choosing the Brush tool, black as the foreground color.
You can decrease the Flow if you want to.
So, I'm going to decrease it to 20%.
Now let's change the Blend Mode from Normal to Overlay.
What happens is, in that case, when you paint, it just won't paint on the white areas, only
on the areas which are closer to blacks.
Alright, so that would be much safer that way.
You won't accidentally paint anywhere.
All right, and you can take the time to easily clean this area up.
Also, if you want to brighten the shadow or in other words if you want to make the shadow
darker because if you brighten something inside of the mask, the intensity of that increases.
You can change the color to white.
With still the Overlay Blend Mode selected, you can paint on the shadow areas to make
it even darker, just like so.
Hold the Alt key or the Option key, click on the Mask to bring everything back in and
have a look.
Everything is looking so nice and amazing.
Now of course, we need to adjust the subject according to the new background.
So with the Subject layer selected, click on the Adjustment layer icon and choose Curves.
Now, we just need to add a little bit of contrast.
So with the hand here selected, I'll just click on the dark area and just bring it down
just like that, and click on the bright area and bring it up.
Okay, now, it is also affecting the Background, if you have a look right here.
If I turn off and on the Subject, it's also affecting the Background.
We don't want that.
We just want to limit it to the Subject.
So simply click on Create Clipping Mask button.
And there we have it.
It's just limited to the Subject.
Now, we didn't want to affect the color.
So simply try changing the Blend Mode from Normal to Luminosity.
That way it won't affect the color when you just work with the Curves.
That's how you can easily use Solid Color to extract shadows.
Now, let me give you one more tip, you can also change the color of the shadow by double
clicking on the symbol of the Adjustment layer of the Solid Color right there, and you can
change it to whatever you like - a reddish shadow, bluish shadow.
And also if it doesn't look dark enough, you can also do this - hit OK and then change
the Blend Mode from Normal to Multiply, because Multiply is a Blend Mode which darkens.
That will make sure that the shadow is always darkening the image.
So we can change it back to black or whatever color you'd like, whatever color shadow you
would want.
We can change this kind of blue and make it even darker to create a kind of blue shadow
But anyway, I think the original was fine.
Just giving you a tip in case you want to change the color of the shadow for a Composite.
And you might have to do that in some cases.
Now, what if this technique doesn't work?
No problem, I have another technique.
Go watch this video.
And we have more videos linked up in the description.
So for shadow extraction, just a quick little recap.
First of all we need to start with extracting the subject.
Always separate the subject first.
Then we need to extract the shadows using Solid Color along with Channels.
Now, keep in mind, you might need to clean up the surface where the shadow is falling
first like we did with the Content Aware.
Then, simply make a selection based on the brightness level, you can just individually
select any Channel where the shadow is the darkest and where there's the highest contrast
between the shadow and the surrounding areas.
Hold the Ctrl or Command, click on the thumbnail of that Channel to make a selection and then
create a Solid Color Adjustment layer and you might have to invert it to just be applicable
on the shadow areas.
Once you have created the shadow, you can just bring in new backgrounds.
Also, you might want to clean up the Shadow Mask.
Sorry about that.
Hold the Alt key or the Option key, click on the mask of the Shadow and then just paint
with Overlay Blend Mode on the areas which are not the shadows, in black.
Those areas will go away.
If you want to just increase the intensity of the shadows, paint with white on the areas
where the shadows are falling with the Overlay Blend Mode.
And that's practically pretty much it.
And then you can use any of the techniques that we have discussed in hundreds of tutorials
to match the elements of the Composite.
I hope this tutorial helped you and if it did, make sure to give us a like and also
don't forget to subscribe and not just subscribe, ring the bell so that you, my friend, don't
miss any other future tips, tricks or tutorials.
Thank you so much for watching.
And also I would like to take this moment to thank all these nice and amazing people
for supporting this channel on Patreon and helping keep PiXimperfect free for everybody
forever.
Thanks so much again for all your support.
I will see you guys in my next one.
Until then, stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.