Adding Artificial Light


We all can’t get up at the crack of dawn or wait to photograph a subject when the light is perfect.  Like us, we have day trips out… as work commitments stop us from doing photography shoots as and when we choose.   So naturally, the light at times is never right.

However, you can create light.

Yesterday a reader asked me how I created Light.

Lisa said:

You really do get fantastic light.. would love to learn how.. 😉

So today I thought I would show you how to create light and how to tone back a radial filter by using the hidden feature called amount.

Here is my original image.

Leeds Castle

My Final image

Leeds Castle

As you can see there are subtle differences between the Light and this was created by using the radial filter.

 

radial filters
Figure 1

 

As you can see I used a lot of radial filters to create the light.  But what happens if you use a multitude of sliders and the effect is too much.

 

radial filter adjustment
Figure 2

 

For demonstration purposes, I created another radial filter in the image.  And changed the sliders dramatically.  Normally I just use the white, exposure, clarity and contrast sliders.  But for this tutorial, I have also used the Temp and Tint sliders.  We can see from Figure 2 the adjustment is just wrong.

Yes, I can go back and alter the sliders one by one until I get what effect I wanted.  However, there is a quicker way… In the above image, I have circled in red an arrow icon.  If you click on that it will bring up an amount box, which is set to 100 and collapses all the sliders.

amount radial filter adjustment
Figure 3

From here I can lower the adjustment…  say to 49

 

 

amount radial filter arrow
Figure 4

 

By lowering the adjustment it changes the effect of that radial filter… and it does that by changing all the sliders I used in Figure 2.

By clicking again on that arrow Icone circled in red above, it brings back the sliders for that particular radial filter.

radial filter adjustment sliders after changing amount.
Figure 5

You can see it has changed all the sliders to lower the effect.  The image on the left set at 100 and the image on the right set at 49.

Now the amount slider doesn’t just work for radial filters… you can use it also for the Gradient Tool and Adjustment Brush.  The amount slider is invaluable if you are making adjustments where you are using multiple sliders for that particular adjustment.

Matt Kloskowski did a great video on adding artificial light.

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7 responses to “Adding Artificial Light”

  1. Wow.. thank you so much for the effort put in.. you are a star.. 😉

    Liked by 2 people

    1. You are welcome Lisa…. Another tip I do is lower the exposure of the whole image before adding any radial or gradient adjustments and bring in the light that way.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m going to try one today..

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Thank you very much for sharing how you achieve the effects you create in your photos. I find this extremely helpful.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You are welcome.. so pleased you found it helpful xx

      Liked by 1 person

  3. […] Although I have been doing photography for many years I have only just started learning about more than just auto mode and also photoshop. I am always amazed at how creative photos can actually get. It’s like getting a degree as I have been reading and watching you tube videos none stop since mid January trying to learn and create.. I have to reread and re watch often for it to finally sink in. The other day I asked Bren how she gets such amazing light and she created a lesson for me on Lightroom. I have lightroom but must master photoshop first so tweeked her help to guide me in Photoshop..  Go across to her wordpress site.. click here […]

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