This is part of a 'How To' series on post process work.
This tip is about using the Vivid Light brush in Photoshop. Similar technique would probably work in any editor which has a paint brush palette where a 'lightening' effect can be applied.
The Vivid Light brush is is one of my favourite tools and is invaluable for adding some extra light, or even darkening parts of an image selectively. In other words, doing localised contrast adjustment.
Image one
This is the original image which I wish to adjust. It is straight from camera.
Image Two
Selecting the paint brush tool from the tools palette, I next select a brush type (soft), and then set the size I wish to use, use the drop down to select Vivid Light, the colour I wish to use and the level of Opacity.
So, my settings are soft brush, Vivid Light, white colour, 380 pixels, Opacity = 5%.
Note : Opacity of 5% is a good all round setting. You can always paint over an area more than once
I have a preset for these values (AA Vivid Light 380) and this is easy to add to the brush menu.
Image Three
Here, I have simply used my 'white' brush to paint over parts of the harvester and also any grass areas. I have avoided the sky and also the bags in the foreground.
Image Four
Having lightened parts of the image, I have now switched my brush colour to black, and painted over the tops of the bags and the grass at the right foreground.
Image Five
Switching back to the white brush, I have now painted over the tops of the bags and some of the grass next to the bags.
What this has done is to create some more localised contrast around the top of the bags.
Well, that's it. Finished.
Image Six
The original, again.
Image Seven
The adjusted image.
Image Eight
The original left, and adjusted image at right.
Hope you found it helpful.
Note : You can use any colour, not just white or black. For example, you may wish to use orange to add lightness, or glow, in areas in a sunset scene. Always good to experiment
Update 26th December - Here are a couple more examples, using the same technique.
Image One
Original image from camera.
Image Two
What I have done here is to do one brush sweep of black over the sky, mountain, tree areas, and then one pass of white.
For the foreground, I have used a couple of passes of white, and then one pass of black, and one more of white. Nothing else was done.
Image Three
The original left, and adjusted at right.
Image Four
The original image, as shot.
Image Five
What I have done here is to do several passes over different areas, simply using white or black. As a final step, I did a pass over the sky area with blue, and a pass over the mountain area with a red/orange shade.
Image Six
The original left, and adjusted at right.
Cheers
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