Creative lighting

Light painting is a technique that photographers have been using for many years. In the 1980's, photographer Aaron Jones popularized the technique with the invention of the Hosemaster. This device allows the photographer to apply light to a subject with a fiber optic device in a manner similar to how an artist applies paint to a canvas using an airbrush. This technique lets photographers put light exactly where it is needed during a long time exposure. Combined with a split focus technique, product photography was suddenly given a boost of creativity and a problem solving solution. The down side was that it is a hit or miss operation, requiring many tests to get the exposure perfect with every image being unique. On the other hand, Photoshop's layer masking can achieve a similar effect along with providing problem solving abilities and results that are now editable and repeatable.



Step-1 The technique starts with an image exposure that is generally about 2 f-stops darker than a normal exposure. This serves as a base exposure for the brighter exposure to build upon. A second normal exposure is then created keeping in mind that only the highlight parts will be used. This exposure must be made so that the two are in perfect registration to each other, such that the camera must be on a sturdy tripod, preventing the subject or camera from moving between exposures. If working with one Raw file, two different versions of the image can be created from the single file. One normal exposure is opened and saved, and one adjusted exposure two f-stops darker is created. With both exposures open in Photoshop, select the Move tool by pressing the "V" key, and drag the brighter image over to the darker image holding the Shift key to perfectly register the two together. If you are working on a older existing photograph that wasn't shot as two exposures or doesn’t exists as a Raw file, start by Shift dragging the background layer into the new layer icon in the Layers Palette to create two identical layers in register with each other. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer and darken the bottom layer to simulate a 2 F-stop darker base. Click on the top layer to make it active. Add a black layer mask to the top layer which is the brighter exposure by pressing the new layer mask icon in the Layers Palette, simultaneously pressing the Option key (PC:Alt-key) to fill to black as it is created. This hides the brighter exposure completely from view.

Step-2 With the brighter layer selected, click on the black layer mask to make it active. Paint with a soft brush using white at about 20% opacity to paint in the highlight areas of the subject, remembering that painting with white reveals while painting with black conceals the image. If too much is applied, then switch to black by pressing the "X" key and paint with black to remove the highlight areas. Save the file as a layered PSD file such that  it can be edited again in the future.

For a more dramatic effect, blur the bottom layer by selecting Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, and add some noise by selecting Filter>Noise>Add Noise to give the bottom layer some grain to match the grain of the top layer. This give a selective focus effect to go along with the dramatic lighting.

 
With traditional light painting, almost every image is a compromise in lighting with a hit-or-miss approach to making it perfect. The goal is to create as much of a 3 dimensional feel as possible with the transitions of lights to darks. The image already has height and width, leaving it up to the photographer to create as much image depth as possible with lighting. The biggest advantages of using Photoshop for this procedure over traditional light painting is that there are no restrictions on how large or impracticable the subject matter is along with the fact that you can edit the image indefinitely. You can also take a ordinary scene and create beautiful moody lighting after the fact, no matter how  impossible the lighting restrictions are.

This will be the last Blog post of 2008 as Helene and I are getting ready to do a little traveling over the holiday season. I look forward to creating new tutorial Blog posts next year and I hope they can help you with your imaging workflow. My next hands-on digital imaging workshop will be in Houston in January with Steve Herzberg of Prairie Fire Productions right after Imaging USA conference in Phoenix. See the seminar schedule on my website for details on upcoming workshops.

Helene and I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.

Helene and I are having another 3 day hands-on workshop April 20th-22nd in Atlanta. We would like to invite you to check out the details at - http://www.software-cinema.com/page/jdw

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