LOW KEY LIGHTING EFFECT

From the perspective of the artist, photography is painting with light. An important skill that every successful photographer learns and refines as their craft develops, is the ability to control light. Digital photography enhances our ability to paint with light.

My approach to digital photography is almost Zen-like. I strive to craft the best image possible. It is not uncommon for me to spend hours refining an image, using a combination of digital editing tools in Photoshop CS that make wholesale adjustments to color and tone quick and easy and hand applied brush strokes. Yes, for all of the automation and ease in digital photography, my digital darkroom technique still relies on on traditional hand brush and airbrush methods to enhance features in my photographs.

In the coming months, I will explain some of my techniques in detail. I am going to start with a low key lighting effect. The technique is currently a popular fad on some of the photographic Web sites.

Probably the best known artist of the current "painting with light" fad is Andrzej Dragan. Some of his photographs are stunning. Others are "a bit over the top." When crafting a fine art image, the focus should be the photograph, not the artist and their technique. Push any technique too far and the result can appear artifical and self-conscious.

The technique I demonstrate here can be extended to produce Andrzej Dragan-like images, if that's your taste. I wanted to emphasize the pensiveness of the woman in the image below, but not with as much dramatic flair as Dragan's work. I wanted the result to appear as a photograph, not as an exaggerated painting.

The photo is a royalty free stock image from the Digital Juice Presenter's Toolkit. I wanted an image to use on the home page of the State Data Center on Aging at the Unversity of South Florida, a research unit that focuses on the aged. To my eye, the woman appeared depressed. I wanted to draw attention to her wide-eyed stare and add to the moodiness of the image.

The effect begins with an aggressive round of sharpening. My preference is to work non-destructively, so I sharpen on a layer by pressing Ctrl+j (Cmd+j on a Mac). I renamed the layer and applied USM edge sharpening. (I used my TLR Professional Sharpening Toolkit, a free download. Feel free to use any sharpening tool you prefer.)

The next step was to desaturate the overall image. I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and set the Master Saturation slider to -35.

A moderate amount of desaturation left the image too cool and flat, so I added a Color Balance adjustment layer. Midtone Color levels were set to +15 0 -20. Highlight color levels were set to +10 +2 -9. This warmed the image.

The next step was to remove the background highlight. I made a selection of the backround on the lefthand side of the image. Selected the background color from the righthand side. Then used Gaussian Blur to smooth the new background.

It was time to use the Photoshop Brush tool. The brush tool works best with a tablet and stylus. My personal Preference is a Wacom Intuos II Platinum tablet and both the pen and airbrush tools. The mouse or a touchpad work fine, too.

I created a new Multiply layer using Ctrl+n (Cmd+n on the Mac). I made sure to check the box to fill the new layer with Multiply-neutral color, which is white. I selected a brown color (R=70, G=35, B=5) to knock down the highlights. Opacity for the layer was 75%. A soft-edged brush with 5% opacity built up the effect in a slow and deliberate way.

You would need to turn off all of the other layers to see the brush strokes. Remember the Brush keyboard shortcuts. The [ and ] keys adjust the brush size.

The result is a subtle reduction in the highlights.

After reducing some of the highlights, I used the brush tool to selectively boost contrast. A new Overlay layer was created with Ctrl+n (Cmd+n on the Mac).The box was checked to fill the new layer with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray). The Color Picker was used to select a flesh color (Red = 180, Green = 140, Blue = 120). Layer opacity was 50%. Brush opacity was 5%.

You'll likely need to strain your eyes to see the brush strokes when the underlying layers are turned off, but they are there. The effect is more evident in the image itself.

The next step was to enhance the overall mood with a contrast adjustment using a Curves adjustment layer.

 

I felt the result was a little too warm, so I cooled the image with a second Color Balance adjustment layer. Midtones Color Levels were -5 -5 +10. Highlights Color Levels were -5 0 +10.

The next step was to merge all of the visible layers into a new layer (Alt+Ctrl+Shift+n+e on the PC, Option+Cmd+Shift+n+e on the Mac). Color for the eyes and lips were restored from the original image using the Brush tool.

Selective dodge and burn was done with a new Overlay layer filled with 50% gray. The "x" key makes it easy to switch between black and white.

The aggressive sharpening at the start and the series of tone and color adjustments left the woman's skin looking harsher than I preferred. So I softened the image with a slight Gaussian Blur (1.5 pixels). To preserve details in her hair, eyes, and lips, I added a Reveal All layer mask (e.g., white) and painted those details back in with a black Brush.

A third round with the Color Balance command was used to reduce the reddish skin tones. I did not want to affect the white blouse, brown background, etc. I used the Color Range tool to progressively select the Reds. The Color Range tool makes partial selections based on color.

When it comes to painting with light, the Lighting Effects Filter is a great tool. To work non-destructively, I used a Merge All Visible layer (Alt+Ctrl+Shift+n+e on the PC, Option+Cmd+Shift+n+e on the Mac).

The final step was to enrich the blacks with a second Curves adjustment layer.

There were lots of steps to this image. The original PNG file went from 3 mb to a 41 mb PSD working file. Such is the overhead of working safely with lots of layers!

There are many ways of achieving a similar effect in Photoshop CS. My intent is not to share "the" way of creating a low key lighting effect. Rather, it is to show "a" way and perhaps encourage you to try a similar effect on your own images. Working with the Brush tool, as the samples in this Learning Gallery demonstrate, does not require that you be able draw or paint with great skill. Low opacity, soft edge brushes make it easy to build up desired effects.

Look for future Learning Galleries that walk you through the steps of painting with light in Photoshop CS.

Cheers!