About this week’s episode
This week’s episode is all about a Halloween Image in Photoshop. Seeing as it’s the spooky month, we thought we’d spoil you guys with a creepy clown in retouch in Photoshop. Before we head in to Photoshop we first do our Raw Conversion. In Photoshop we’ll start off by doing the fixing and cleaning on our subject and background. We used a grey backdrop to make it easier to drop in a new backdrop. We then drop in our background and desaturate it a bit. We then change the blending option to soft light and both the subject and the background would be immediately visible.
We then use a Curves Adjustments Layer to create a vignette effect around our subject. It’s also apparent that some of the background elements are visible on the subject so we need to cut out out the subject properly. We use the quick selection tool, masks, etc. We needed a pop on our subject, so a simple way to do is is to duplicate the Curves Adjustment Layer we used to create the vignette. To add a bit more contrast we used a Curves Adjustment Layer. We also needed to adjust the colour to set the mood for the image. We used a Selective Colour Adjustment Layer and worked in the Neutral Tones. We might create a several Selective Colour Adjustment Layers to get the perfect colour effect. We add a Brightness & Contrast Adjustment layer to create some more contrast. We create a Hue & Saturation layer to desaturate the image slightly.
We then head over to Dodge and Burn to dodge those Highlights and burn the darks. We also added a background light effect. We did this by creating a new layer and using the gradient tool. We move this layer lower below the subject layer to have the effect behind the subject. We then also add a grunge effect to create a darker moodier image. One of our final stages is a creative choice. Colour grading, More detail, etc.
What we used to create the effect:
- Fixing and Healing
- Adding Background
- Background light Elements
- Subject cutout
- Dodge and Burn
- Grunge Effect
Adjustment Layers We used:
- Curves Adjustments layer
- Selective Colour Adjustment Layer
- Hue & Saturation Adjustment Layer
If you want to know more about our grunge effect, have a look at this tutorial:
