Photoshop Lighting Effects: Cast Light From A Window
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Step 6: Darken The Area Around The Window With The Levels Adjustment Layer
With everything except the area that was inside the window selected, we can now darken the image and create our lighting effect quite easily using the Levels adjustment layer.
If you look at the bottom of the Levels dialog box, you'll see a horizontal bar with a gradient going from black on the left to white on the right, with a small black slider below it on the far left and a small white slider below it on the far right. These sliders are the Output Levels sliders. The name is a bit confusing, but what these sliders do is determine how bright or dark the image can be. If you don't touch the sliders at all (normally you just leave these sliders alone), the image can be displayed with a full tonal range. In other words, it can display everything from pure black to pure white and everything in between. Normally, this is what you want.
Sometimes though, like when you're creating an effect as we're doing here, you want to limit how bright or dark the image can be. In our case, we want to darken the image, and the easiest way to do that is to simply limit how bright it can be by clicking on the white output levels slider on the far right and dragging it towards the left. As you drag, you'll see the image becoming darker and darker, and that's because we're limiting how bright it can be. The only part of the image that will not be affected by the slider, and therefore not become darker, is the area that was inside the window which is the only part of the image that is not currently selected. It will remain at its original brightness level, giving our us lighting effect.
Go ahead and begin dragging the white output levels slider towards the left while keeping an eye on your image to see what's happening:
As you continue dragging the slider towards the left, darkening the image more and more, the light shining from a window appears:
It's completely up to you how dark you want to make the image, so drag the slider until you're happy with the results, then click OK to exit out of the Levels dialog box.
Step 7: Load The Selection Again
Hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and click directly on the layer mask thumbnail for the Levels adjustment layer in the Layers palette. This will load the selection once again inside the image:
Step 8: Invert The Selection
We need to invert the selection once again so that we have only the area that was inside the window selected. To do that, use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+I (Win) / Shift+Command+I (Mac) to quickly invert it, leaving only the area inside the window shape selected:
Step 9: Move And Resize The Window Light With Free Transform
Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up Photoshop's Free Transform box and handles around the window light effect, then move and resize it as needed. To move the window light, simply click anywhere inside the Free Transform box (anywhere except on the small target icon in the center) and drag it into position with your mouse. To resize the window light, drag any of the handles. If you want to constrain the proportions of the window light as you drag, hold down your Shift key and drag any of the four corner handles. Here, I'm making the window light quite a bit larger and moving it so that the light from the bottom left section of the window is shining on the woman:
Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to accept the transformation, then press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to deselect the selection.
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