Adobe Photoshop Tutorial: Cast Light From A Window

Step 15: Load A Selection Once Again Around The Window Light

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We're going to finish off the effect by making the light shining from the window a little more intense. Again, this is an optional step, but it's very simple.

Hold down your Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and click once again on the layer mask thumbnail for the Levels adjustment layer in the Layers palette:

This will again load a selection inside the image, with everything except for the window light selected:

Step 16: Invert The Selection

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Press Shift+Ctrl+I (Win) / Shift+Command+I (Mac) to invert the selection so that only the window light is selected:

Step 17: Add A Second Levels Adjustment Layer

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Click once again on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Levels to add a second Levels adjustment layer:

When the Levels dialog box appears, simply click OK in the top right corner to exit out of the dialog box. We don't need to make any changes to it. If we look now in the Layers palette, we can see our second Levels adjustment layer above the original one:

Step 18: Change The Blend Mode Of The Adjustment Layer To "Screen"

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To increase the intensity of the light shining from the window, all we need to do is go up to the layer blend mode option in the top left corner of the Layers palette and change its blend mode. By default, layers are set to the "Normal" blend mode. Click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal" and select Screen from the list:

As soon as you change the blend mode to Screen, you'll see the intensity of the light increase dramatically in the image:

Step 19: Adjust The Light Intensity By Lowering The Opacity Of The Adjustment Layer

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If you find, as I do, that the light now appears too intense, you can reduce the intensity simply by going up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette (directly across from the blend mode option) and lowering the opacity value until you're happy with the result. I'm going to lower mine to about 70%:

And with that, you're done! Here once again is my original image for comparison:

And here, after reducing the intensity of the light by lowering the opacity of the adjustment layer, is my final "Cast Light From A Window" effect:

And there we have it!

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