Light and Shadows in Photoshop

This tutorial takes one small piece of a cityscape and shows you how to replicate it. It focuses on recreating a light marquee featuring anime characters in motion. This tutorial walks you through the entire process of creating the image.

This video shows you how to create a realistic shadow of window blinds over the picture of a boy in a photograph that had no window blind shadows using Photoshop. Creating a separate layer, he creates shadows first by using the rectangular marquee, then filling in with black a ...more

Drawing shadows is an important skill in art which you need to master. However, it needn't be difficult and this tutorial video covers several basic shapes to show you how and where shadows fall, depending also on the direction of the light. Draw several different shadows. Cli ...more

Rich Harrington explores the new realistic behaviors of light and shadow in After Effects CS4. In this software video, Rich concentrates on creating and positioning light sources and creating shadows. He also moves the camera around to create a small action clip. Start with a ...more

This clip demonstrates how to create a caustic lighting effect using Houdini's Mantra PBR rendering engine. The first part starts with a refresher on refraction. More generally, guide looks at setting up normals correctly, then at the glass shader in Houdini, faux caustics and ...more

Any good makeup artist will tell you both that good makeup starts with good skin and mature/older women look much more radiant with less thick foundation and eye shimmer. Take these important makeup tips to heart while still creating a sexy nighttime look by watching this tut ...more

Try light graphic work or picture re-touching without any worry of damaging your original images by using layers in Adobe Photoshop.

Gaussian Blur is a filter that blurs an image. But it's also the math behind the Feather command, drop shadows, and everything that is soft in Photoshop. Watch this video and learn why Gaussian Blur is so important. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular raster graphics editing ...more

Learn how to use the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom graduated filter tool to create fake light leak. This clip will teach you what you need to know. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular raster graphics editing software or a seasoned professional just looking to better acquaint you ...more

It might take Einstein to help explain the complex physics of bending light, but when it comes to bending pixels, it is an art commonly referred to in Photoshop as displacement. Displacement can let you use the lumonosity values of one image to bend the pixels of another; a "r ...more

Videomaker Associate Editor Tom Skowronski explains how four basic steps can be used to improve the lighting effects for a video and give it a more professional look. - There are four basic steps to improve the quality of the video 1) Camera Controls: Three basic camera contr ...more

Long exposure photography has long allowed photographers to do amazing things with light. Now you can do that! This video will show you how to use a long exposure, sparklers, and Photoshop to create amazing psychedelic art on your photographs. This new art form is called light ...more

This video, produced by Photoshop Universe, teaches how to reduce beard stubble or 5 o'clock shadows from male pictures. We are shown how to use the dust and scratches filter, layer mask, as well as the advanced layer style command "blend if" on the underlying layer helps us t ...more

This image editing software tutorial shows you how to extract a green screen background from behind a spock-like monster in Photoshop CS3. Learn how to remove the green spill of light that appears around the edges of images, that are shot against a green screen backdrop. This ...more

Light boxing is a pervasive technique in advertising, used to draw attention to the featured product. You can replicate this effect in Adobe Photoshop. Starting from a blank document, this tutorial walks you through the process of creating your own light box effect.

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more

If you or someone you know has light eyes, then you are no stranger to red eye sneaking into your photos. Red eye is an annoying addition to most photos taken with a flash camera. Luckily, if you have Photoshop, this is easy to fix. With this tutorial, learn how to use the Cha ...more

This is The Substream's "The Film Lab" series on lighting basics. This episode covers Rembrandt Lighting. Mike and Rajo teach you how to light like an old dead Dutch dude (who was really good at lighting dudes, to be fair). This is a common drama lighting. This is Rembrandt ...more

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more

If you're taking a portrait with multiple people, you might end up with different skin tones as the light hits each subject differently. This tutorial shows you how to even out the skin tones for multiple subjects using the retouching tools in Adobe Photoshop CS5.

Have you ever wanted to create a background with one of your photos? This video shows you how to use one of your photos to create a photo background using Adobe Photoshop. It will show you how to use the free transform tool, overlay blend modes, hue and saturation, drop shadow ...more

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more

If you have a photograph with an extreme red eye problem, then you will have to take steps above and beyond using the built-in red eye reduction tool in Adobe Photoshop. In extreme cases, red eye will actually contain colors outside of the red spectrum of light. Since the red ...more

This video tutorial speaks about how to create a dramatic effect to an image using only Camera Raw in the Bridge program of Photoshop. In this example, the picture was first brought into the program and the fill light was turned upwards in order to lighten up the dark foregrou ...more

Check out this video tutorial on how to make a cheap multi-touch pad like in the MacBook Air. Yes, that's right... you can make your very own multitouch, finger-sensitive touch pad for your computer. This is definitely the cheap way to go to make a Multitouch Mini (MTmini), wi ...more

This how-to video is about how to color correct photos using Photoshop levels. Normally we use the option "levels" in Photoshop for lighting adjustment, but we can use this option to correct pictures that have very bright colors instead of using other complex color control to ...more

There are a lot of things out there in the design world that people have seen and liked, but didn't know how to make. LIke vector lights. Watch this Illustrator video tutorial to take a look at those cool glowing, color changing, fading, bright, neon-like, fanning spread of gl ...more

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more

This step-by-step instructional video shows how Photoshop can be used to purposely over-process a photo and give it a more gritty effect. First, a High Pass filter is applied to give the photo a gray buzz. Next, hard light blend layers are applied to give the photo more contra ...more

Using After Effects 3D layers and light sweep effect to create this text that moves in 3D space. For more Adobe software tutorials from Layers Magazine, search Layers Magazine on WonderHowTo. WonderHowTo indexes all Layers Magazine tutorials for Illustrator, InDesign, Photosh ...more

This video will show you how to make a realistic drawing of a woman's face. Start with an circle for the head shape, establish the eye line which is usually at the halfway point. The nose is one fourth of the distance between the eyes and the chin, and the mouth is halfway bet ...more

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more

Open the picture you wish to place a rainbow within. A good scene has clouds that are receding into the distance and the light angle coming in from the front of the scene. A rainbow effect appears when by the sun is shining from behind you into the mist-filled air where it is ...more

In this software tutorial you will learn how to make a drop shadow in Photoshop easily. Drop shadows can be applied to any object or text you are using in Photoshop and give elements a more 3 dimensional and realistic look.

The difference between a good fashion shoot and a great one isn’t the model — it’s the lighting. Learn how to expertly light a fashion shot with this how to video. You Will Need * Camera * Model * Fashion items or accessories * Light disk or reflector * Natural light * And an ...more

There are a lot of things that a flash can do for you when you are taking pictures. It can be used to fill shadows, light up subjects, and much more. The video demonstrates the various tilt and pan settings that the flash can be used in for bouncing light in various circumstan ...more

Drawing three-dimensional shapes requires paying attention to the shadows and light that fall on the object. Find out how to draw shapes with a three-dimensional quality with tips from a professional illustrator in this free instructional video on drawing. Drawing 3d will neve ...more

Want to shed some light on your Adobe Photoshop skills? This tutorial will teach you how to draw a sun in Photoshop CS2. Draw a sun in Photoshop. Click through to watch this video on tricklife.com

Are you a Star War fan? This is a a tutorial on making light sabers in Photoshop. Learn to use Gaussian blur and Color Balance to create the glowing effect of the sabers.

Adding a vignette goes hand-in-hand with softening the edge of a photo, exactly what the FocalPoint plug-in for Photoshop can help you to do. Learn how to use the vignette controls in FocalPoint 1.0 to add a dark or light edge around your Photoshop image to focus the viewers e ...more

In this video series, our expert John Carstarphen will show you how to create boolean scripts, create the first light, streetlights, mood, and depth. He will also show you how to edit colors, do a graduated background, add illumination, and how to use volumetric light and shad ...more

Check out this video tutorial on how to use Omni Lights in 3ds Max. You'll learn how to make the light dimmer and create shadows in your 3D animation. Autodesk's 3D Studio Max is a customizable and scalable 3D modeling and rendering solution for games, film, and television.

Bring out all the colors in your photo! Make them extra saturated so your image has exceptionally vivid colors. This tutorial shows you how to use the luminosity and other light effects in Adobe Photoshop to make the colors really pop for your project.

In this video podcast episode, Izzy describes hard and soft light and how it affects shadows. He also demonstrates how to soften sunlight when shooting videos.

Translate the color you see in a real life object to a piece of digital art. Explore methods for picking out highlights, midtones, and shadows, and replicating them in Photoshop. Analyze colors to turn photos into digital art. Click through to watch this video on sessions.edu

What do you do with those inky black shadow regions in your drawing? When you are drawing areas of shadow, a space that appears black may not actually be entirely black. Add interest to your drawing by adding subtlety to the shadows and reflections of light. This three part in ...more

Good lighting can make your animation look more realistic. In this 3ds Max video tutorial you will learn how to add a simple spotlight to your scene. Also, you'll be taught how to edit light range and apply shadows to lit objects. Make sure to hit "play tutorial" in the top le ...more

This video shows how to do the "outer V" eyeshadow technique. All you will need are 2 shadows (1 medium/light and one dark), eyeliner, and mascara. First you must prime your lid using an eyeshadow primer or cream shadow. Now take the lighter shadow and cover the entire eye are ...more

Need a little help on your shading technique? This tutorial on shading and shadowing techniques is hosted by Ed Beard, an internationally reknown fantasy artist known for his published works in Magic the Gathering and Tolkien. This video demonstrates how to choose a light sour ...more

In this video series, our expert John Carstarphen will show you how to create an array, do a light falloff, change the light intensity, and scale an array. He will also teach you how to do overall illumination, use the area light effect, create realism with shadows, and use mo ...more

n this video tutorial, Creative Cow Contributing Editor Eran Stern shows you a how to build a 3D scene using Photoshop CS3 Vanishing Point and re-light it inside After Effects. Part two will show you how to project text on the floor using light transmission feature in After Ef ...more

This video will show you how to use Adobe Photoshop to create a very realistic looking light ray using a Mask, Radial Blur and adjustment layers. Give your images a beautiful sun-kissed appearance with the techniques demonstrated in this how-to video.

If you want to paint shadow lines on a model care you should first realize that you can pair this technique up with any other technique you want to for different effects. Shadow lines occur when the out lines get thick and it provides a contrast to make something pop out. Shad ...more

Have an over exposed image and have no idea how to fix it? Well, this Photoshop tutorial gives you two methods (levels and shadows/highlights) to take care of over exposure and blow outs.

Portraits come in all shapes and sizes, but follow a few basic guidelines and you'll set the scene for a beautiful and professional shot. You Will Need * Work or studio space * A camera * A tripod * A backdrop or natural environment * Lighting equipment (preferably two light ...more

In this lesson, learn what white balance is and how to effectively use this function on your digital camera. Also learn how to use the photo filter function in Photoshop to eliminate and correct color casts created by various light sources. Watch this video photography tutoria ...more