Technical Slop

Finishing Touches

These are the things that I hate talking about. There are so many different things to try and do Just a lot to talk about and the tweaks can never end.. Not just that, but to me, finishing touches are a personal thing.

But what the heck. I'm going to show a handful of my tricks. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

This is what we are going to be dressing up. It's a fisheye photo that I have distorted using the heart-shaped D-Map previously built. I cut-n-pasted the selection mask and the height map into this document. Now, since this document and the D-Map have different sizes, I had to Free Transform (ctrl + t) the selection mask and height map to fit this document.

And we are off to a flying start.

Here is a real quick fiddle on the above. All of a sudden, the distortion has got some depth. Oh... ah...

So, how was it done?

It was done like so.

First two Layers are Original and Displaced. I think the names are pretty descriptive of what those Layers are.

Above that, we have a Layer called Emboss. What I did was cut-n-paste the height map into a new Layer, run Filter > Stylize > Emboss, and set the Blending Mode to Hard Light.

At the very top, we have a mask with a simple Layer Style > Outline. The mask was made by loading the selection mask, Select > Inverse (ctrl + shift + i), New Layer, and filled with 50% Gray.

Not bad, but we can do better. Let's add some tweakage.

Tweakage has been added, and some tweaks have been made. The differences are subtle, but I didn't want to over do it just yet.

And here are the differences in the Layers palette.

Added a Curves Ad-Layer to adjust the Displaced Layer. Also clipped a Curves Ad-Layer to the Emboss Layer. I know have better control over the lighting and stuff.

Emboss is quick-n-sleazy. A little boring, but it can work. Let's try something a little more exciting. Let's try Lighting Effects. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Oh, man. Look at that. Is that cool, or what?

So, how was it done?

Glad you asked.

Like so.

Started a new layer, filled with 50% Gray, Filter > Render > Lighting Effects, set to Hard Light, and added a Curves Ad-Layer (which is clipped to the Lighting Effects Layer).

In the Lighting Effects step, I used a white light in the upper-right and a soft blue light in the lower-left. I also used the height map for the, um... height map. Also gave it a little Gaussian Blur to soften it up a bit. Then it was just a matter of tweaking the Curves Ad-Layer to taste.

So far so good, but there is a bit of a down side. The highlights and shadows are dependent on a single layer being set to Hard Light. :yech: Here's an idea: use a Layer set to Screen for the highlights and a copy of the same Layer set to Multiply for the shadows. Maybe even mix in a little extra sumpin'. Sounds good to me.

Hey, check that out. Got a bit of an iridescent thing going. Not too crazy about the highlight in the upper-right, but I'm definitely liking the rest.

I bet you can't wait to find out how I did it.

Well, wait no more because here it is.

Remember the Layer I ran Lighting Effects on? Well, I copied it, set one to Multiply and the other one to Screen. Then I added a bunch of Adjustment Layers.

The Displaced Layer got itself a Curves Ad-Layer, as did the Multiply Layer. However, I gave the Screen Layer a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. In the G-Map Ad-Layer, I tossed in some random shades of blue.

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I'm a big fan of using Adjustment Layers. There are two things about Ad-Layers that haven't been explored yet: the mask and blending mode.

Is that beautiful, or what?

Actually, that's only one of the ideas that I just mentioned. Let's take a closer look.

Remember that Lighting Effects Layer? Well, I used it as a mask in two different Brightness/Contrast Ad-Layers. In one, I brought the Brightness way up. In the other, I Inverted the mask and brought the Brightness way down. I even Leveled the Shadows B/C Ad-Layer to taste.

Then, just for fun, I used Clouds/Difference Clouds in a Hue/Sat Ad-Layer to mix up the colours a little bit. Clever.

Even though I didn't change the Blending mode of any of the Ad-Layers in the above example, it is something else to play with. Some very cool things can be done.

Also, along the same lines, the Opacity of the various Ad-Layers and regular Layers can be brought down. But you already knew that, didn't you?

As much as I enjoy the above techniques, I do find them a bit upside-down. I've been taking the distortion and dressing that up with whatnot. But the way that makes more sense to me is to dress up an existing object/texture with the distortion. That is, the distorted Layer should be used for added lighting on an existing object/texture.

Here is a quick doodle doing it the "proper" way. That is, I started with some Clouds/Difference Clouds, Crystallize, Displaced the Crystallize, and then added the distorted layer.

Maybe looking at the Layer palette will clarify what I'm babbling about.

At the very bottom, we have the base object/texture. Just some Crystallize on Clouds, some Find Edges on a new Layer set to Multiply, and a Levels Ad-Layer to tweak the Lines Layer. On the Crystallize and Lines Layer, I ran Displace using the same settings that I used for the Displaced Layer.

Above that, I used an HSB Ad-Layer set to Colourize to give it a tint of yellow. This Ad-Layer is set to Screen.

To top it off, I have the Displaced reflection map set to Hard Light and with a Curves Ad-Layer to tweak.

This is by no means a complete collection of tricks and tips. There is so much to play with and try. Even though I use a lot of the same tricks, I never know how many Layers, what Blending modes, Opacity settings, or Adjustment Layers I will be using. For every 4 Layers that I add, I usually only keep one. Yeah, I do a lot of fiddling and trashing.

One day when I was babbling about some of this stuff, a very good point was brought up. Please don't fall into the trap of thinking that there are set ways of doing finishing touches. If you fall into that trap, then the above is a bad thing. PhotoShop is as unlimited as your imagination. I hope I've given you a very solid spring board to propel you into your own journey. If that's what I've accomplished, then the above is a good thing.

When I say it, I mean it: play.fiddle.learn

Let's move on and build a foundation for some "advanced" reflection map stuff.