This is a construction example of some of the methods I used to edit the photos for our magazine. Mainly by using the lighting functions on Photoshop Elements 6.0
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This is one of the many photos I took for our magazine; her character is the lead singer for a band that our magazine is covering. Before taking the image to photoshop, I have already enhanced it slightly on Nikon PictureProject by edited the lighting, colour, sharpening and shadows. For the desired message to come through in the photo I wanted to add a spotlight.
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As the image connotates ideas of performing/singing on stage, I thought that a spotlight would be fitting. To do this, I opened up Photoshop Elements 6.0. Went to FILTER -> RENDER -> Lighting Effects.
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A normal spotlight would have completely blacked out the background; the Lighting Effects controls have a variety of different artifical lights. This can be done by clicking the small box next to STYLE, and choosing from the drop down list. For this photo, I decided to go with Soft Spotlight.
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The preview box will then give you a preview of the selected light. The light is surrounded by a huge oval with various points that you can change (width, height, direction, etc) and the options on the right change how the light looks.
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As I wanted the photo to have a very amateur, practice feel; I put the light down to 'Matte' this basically means that it will look much more like an average house light, rather than a professional spotlight.
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Exposure is how much of the modelthe light covers, I purposely put this under to make it seem like she is performing into a spotlight.
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Ambience is how concentrated the light is to the 'oval', the more positive it is, the more of the background it will light up.
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To add futher effect, I decided to add a lens flare; I love to use these on photos as they are very faint but effective.
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After adding the lens flare, I felt as though some over-head lighting would prove effective if this image was to be used in the double-page spread.
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