One of the most challenging tasks in Photoshop is combining items from several images with varied colors, shadows, and lighting into a single composite that looks realistic. This is one of the main differences between professional and amateur designers’ work.
Photoshop teacher unmesh dinda from Piximperfect has created a comprehensive lesson that demonstrates how to make realistic shadows and match the lighting when compositing in Photoshop. You will learn how to paint, tint, and blur shadows with realism.
Table of Contents
create a perfect composite in photoshop
1. Open Cup.jpg in Photoshop. In the Layers panel rename the default layer named “Background” to “Coffee cup” by double-clicking it.
2. Duplicate the “Coffee cup” layer by dragging it on the Create a new layer icon.
3. Enter Select and Mask mode: Choose Select > Select and Mask.
Create a mask
4. In the Properties panel that appears, choose View > On Black. In the mini tool palette at left, choose the Quick Selection Tool brush and adjust brush size and hardness from the top palette.
5. Paint inside the cup and click OK
6. Based on your selection add a layer mask by clicking on the Add layer mask icon. The mask is indicated by a white hole where you painted, to the “Coffee cup copy” layer.
7. Open Ocean.jpg. To add it to cup document, choose Select > All then Copy. Select the Cup.jpg document again and Paste.
8. Clip the ocean image (Layer 1) to the mask on the layer below, by creating a clipping mask: Alt+click between the layers or right-click Layer 1 and select Create Clipping Mask.
In this video, you will also learn how to match the color, the ambient light, and the direct sunlight in the new background with that of the subject. It’s all a combination of Curves and Blend Modes! I hope this lesson helps you. Thank you so much for watching 🙂
► TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Extracting vs. Painting Shadows
01:11 Downloads and Resources
01:20 Getting the Composite Ready
04:18 Creating the Shadow
11:04 Coloring the Shadow
13:45 Get the Right Blur
15:44 Don’t Forget the Ground!
17:24 Contact Point Shadow
20:21 Add Little Darkness From the Shadows
21:53 Matching Ambient Light
22:54 Matching Brightness
24:16 Adding Additional Warmth
25:45 A Small Correction
26:21 The See-Through Shadow
27:42 Enhancing Shadows on the Subject
29:27 Darkening Subject Shadows to Add Dimension
30:47 Final Adjustment!
31:51 Oops! Don’t Miss This Tiny Matching Factor!
32:57 Recap
34:52 Outro
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