Achieving a realistic soft lighting effect in post processing (Photoshop)

[stella89]

Well someone answered me and its a Matte effect that we are looking for - I think I have figure it out and you can get free actions and presets to help make the process faster!

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Stella -

Probably 5 or so years ago (around the time of the thread in photo.net that I cited), I looked over a bunch of actions that purported to give a soft lighting effect. They did, but only when applied to the example image shown in the advertisement. As soon as I tried them on images that differed in very minor ways from the example, none of them worked very well. So, I will be very, very interested to hear if the action this person recommended holds up to scrutiny. By any chance, can you tell me which action they liked so I would be able to test it myself?

Also, if it really works, one of the very nice things about actions (compared to plugins) is that you can easily see how they work and tweak individual steps, if needed.

Thanks for pursuing this.

Cheers,

Tom M

 

[Tom Mann]

BTW, a heads-up: I'm going to change the name of this thread to something more specific like, "Achieving a soft lighting effect in post processing", so that if someone in the future does a search for info on this topic, this thread will show up. There should be no problem in finding it as all the old URLs will automatically be redirected to the new URL.

T

 

[stella89]

BTW, a heads-up: I'm going to change the name of this thread to something more specific like, "Achieving a soft lighting effect in post processing", so that if someone in the future does a search for info on this topic, this thread will show up. There should be no problem in finding it as all the old URLs will automatically be redirected to the new URL.

T

I found the actions and presets on a website called shutter pulse.

Personally I like the matte actions they have and it is the look I was specifically going for. It keeps the color true but fades the photo a bit while bring that flat brighter look to it.

I personally enjoy doing some tweaking to the photos after I use the action. I have figure out if I use a "color pop" action and then the "matte" action that is the look I am going for sometimes.

When the photo is darker I still need to go in and brighten it up a bit.

Also I like to sometimes add the blur to the background.

Also to add to this I purchased a new lens yesterday that will do me much good in achieving this look. It's the 50mm canon lens "nifty fifty" and all these things combined give me the exact look I am going for.

 

[Tom Mann]

Any chance you could apply whichever actions you feel are most appropriate to my example image?

Tom

 

[stella89]

Any chance you could apply whichever actions you feel are most appropriate to my example image?

Tom

Yes here is the photo you shared and I used my "Matte" action on this photo

 

[Tom Mann]

I really appreciate you doing that, Stella.

Unfortunately, at least to my eyes, the difference between the two versions is so small, I think most people wouldn't even notice, and certainly wouldn't describe the "after" shot, viewed on its own, as significantly softer lighting.

This is a good example of what I ran into the last time I looked at "actions" - they would work reasonably well on some images (including the one used in the developer's advertising), but not work well on a wide range of images. ... Certainly not like the difference everyone immediately sees when the photographer changes the lighting from hard to soft (versus trying to accomplish the same thing in post-processing).

Cheers,

Tom M

 

[stella89]

I really appreciate you doing that, Stella.

Unfortunately, at least to my eyes, the difference between the two versions is so small, I think most people wouldn't even notice, and certainly wouldn't describe the "after" shot, viewed on its own, as significantly softer lighting.

This is a good example of what I ran into the last time I looked at "actions" - they would work reasonably well on some images (including the one used in the developer's advertising), but not work well on a wide range of images. ... Certainly not like the difference everyone immediately sees when the photographer changes the lighting from hard to soft (versus trying to accomplish the same thing in post-processing).

Cheers,

Tom M

Understandable.

On some images depending on the original lighting the action is very strong where on others it is not. You can always go into the action and up the curves layer of it to make it a more strong effect but I personally like the very subtle effect this gives.

For me this action is what I was looking for but I will most likely get some other "matte" actions because each one does look slightly different.

 

[Tom Mann]

It was a pleasure discussing this with you. Come back & say "hi" every now & then. We would love to have more knowledgeable people like yourself as regulars here

Cheers,

Tom M