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Question related to shading.


Numpad

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I have been using photoshop for 4 months now and would like to see if my idea is possible. I have this stone wall texture that has lighting and shadows. I was wondering if it is possible to remove the wall but keep the shadows. If this is possible please let me know how it could be done. (Dont mind the watermark it's just a reference)122129874-texture-of-a-stone-wall-old-castle-stone-wall-texture-background-part-of-a-stone-wal...jpg
 
Hello! You can try these steps. Here's how I extract shadows.

1. Create a new layer on the top of your photo's layer.

1.png

2. Click the Photo's layer. Click (Ctrl+A) then (Ctrl+C) to select and copy the photo.

2.png

3. Now go to Channel's Tab. Create new layer. Select it then Ctrl+V to paste the photo. Click Ctrl+D to deselect.

3.jpg

4. Once done, Invert the color of the photo by pressing Ctrl+I.

4.png

5. Go to the selected layer thumbnail (Alpha 1). Hold the Ctrl key then click the layer's thumbnail. Some portion of the layer will be selected.

5.png

6. Once selected. Go back to Layers Tab. Selected the new layer and Ctrl+V to paste the photo.

6.png

7. Click Ctrl+F5 to show the Fill Window. Select Black from the options. Then OK. You have now successfully extracted the shadow from the photo.

7.png
 
HI numpad
It is not clear to me what is your desired result. The rock has dark variations that are not shadow along with the shadows. I took out the high frequency components to find the remaining low frequency dark areas. Is this anything close to what you want. I am sure it is clear to you what you want yet hard to gleem exactly your intent without more details. Is this example anything close to what was desired. If not, more description from you might be helpful.
John Wheeler
save-shadows-adj.jpg
 
Here's another approach. Create a Threshold adjustment layer above your original layer. The Threshold adjustment converts everything to either pure black or pure white, and it has a midtone slider where you can determine the exact point where a given shade flips to either black or white. Depending on what you want, you can use this as your final product, or you can use this to create a layer mask on your original image. (You'll need to invert the Threshold image if you intend to use it as a layer mask.)

1598373633492.png
 
HI numpad
It is not clear to me what is your desired result. The rock has dark variations that are not shadow along with the shadows. I took out the high frequency components to find the remaining low frequency dark areas. Is this anything close to what you want. I am sure it is clear to you what you want yet hard to gleem exactly your intent without more details. Is this example anything close to what was desired. If not, more description from you might be helpful.
John Wheeler
View attachment 114874
Yes, that is the result I was looking for. I wanted to get the colors just down to 2 (black and white) then remove the white (the brick color) and keep the black (the shading between the bricks and the surface distortions on the brick) so that I could put any color I want behind the transparent texture. Sorry for my English. Thank you to all who are helping me.
 
Here's another approach. Create a Threshold adjustment layer above your original layer. The Threshold adjustment converts everything to either pure black or pure white, and it has a midtone slider where you can determine the exact point where a given shade flips to either black or white. Depending on what you want, you can use this as your final product, or you can use this to create a layer mask on your original image. (You'll need to invert the Threshold image if you intend to use it as a layer mask.)

View attachment 114879
This is very helpful. I was wondering how this was done, but you nice people helped me a lot. I was going to use this as some sort of Texture Overlay I would use to put over my brown colored wall, and i wanted to change the color and still keep the same Brick wall look.
 
Hi Numpad
Instead of showing how I got my result, there may be another way per your last post. Just using a B&W adjustment Layer above you brick layer and then putting a fill adjustment Layer above it with the Layer Blend set to multiply. You can get any color you want. Hope this helps
John Wheeler

Screen Shot 2020-08-25 at 1.22.43 PM.png
 

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