Realistic lighting in photographs

[murphyz]

Hello,

I'm having trouble with the lighting when pasting an image from one photograph into another...obviously with different light sources and colour in the facial features.

I can get the shadows how I like them, just the lighting. I have been playing around with the lighting effects, albeit unsuccessfully, and think this is where I need to improve. Other areas, such as the channels, I have used but cannot seem to get right - along with an attempt to take a prominent colour from the photo to act as a colour mask for the imported layer.

I was wondering if you had any hints or a link to a tutorial where I can learn more about how to use the lighting filter more efficiently.

Cheers

Mxx

 

[theKeeper]

I would suggest you try painting the highlights/shadows in manually on the subject Murph. The lighting effects filter is not designed to do what you're thinking of.

I had this issue when i did the characture of Kiwi awhile ago. His source photo lighting was not what i wanted, so i simply painted in the lighting the way i wanted it to look. A soft brush, some B&W paint, and diddling with layer Opacity should start you in the right direction.

TIP: Softlight blend mode works well for this.

 

[murphyz]

Thanks for the info. I definitely need more practice with this - shall keep plugging away at it

Cheers

Mxx