So I made a small video tutorial using StudioArtist and Photoshop to create one of the images I uploaded recently in the gallery. The general effect appears abstracted but has the sense of depth due to atmospheric lighting and shading. The idea is to go from a flat image to something that visually attracts you into the picture.
The part where I go into photoshop can be replicated using StudioArtist as well. There are dodge and burn paint presets which work perfectly fine, just with some limitations.
Tutorial: Using Studio Artist and Photoshop from Skybase on Vimeo.
I hope this tutorial helps. I'll gladly answer questions and comments! :)
Replies
Excellent Kai, thanks. These types of tutorials are the go !
Great tips, thanks Kai :)
nice work! thanks.
thank you for this . so needed .look forward to more . soumaya
Very nice tutorial. I hope you'll do some more.
Thanks!
Michael
I love the dramatic lighting in those types of images you've been doing, and thank you for letting us get a glimpse at your workflow :)
To get the highlights to glow in Photoshop you could select "color range" the lightest hi-light adjust the tolerance to desired amount of highlights and then copy to new layer and blur plus adjust opacity to more quickly get the glowing halos. You could do it almost the same in SA by generating a selection based on luminance, copy selection to new layer... change the layer blending mode to lighten differential I think and of course blur the new layer... I do like your use of overlay for overall atmospherics... just thought this might save a tad of time when there's a lot of points you want to glow as in your night-time cityscape. Actually, I wish photoshop had a select by luminance option as well... but select by color should work just fine for extreme highlights like that unless we're talking tokyo and vegas with the myriad colored neon-lights... then there'd be more color ranges to deal with.
Selection by luminance specifically can be achieved using threshold. The concept is slightly different but it works. There are several other ways of getting target luminance values. For example, you can first copy the color layer, desaturate it completely, and use color range there (takes extra steps). You can also select a specific channel (R, G, or B) and find highlights there via threshold. Converting to Lab color will give you the L channel (brightness) which is perfect for luminance selection. Using that selection, it can applied as mask for other purposes. ;)
Also, you can use color range by picking multiple spots of color using the multi-eye dropper available in the same window. So the possibility and way of selecting items is relatively endless. :)
I typically do all highlighting by hand unless working procedurally. Just gives it the extra human touch and specific control over amount of highlight.