How can I recreate this light effect?

Larry Rutledge

Larry Rutledge

Fest Master
In the image below there is what appears to be a spotlight shining from the top right towards the bottom left against the backdrop. I assume this image was actually photographed with an actual spotlight, but I was wondering if there was a way to simulate this lighting effect in Photoshop?

sample.jpg


I was able to create the following gradient effect, but it's not exactly the same. This looks like a gradient pattern where the one above looks like a spotlight.

grad_sample.jpg


Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Larry
 
That first image looks like it has some atmospherics in play ... it looks like the lite is shing through smoke/steam at the glass, and not actually hitting the "backdrop" at all.

And no clue how to do it in PS.

Have you played with the "lighting" filters: Filters -> Render -> Lighting Effects (at least that's where it is in PS7)

- Mikko
 
Try creating a Fractal Noise or Clouds layer, and editing it until it's got a nice foglike pattern. Or, maybe even better, start with an actual image of fog. There's definitely some atmospheric particles in that sample, and that's the key to the effect you're looking for. Once you have your fog layer positioned, try setting it the color mode to Screen or Add, and adjust the opacity. Maybe add some Noise to it.
 
Hey Larry,

Try taking your circular marquee tool and make an oval. Fill it with white on a new layer, rotate it, slap a major guass blur on it and set that layer to lighten (screen may work but it may maintain too much contrast). Then, duplicate that layer, shrink the blur and set that new layer's blending mode to saturation, and drop the opacity by 20% or so. You will also need to drop the opacity of the first layer as well. That should get you close.

Three or four layers of differing sizes and with differing opacity settings for the lightening part would be more dynamic.
 
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Cool thanks Matt. I'm definitely going to play with that and see what I can come up with.

While doing my own google search for this yesterday I came across the term volumetric lighting. What is that and is it something that might help with this technique?

Thanks again,
Larry
 
Larry R said:
Cool thanks Matt. I'm definitely going to play with that and see what I can come up with.

While doing my own google search for this yesterday I came across the term volumetric lighting. What is that and is it something that might help with this technique?

Thanks again,
Larry
Click to expand...

Volumetric lighting is something that is used in 3D programs to simulate light going through fog, haze, or smoke. You have seen that look hundreds of times when watching movies and tv, someone turns on a flashlight in a smoky room and you get that cone of light.

That's what volumetric lighting is. It's a way to simulate light going through something in the air. It almost gives the light a substance, hence the name.

It would help if the picture was rendered in a 3D app for sure, but if the base was a photograph, it wouldn't help much at all, because this is what a volumetric light looks like against a black background:


1191426337.jpg



I didn't do that in Photoshop I did it in a 3D program, but you can see how easy it would be to replicate.
 
Interesting, so it looks like volumetric lighting would simulate that original shot pretty well then ... unless I'm misunderstanding that sample you included.

Fortunately this isn't something I need at the moment, but when I saw the original image I was intrigued by it and wanted to see if I could recreate it. Looks like it's a bit out of my skill set at the moment, but it also looks like I know where to go if/when I do need it :)
 
Larry R said:
Interesting, so it looks like volumetric lighting would simulate that original shot pretty well then ... unless I'm misunderstanding that sample you included.
Click to expand...

I think you misunderstand, but only a little. My point was that look is easy to replicate in Photoshop:


1191429356.jpg



That took about 2 minutes to do in Photoshop. What I meant, and wasn't clear enough, was that Volumetric lighting would be very effective IF the entire scene was modeled, lit, setup, and rendered from a 3D program. If it was a Photograph that was tweaked, then Volumetric lighting would not do that much good since it is so easy to replicate.

Good luck with the project.
 
Oh, so you're saying that spotlight on black you included in your post was done in PS? I thought you said it was done in a 3D app. I understand that getting the light to interact with the "product" would be easier dealt with if fully modeled, but actually I don't need a "product shot".

Maybe it would help if I explained how I came about the original image and what I'm trying to accomplish.

I'm in the process of designing my website and I was looking for ideas, so I was browsing various templates. I started noticing a very subtle but effective difference between flat color in "panels" and gradient fills. I really liked this template: http://www.templatemonster.com/website-templates/14950.html?&templ=14950&tab=32 and if you notice, the "panel" with the globe in it is not filled with a solid color, but has a subtle gradient fill. It seems that every template that caught my eye had a similar gradient fill rather than a solid fill, and it always gradiated with a monochromatic color scheme.

Anyway, while studying what I liked about these various templates that made them look more "professional" than others, I came across this one: http://www.templatemonster.com/website-templates/15067.html?&templ=15067&tab=32 and liked how it seemed more like a spot light rather than a simple gradation. I thought if I could recreate this, without the product, then put a nice image over it (like the globe in the earlier template) it would look good.

So, that's what sent me on my hunt around google trying to figure out how to do that, and then ultimately here to ask my original question. When it seemed like it was going to be too hard to accomplish with my skill set and without a 3D app, I decided to just go back to the, still professional looking, monochromatic gradations. But now, you seem to imply that I can accomplish that image you created above within PS ... is this correct?

Again, thanks for all the input on this. I really appreciate it.

Peace,
Larry
 
The .jpg in my first post (post #7) was from a 3D app. The second .jpg (post #9) was my attempt to duplicate the look of the volumetric lighting in Photoshop. If you open the true Volumetric render in Photoshop, and open the recreation in photoshop and paste the recreation on a layer above the Volumetric, and switch the visibility of the top layer of and on, you will see they are different. Not much, but different.
 
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That makes sense. Did you use the technique you described in the earlier post to do the PS version? I'm going to play around with that tonight and see what I can do.

Thanks again.
Larry
 
Similar technique. I used the rectangular marquee and made a box, filled it with white, blurred it, and then used the transform tools to adjust the perspective of one side to shorten it. Then I stretched the entire thing and lastly rotated it into position.

Then I used a layer mask to fade it a little, as it progressed down and to the left and dropped the opacity.
 
I have to admit this looked like a fun little challenge... combining the photoshop example matt had with:

istockphoto_1232849_rubber_ducky.jpg


I got:

duckielight.jpg


in about 10 minutes.
 
"le quak quak" :grin: :grin: Fantastic!


- Mikko ... is totally going to use that name someday for something...
 
Larry R said:
In the image below there is what appears to be a spotlight shining from the top right towards the bottom left against the backdrop. I assume this image was actually photographed with an actual spotlight, but I was wondering if there was a way to simulate this lighting effect in Photoshop?

sample.jpg


I was able to create the following gradient effect, but it's not exactly the same. This looks like a gradient pattern where the one above looks like a spotlight.

grad_sample.jpg


Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Larry
Click to expand...

That image looks like it was created with RealFlow. It's not a studio photo. I'd be willing to bet a lot of money on it...
 
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