A Study in Constrasts-A Technical Guide

This tutorial focuses on Dark/Color contrasts and how to have deep shadows without losing the color and brightness in the piece. This piece, while atypical as my normal, does highlight many key elements I use on a regular basis.

So, since this is a technique tutorial I won't go into great detail about the manip or stocks and will stick to the adjustment layers and techniques used. So I begin with this:



As you can see, I've already got it manipped and masked. But, before I go further I need to explain why this is atypical. The base image for the manip was already ubber contrasted and tinted, so you can already see a vast difference between my base and image you will work with on a regular basis. Normally, I would add a few more Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layers to achieve a slightly less contrasted image and tweak the curves a bit to my liking. In this case, I actually wanted to remove some of the contrast (weird considering that's the whole point of this tutorial!), so I added a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer to even out the image a bit.



Now, to that I added all my stocks and such.



So, now I am ready for the contrast and coloring part. First, I want to bring back some of the brightness of the main image without the blindingly vivid colors, so I added a Curves Adjustment Layer.



So for those not familiar with Curves, it is a way to brighten and darken an image without effecting coloring. Actually, it's pretty straight forward once you get to use it, but the more advanced you get, you can also use to tweak coloring. I know, I'm a contradiction, but not going into it now, because it has nothing to do with this piece.

Next, I added some gradient maps which again, not the focus here. But, let it be known that what gradient maps and the settings, as well as the opacities have a large impact on the brightness of a piece. Most of the time you can correct this (again) using Cuves adjustment layers of tweaking the gradient itself by simply lightening the shade a little. Again, it depends on the specific piece.



With colors to my liking I moved to filters, which actually do help bring contrast to a piece as well as add vibrancy. I began with Artistic>Paint Daubs (1,1), Stylize>Diffuse (50% opacity), and another Artistic Paint Daubs layer with the same settings with a 20% opacity.



Now I love using the Brush Strokes>Accent Edges filter, but be careful. This can add too much brightness and too much darkness (though I mainly use to accentuate the darkness). Find a stroke that works for your piece and I tend to fiddle with the opacity. I've found I usually go no higher then 30% opacity on a Normal or Darken Layer.



And lastly, I added a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer set to (-5, +2). Normally I use equal negative and positive variants, but it depends on the piece.

And that's all for this piece!



With that said, again, I stress this was atypical. Some other helpful tips include playing with the Image>Adjustments>Threshold feature. You can add brightness or shadows, or both. Typically I find a happy balance between the two and depending on the piece set it to Overlay at about a 10% opacity or Darken at roughly the same setting. Sometimes I will suggest using the Blur More filter, simply to soften the edges.