Lighting Bases Guide for Ask The Maker

[tinny]

Requested by ella_rose88 at icontalking's 2018 Ask The Maker activity.

This guide is a list of methods you can use to lighten a cap. Most of these are not Photoshop-specific, except the good ones. ;)

I.e. the caps I despair over are usually only possible to lighten well using Soft Light or Gradient Maps, and both are exclusive to Photoshop. (ETA: apparently PaintShop can do them as well, just that Gradient Maps are called Local Tone Mapping there.)

I'm using this (terribly dark) Teen Wolf cap:



This is an 1920x1080 HD cap I just resized to streamline the post. Right-click and choose "View Image" to see at original size.



1. Curves and Brightness/Contrast

Standard methods are Curves and Brightness/Contrast. Always use adjustment layers instead of modifying the layer!
These two methods are not very subtle and often skew the color of the cap towards red. The amount/exact adjustment points differ for every cap.
You have to experiment! Stop before the hightlights get washed out. For an example for washed-out highlights see number 3 below.







Problem with these methods is that you can't combine them well. If you try to add these adjustments twice, the result will be too light, too noisy, too red... . So they work okay for not-too-dark caps but I don't like the result here. It's simply not light enough yet.

2. Duplicate the layer and set to Screen




This is something you can do more than once without it getting too noisy or red. Change the opacity of the last copy if necessary.




The color will get a little red, which you can see well in Sheriff Stilinksi's face. It doesn't get washed out as fast, though.

3. Linear Add

If Screen isn't enough, I love to use Linear Add. (Actually, I always use Linear Add.) It is way more powerful than Screen, so you have to lower the opacity a lot. 10% is enough for most caps. (Not this one...)




You can tell that this brightens the cap up much faster than Screen. But: just like all the other methods, if you do this too much, the image will get washed out. Here's what happens if you do this twice:




Derek's cheek is just about to become washed out, Sheriff Stilinski's face is already too bright.

4. Inverted Soft Light + Screen

Now for the one that really makes a difference: Soft Light is a great tool! It brightens the image where the layer is bright, and darkens it where it is dark. If you duplicate a layer and set it to Soft Light, the contrast will be increased (dark parts get darker, bright parts get brighter). In this case, we want the dark parts to get lighter, so we invert the layer first!

I started with the image already copied and set to Screen (from method 2 above) :




The same with the Inverted layer duplicated:




This is finally light enough, yay! And no bright smudges anywhere, and the color stays correct, too! What this method does is decrease contrast, though. So if you don't like that, you can lighten/adjust this cap further with any of the above methods.

5. B/W Gradient Map + Screen

Another good method is the Gradient Map adjustment layer. In this example, I used the plain B/W Gradient. Again, I started with the image already copied and set to Screen (from method 2 above) :




B/W Gradient Maps will desaturate your image. Better than red, in my opinion, but it depends on the original cap and what kind of coloring you want to achieve. If you don't want it to be this desaturated, try choosing a colored gradient in the hue you want to achieve.

6. B/W Gradient Map + Soft Light

If you want to lighten the darker parts without making the light parts too bright, setting the Gradient Map layer to Soft Light is the solution. This is similar to Invert+Soft Light, but you are more flexible since you can choose different Gradient Maps, not just the image or a black-white gradient. The first example is with a B/W gradient. Make sure white is on the left side of the gradient and black on the right.

Remember, Soft Light will lighten the image where the layer (in this case, the adjustment layer) is white and darken the image where the layer is black. The Gradient Map maps to the histogram of the image, so white on the left side of the Gradient Map means lighting the dark parts.




The second example is with the B/W gradient plus another beige-blue gradient, just so you can see what's possible:




Last but not least: Coloring

In all cases, if the colors stray too far from the original, you can always copy the original layer again and set it to Color:






Final Result

Here's the final result that I would be happy with in this cap and from which I could start making an icon (on second thought, maybe his cheek is too bright already).

Unfortunately, the dark parts were lightened so much in the end that they're full of visible jpg artifacts. So I smoothed those on his forehead and nose with the smudge tool. You can still see the original artifacts on his shirt and on the background. I'm afraid there's no easy way to avoid those (except not lightening the cap as much ;)). You'll have to get rid of those by some other means that are not part of this guide. Dark caps are just always a bit more work.

As you can see, I combined several of the methods. The three screen layers are set to 100%, and the other ones to 40% (the ones I marked in the layer screenshot) :




Phew! Most caps don't need that much preparation. I just chose the worst cap I could find on purpose. :D

Remember: every cap needs different settings. The trick is to combine the different methods and play with the adjustments until the result looks good to your eyes!

Okay, so this is all I know. :D I hope that this was helpful!

Comments

[lavenderspark]

This is very helpful!!

Now I just have to find those settings in my program...

[tinny]

Yeah, Soft Light is Photoshop specific, as are Gradient Maps. But everything else should be available everywhere.

I've got a guide lying around on how to imitate B/W Gradient Maps with other programs. Nobody actually wanted to hear it so I never posted it.

It's a half dozen steps, but if you're good at Gimp scripting, you can make it into a script action and at least get it to work that way.

[lavenderspark]

I use Corel PaintShop. I found out its being glitchy because the version I have isn't compatible with Windows 10. :/ But I can get the next version for $40 when I have money.

I have Soft Light! I found it. It's not in an obvious spot, but I found it. I *think* I have Gradient Maps, but it's called "Local Tone Mapping" I've played with it a little, but it was a while ago and I don't remember what exactly it does.

[tinny]

Oh, I didn't know PaintShop could do that, but that sounds cool!

I only know that Gimp can't do it, or at least the last time I tried it, it couldnt.

[lavenderspark]

I downloaded the newest version of GIMP just to try it when I found out my program wasn't compatible. There's a lot that either I couldn't figure out how tio do, or you just can't do. Like resize a selection and a shape crop. I may play around with it some more, but I think I'll stick to PaintShop.

My only problem with PS right now is that it won't let me copy/paste. It says I don't have enough memory. But I do. I've cleared the cache, deleted temp files, emptied my recycling bin... I don't know what else to do.

[tinny]

unless it's a program setting. Photoshop has settings for how much memory it's allowed to use so it doesn't swamp the computer. Maybe PaintShop has a setting like that, too?

[lavenderspark]

The only thing I can find is that it needs at least 500MB of memory. I have 450GB. I may need to contact support again.

[negans]

I have to play around with this more, but the gradient trick you mentioned was a HUGE help in a pretty much impossible image to color!

>

I changed the background color to give it a fun neon look in the final icon since there was no way I'd ever get that original color 100% neutral, but setting a blue toned gradient to screen got rid of so much of that red. Thanks!

[tinny]

Yes, that red-shift is so annoying when brightening caps! Gradient Maps really are awesome for that.

I am so happy to see it was a useful guide! Thank you for posting an example, too! <3<3<3 I love that neon look!

[ella_rose88]

I haven’t been on DW in a while as I’ve been busy but thanks so much for doing this guide! I’ll use it for sure when I want to try and icon dark screencaps :)

[tinny]

Oooh, thank you so much! It's so great to get feedback for this! <3 I hope it will be useful to you!

[goodbyebird]

lol I was gonna read the post, I swear, but then ooh shiny cap!



You did a champ job, that lower cap looks flawless to work with :D (I just went with the garbage lol)

[tinny]

How did I never see this comment? O_O O_O

Thank you so much for reading and playing with my tutorial! <3<3<3

Those icons look smashing! I especially like the middle one. Gorgeous!