Out of the shadow

Frequently during picture retouching we have to change the object lightning, sometimes by changing time of the day from day to night. At this tutorial I will try to explain you what should be done to get such result:

from this original picture.

Open the original picture at Photoshop. Create a new clean layer. Determine the main tonality of the original picture and choose the darkest colour of our tonality form the colour swatches. At this tutorial I used dark red (close to black). Fill the new layer with chosen colour and change layer’s features to “Multiply”.
Now we have this picture:

Choose Eraser with Opacity and Flow 15%, then at the filled layer with the Eraser clean the places of the face where should be light areas. Clean with long-range radius. Then reduce the brush diameter and increase Opacity and Flow up to 40% and keep on cleaning with small radius – doing this we visually increase lightning at the centre. Then again reduce the brush diameter and increase Opacity and Flow up to 90%. Clean with small radius.

Finally your layer looks following way:

After we combined it with the original it will look this way:

Then create Duplicate of our latest (filled) Layer and change its characteristics to VividLight. Then clean the centre with the normal Eraser, now we have something like frame (which darken the edges).
Now we have:

Then create duplicate of the original and place it as a new layer on the top, change the new layer characteristic to Multiply.
And we have:

Now select the whole image with Rectangular Marquee Tool and create a copy Edit>Copy Merged.
Then past in it as a new Layer Edit>Paste.
Decolorize the new Layer Image>Adjastment>Desaturate and turn it to transparent 30%.
We have:

Then we can lighten eyes, eyelids, eyebrows etc.
Below is how it looks like in layers.

The result is:

This is the end of the tutorial. I wish you have great pictures.

Dmitry Zhamkov 2007