From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

798 Adding a cold and gloomy background

From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

798 Adding a cold and gloomy background

Welcome to Deke's Techniques! Now, if you're familiar with George R. R. Martin's epic, Game of Thrones, you know that the area north of Castle Black is sometimes called the Land of Always Winter. It is cold and gloomy by designs. The White Walkers, for unknown reasons, have made it this way. is go over to the Layers panel and make sure that the top layer, which happens to be a layer group called Eyes is selected. And that way can create a new layer on top of it. And you do so by pressing Control + Shift + N, or Command + Shift + N on a Mac. And I'll go ahead and call this guy gloom and then click OK. And next, we want to apply a couple of editable Smart Filters, which means that we need to convert this entirely empty layer, by the way, and choose Convert to Smart Object. Now I want you to tap the D key to instate the default foreground and background colors Then I'll click OK. I set the Blend mode, as you can see right there, to Color, so that I'm colorizing that background. And I crank the Opacity value up to 100% at which point, I'll click OK. Alright, now this guy wants to be at the back of the stack, not at the front, and so I could drag it all the way down the panel if I wanted to, and you can do that as well. Or you can just take advantage of a keyboard shortcut which is Control + Shift + Left Bracket. That's Command + Shift + Left Bracket on the Mac. And notice that goes ahead and pops it down to the bottom of the stack. Unfortunately, at this point, we can't see it, so what we need to do is mask this guy right here. So go ahead and click on that layer to make him active. And then what you want to do is switch over to the Channels panel, which by default lives next door to the Layers panel. Or if you prefer, you can go up to the Window menu and choose the Channels command. And then, just go ahead and take a quick look at the channels. We've got the red channel, which is very dark, the green channel, which is brighter, and the blue channel, which is brighter still. Now, normally, it'd be exactly the opposite if we were looking in a full color portrait shot, but this guy is a White Walker. one and only one color, you want to change the Tolerance value to zero and then turn off the Anti-Alias check box. You can leave Contiguous turned on. Sample All Layers isn't going to make any difference because we're not working on a layer. So go ahead and click right out here, and what that's going to do is select all the adjacent black pixels. We actually want to select everything that's not black. So go up to the Select menu and choose Inverse. And that'll go ahead and select all those interior pixels that aren't black yet, but it's also going to select the white areas outside the guy, which is not what we want. So I'm just going to back up a little bit and switch over to the Lasso tool. And now, what you want to do is press the Alt key or the Option on the Mac, and notice that'll give you a little minus sign next to the Lasso. Then begin dragging like so, and now go ahead and release the Alt key. This is weird, but do it, or the Option key on the Mac. And then press and hold it again. So you want to hold the key down this time around, and now you can just go ahead and click as you see me doing here. And I'm just going to click next to the border, but I don't want to click into it. And then just go ahead and click all the way around til you get back to the beginning. And then you can release the Alt or Option key, and in my case, that's going to deselect that left side. Now we need to deselect the right side, and you can do that by once again, pressing and holding the Alt key or the Option key on a Mac. So you're seeing that minus sign. Begin dragging like so, and then release the Alt or Option key, press it again, this time you want to hold it down. And so I've got the Alt or Option key down now as I'm clicking around this right-hand edge, and then you can release in order to deselect that region and now all you have selected is the inside stuff that you want to turn black. Now, go ahead and press the D key to instate the default foreground and background colors for a mask, which is white for the foreground color and black for background. And fill those pixels with the background color by pressing Control + Backspace, or Command + Delete on the Mac. And even though it might not look like anything happened because we have so many marching ants going on, as soon as you press Control + D or Command + D on a Mac, you'll see that he's altogether black on the inside. Alright, now go ahead and load that guy up as a selection outline by pressing the Control key or the Command key on a Mac, and clicking on that channel just like so. Then go ahead and switch back to the RGB Composite, switch over to the Layers panel, make sure this guy is selected. make sure this guy is selected. We don't want to mask him away, which would happen We don't want to mask him away, which would happen if you were to click on the Add Layer Mask icon. if you were to click on the Add Layer Mask icon. You actually want to mask away the white area around him, You actually want to mask away the white area around him, so if you did what I did, press Control + Z so if you did what I did, press Control + Z or Command + Z on a Mac, to undo that change, or Command + Z on a Mac, to undo that change, and then press the Alt key or the Option key on a Mac, and then press the Alt key or the Option key on a Mac, and click on that icon in order to mask away the selection. and click on that icon in order to mask away the selection. Alright, now, obviously, we have some junky edges here. Alright, now, obviously, we have some junky edges here. But you can scoot this edge in But you can scoot this edge in by making sure that Layer Mask is selected by making sure that Layer Mask is selected and then going up to the Filter menu, and then going up to the Filter menu, dropping all the way down to Other, dropping all the way down to Other, and then choosing Minimum, which is going and then choosing Minimum, which is going to enlarge the minimum luminance level which is black. to enlarge the minimum luminance level which is black. Alright, so after you choose this command, Alright, so after you choose this command, by default this Radius value's going to be set to one by default this Radius value's going to be set to one and Preserve is going to be set to Squareness. and Preserve is going to be set to Squareness. You want Preserve first of all, to be set to Roundness You want Preserve first of all, to be set to Roundness so that you have more control. so that you have more control. Then I'll move this guy out of the way, Then I'll move this guy out of the way, so we can see what we're doing. so we can see what we're doing. I'll go ahead and zoom in by Control + Clicking, I'll go ahead and zoom in by Control + Clicking, that's a Command + Click on a Mac. that's a Command + Click on a Mac. And then with the Radius value selected, And then with the Radius value selected, I'll press Shift + Up Arrow in order to raise I'll press Shift + Up Arrow in order to raise that value in whole pixel increments like so. that value in whole pixel increments like so. And at about five pixels it looks really good. And at about five pixels it looks really good. You can see that we've scooted that edge in. You can see that we've scooted that edge in. But I need to see the other side, But I need to see the other side, so I'll go ahead and Spacebar drag this guy around here. so I'll go ahead and Spacebar drag this guy around here. And notice down here, we've got kind of a weird edge. And notice down here, we've got kind of a weird edge. It's gunked up in part because we applied It's gunked up in part because we applied the Dust and Scratches filter a few weeks ago, the Dust and Scratches filter a few weeks ago, but it'd be nice to tighten things a little more. but it'd be nice to tighten things a little more. So go ahead and press Shift + Up Arrow So go ahead and press Shift + Up Arrow a couple of more times in order to raise a couple of more times in order to raise that Radius value to seven pixels, that Radius value to seven pixels, and you'll see that things start to look a lot better. and you'll see that things start to look a lot better. At which point, you can go ahead and click OK. At which point, you can go ahead and click OK. Now, at this point, it might be nice Now, at this point, it might be nice to add a little bit of softness to this edge. to add a little bit of softness to this edge. And we can make that happen dynamically, And we can make that happen dynamically, by going up to the Window menu by going up to the Window menu and choosing the Properties command and choosing the Properties command in order to bring up the Properties panel. in order to bring up the Properties panel. Then click in that Feather value right there Then click in that Feather value right there and press Shift + Up Arrow, however many times you like. and press Shift + Up Arrow, however many times you like. I'm going to take that value up to four pixels I'm going to take that value up to four pixels in order to add some softness to that edge. in order to add some softness to that edge. It is going to make that edge look a little bit gooey, It is going to make that edge look a little bit gooey, but we'll take care of that next week. but we'll take care of that next week. Alright, I'm going to go ahead and hide the Properties panel. Alright, I'm going to go ahead and hide the Properties panel. And I'll press Control + 0 or Command + 0 And I'll press Control + 0 or Command + 0 on the Mac to zoom out. on the Mac to zoom out. Now, finally, I want the background to be Now, finally, I want the background to be a little darker over on the left-hand side a little darker over on the left-hand side than it is on the right. than it is on the right. So I'll click on that gloom layer in order to select it. So I'll click on that gloom layer in order to select it. And then I'll click on the FX layer And then I'll click on the FX layer down here at the bottom of the panel, down here at the bottom of the panel, and I'll choose Gradient Overlay. and I'll choose Gradient Overlay. And I'm going to move this guy down and over a little bit And I'm going to move this guy down and over a little bit so I can better see what's happening in the background. so I can better see what's happening in the background. I'm going to click this down-pointing arrowhead I'm going to click this down-pointing arrowhead next to the Gradient bar and just change it next to the Gradient bar and just change it to this guy, black to white. to this guy, black to white. And then, I'll go ahead and change the angle value And then, I'll go ahead and change the angle value to zero degrees like so, which definitely makes things darker over here on the left than they are on the right. However, it also gets rid of the gloom, so go ahead and change the Blend mode to Overlay. And then I'll take the Opacity value down to 50% and finally, I'll crank the Scale value as high as it goes, which is 150%. And I'll go ahead and click OK to accept that change. And then finally, I want to darken this background ever so slightly. And to do that, I'll go up to the Layer menu, choose New Adjustment Layer and choose Levels in order to bring up the New Layer dialog box. I'll call this guy darker because that's the purpose it's going to serve. And just to be safe, I'll turn on this check box so that I'm affecting this layer and this layer only, even though it's at the bottom of the stack. And then, I'll click OK. And finally, I'll click inside the Gamma value, the center value right here, and I'll press Shift + Down Arrow twice to take it down to 0.8, and I'll go ahead and hide the Properties panel. Alright, so that took a little bit of work, but after the application of a few filters, a couple of layer effects, and some precision masking, we now have a cold and gloomy background here inside Photoshop. If you're a member of LinkedIn Learning, I have a followup movie in which we add this synthetic high resolution snow. this synthetic high resolution snow. Now, I know we did snow back in Episode 764 Now, I know we did snow back in Episode 764 which was just four months ago, which was just four months ago, but that was fun, cheerful, fluffy snow. but that was fun, cheerful, fluffy snow. This is cold, brittle, horrible snow! This is cold, brittle, horrible snow! If you're looking forward to next week, If you're looking forward to next week, we're going to take our guy and trace we're going to take our guy and trace an inner shadow around his hood, an inner shadow around his hood, which believe it not is very tricky which believe it not is very tricky and involves a check box inside Photoshop and involves a check box inside Photoshop that I'm guessing you've never used in your entire life. that I'm guessing you've never used in your entire life. Deke's Techniques each and every week! Deke's Techniques each and every week! Keep watching! Keep watching!

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