anyone recommend a good way to add a soft backlight to a picture that's already taken. Do you guys even know what I mean? lol. Think every maxim model circa 1999.

Hi Framed..
Without a picture for reference, I am not quite sure how I would approach the backlighting problem you are addressing. I might use a lighting effects filter
setting, a gradient with fade, a layer adjustment using curves, levels, etc.., the same kind of adjustment applied to only a selected area of a layer..
My hunch is that in Photoshop there are numerous different ways to achieve the backlighting effect. There may be others who know a quicker more efficient and accurate
technique/s than the ones I just described, but that is the best I can do..

........can I recommend spnellcheck?



sorry, just a little New York humor.

Yeah, post a pic for reference (and check your spelling, LOL).

you'll get your damned reference photo, and i vow never to use the spellcheck!!!

see how there's an additional light source coming from the right hand side? something like that.[/img]

emm... nope.

Guess you'll need to host that pic yourself. (or did you spell the link wrong? )

OK, Here it is...

i think stu's signature says it all

Ha!

So anyhoo... you do have the Filter>Render>Lighting Effects option in Photoshop, though this is somewhat limited. Playing about with it a bit can get some decent effects. Here's a quick example of what it can do.... (sorry about the ugly model )

The original is on the left, then with a quick lighting effect on the right...

tahnks fro teh hlep stu!! i knwo I cna mkae cool picutres nwo~!

Stu - who is that Ugly Man Eating Worms!? !?

I tell ya! Mix'n Matching those genes produces great results!



Nicely done, Stu...one of your better posts to date

Hehe. My part was easy.

And Reinman, nice to see you're still alive, BTW. I heard you had become the Prince of Monaco, had a fling with Grace Kelly, and subsequently died

Bzzzttttt... Paddles of life!!!!!

Back lighting... your image has a shadow you want a back light....

Simple highlight around the person... (wand, pen brush anyway ya like)

make a new layer... make a mask so that anything drawn is constricted...

duplicate layer...

the lower one set to colour dodge and turn it don to fifty and with a white brush with a soft edge just highlight the edge...

Then on the layer abouve set the brush to half the size and repeat over the edge folloing the mask area... to get

(legs only for this one...)


vs


basic and if done correctly as in (not a rush job) can look good.