Adding Depth & Shadowing a Photo

Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:28 pm

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Step 1.

Open the image you will be editing in GIMP. This works best for photo's that you are trying to give a dramatic lighting effect or give a night time appearance while keeping your model illuminated.

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Step 2.

(ADD NEW LAYER) Grab your fuzzy circle brush and grab the color "BLACK". You will now apply the black paint in areas of the photo that should be darker.

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Step 3.

You will now go to "GAUSSIAN BLUR" and set your blur effect to a very high setting. This will blur the black paint that you just applied to the photo. (I have set mine to 100.00)

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Step 4.

Once finished blurring the black applied. I will go to the "OPACITY" option in the layers box and set it to about 50%. This will lower the intensity of the black blur we have applied.

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Step 5.

(ADD NEW LAYER) I will now apply shadowing to the areas of the photo that a shadow would cast determining where your light source is.

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Step 6.

Repeat step 3. (Blurring the black)

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Step 7.

Repeat Step 4. (Lowering the opacity to 50%)

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Step 8.

Grab your eraser tool and remove any black run over paint that may have ran over on the body.

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Step 9.

I will now merge all visible layers by right clicking on one of the layers in the layers box and then click "Merge visible layers'

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Step 10.

I will now select my "fuzzy circle brush" and grab my "BURN tool" and set it to about 20%.
I will go over ares of the photo that may need a lil more shadowing.

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Step 11.

Finishing off the last touches of shadowing on the photo going over the trees, fences etc.

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Step 12.

Now that I am done with the shadowing of the photo. I will add a few lil stars in the distance to make a sky. (This was originally just a blue wall in the distance with an addition of a mood edited in)

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Step 13.

This last step is OPTIONAL but when I am done with my night time photo's I like to add a settle blue filter to the photo to give it a more night time appearance.

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Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:19 pm

THANK YOU! I LOVE all your Tuts!!!!!!

Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:54 am

Aww ty hun!

Any photo's that you try my tuts out on, always feel free to share! I lub seeing photos!

Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:10 pm

OMG Thank you so much! This has really helped me with my pictures! Here is a before image,

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And here is after! P.S I also so used your tutorial from the Sensation magazine! It was really great!

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Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:52 am

^^ I never saw this comment, but that is awsome!

Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:20 pm

Hello, I realize this thread is pretty old, but I just wanted to say this is such an awesome idea! It really transforms a photo without much effort.

For a while, I couldn't figure out how to open up the layer text box, but eventually I figured it out. It's really easy!

Here are some of my pics:

Before:

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After:

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Before:

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After:

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Before:

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After:

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