neon tutorial.pdf

TUTORIAL |

PHOTOSHOP

PAINTING WITH LIGHT

Recreating the work of an old master, Chuck Anderson uses Photoshop brushes and glow tricks to create stunning

light effects that look so real people are sure to look twice. Follow these steps and ﬁnd out how it’s done

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In this tutorial you will learn how best

to subtly integrate light and colour

into a photograph. The goal when adding

light digitally to any photo should be the

same – to make it look convincing; as if it

were actually there when the photo was

taken. Here you’ll learn how to achieve this

effect by adding light and making it not

only project from the source, but also to

affect the objects that surround it.

The inspiration for this image comes

from a photograph taken of Picasso in

1924. Picasso was photographed ‘painting’

a quick sketch in mid-air in a darkened

room with a torch, and the image was

composited with a shot of Pablo in a studio

to create the effect of painting with light.

In this tutorial we pay homage to

Picasso, using a studio-shot portrait and a

little Photoshop magic. Scanned spray paint

will add an organic edge to the piece and

give it a more dynamic, hand-made feel.

The same goes for the writing – do it by

hand! Try to utilise Photoshop fully using

scans and working them into your image.

The colours you use to create this image

are of utmost importance. Towards the end

of this tutorial you should keep in mind that

the colour scheme is made up mostly of

blues, but adding subtle pinks and purples

will really make the image more vivid.

Small details such as this can really make

a good piece of work stronger still.

TIME NEEDED

30 minutes

INFO

Chuck

Anderson

is an artist

based in

Chicago.

Under the name

NoPattern, he has

worked with clients such

as NYLON magazine,

Audi, Microsoft and more.

He also sells limited

edition prints and runs

the culture portal THE

BRILLIANCE! with

business partner and

friend Benjamin Gott.

Find out more at

www.nopattern.com.

from the black on this tag as quickly and

as simply as possible. To do this, invert the

colours of the image by selecting Image>

Adjustments>Invert. Next select Image>

Adjustments>AutoLevels, to ensure that the

blacks and whites become more contrasted.

on this month’s CD. This shot was taken

in a studio against a black backdrop, but it’s

not quite right. Adjust the Brightness to -15

and the Contrast to +25. The colours need a

little more strength, and by darkening the

image and increasing the contrast you’ll get a

much more dramatic effect.

the image. Either open Tag.tif, supplied

on the cover CD, or create and scan your own

writing/tag/image. Make sure it looks very

ﬂuid and smooth by writing your word quickly

with a consistent pressure. Scan it anywhere

between 300-600dpi in greyscale.

Select>ColourRange. Now take the

Eyedropper tool and select the white lettering

on the image itself before hitting OK. Colour

Range works in much the same way as the

Magic Wand tool, but selects by colour rather

than tone so it’s great for grabbing a speciﬁc

colour. Your white text should now be selected.

Illustration and tutorial by Chuck Anderson

www.nopattern.com

February 2006 | 53

3 You’ll now need to knock out the white

1 Start by opening the Main1.tif ﬁle provided

4 Zoom to 100 per cent and choose

2 Now you can get right down to the guts of

| TUTORIAL

PHOTOSHOP

DUPLICATE IT

When you want to add

extra detail but need to

get it done fast – and

maybe cheat a little –

don’t be afraid to

duplicate your layers,

scale them down, and

rotate them a bit to add

more variation to your

work. This can be a great

way to get multiple uses

out of single elements. In

this tutorial, the spray is

used throughout, using a

different part each time

to add random variation.

Copy and Paste it to Tag. Now adjust

the glow properties on Tag a little until you’re

happy with the result by taking the Opacity

down to 75 and the Size down to 130.

5 Copy the selection you have just made

best to give the spray an even, more

organic and hand-created feel, so either

create your own splatter and scan it in, or use

Splatter.tif, provided on the cover CD. Repeat

steps 3-6 for Splatter.tif, paste it into the main

ﬁle and name it Splatter.

tag, spray elements and some

nice glows, but the light should affect its

surroundings. Make a new layer above

the main layer, name it Blues, and set its

Transparency to Colour. Select a large, soft-

edged brush (800 pixels) and brush lightly

over the model’s hand and edges of his jacket.

6 Now scale this new layer down to the size you want – to whatever size

layer to Overlay and randomly place the

layer somewhere. Be creative, where does it

look best? I like the ﬂoor; it feels integrated

with the image and shows up better than it

does on the black of the background. Try

duplicating this layer several times, scaling it

down, rotating it, and placing it randomly to

get an even more dramatic effect.

the same

techniques used

in step 11, create

another new layer

and name it

Glows. Copy the

Layer Style from

Splatter Copy and

paste the Layer

Style into Glows.

change the Transparency to Screen.

Go to Layer>Style>OuterGlow and set the

Blend Mode to Screen, Opacity to 100 per

cent, Colour to 3bb2e6, Spread to 0, Size to

250 and hit OK. Place the splatter near the

model’s legs so he almost appears as if he

is rising from it.

perfectly into the image. Use a hard-edged circle eraser to get rid of

what doesn’t work within the image. Path the selections if you want to get it

really exact. When erasing, be careful not to create ragged angular edges,

they should be soft and rounded like a pen stroke.

54 | February 2006

11 Copy the Layer Style from Splatter and

and then paste it into your Main1.tif

image. Name this new layer Tag.

8 Now for the fun part – the paint sprays. It’s

12 Now you should have your light

9 Set the Blending Mode of the Splatter

ﬁts best with the base image. Select Edit>Transform>Scale and keep

Shift held down to maintain the proportions.

13 Now, using

10 Now duplicate the Splatter layer and

7 Chances are, your hand-drawn tag (and mine) won’t have ﬁtted

TUTORIAL |

have some

fun experimenting.

Select a soft-edged

round brush with

white as your colour

and start to click

away randomly. It’s

best not to use

Photoshop’s Brush

Scattering or Dual

Brush, because the

effects will look far

too calculated.

Instead keep the

glow dots as small

and numerous as

you can, and try

using different sizes,

too – anything from

ﬁve to 45 pixels.

name it Colours. Set the Blending

Mode to Overlay and select a large soft-edge

round brush and a colour other than blue

– reds and purples work well. Make sure this

layer sits on top of all other layers. Click on

various areas to get a subtle colour variation

in the lights and glows.

ﬁnished

creating your

random light

effects and are

happy with the

results, create

another new layer

and name it

Streaks. Copy and

Paste the Layer

Style with the same

technique you used

on the glows layer.

SEEING STARS

black voids that could

use a little more? Duplicate a

few splatter layers and place them wherever

you see ﬁt, but don’t make the image too

busy. Leave some light spray in the top

corners, and maybe the bottom right, too. Fill

some of the blank space with soft elements

from the rest of the image.

When creating little glow

dots or stars, take your

time and have fun. Each

one should be its own

click. Try to avoid using

Photoshop’s Scattering

and Dual Brush options

if you want to maintain a

level of control over how

they’re laid out.

brush lightly on the opposite side of the

selection so that the white/blue glow appears

on the left-hand side of the selection. Make

sure you don’t overdo it – the glow should be

strong near the source and fade out towards

the furthest section.

light source and is a nice little touch.

With the Polygonal Lasso tool, create a

diagonal selection that intersects the nozzle

of the can and goes towards the top. Close it

by making a large triangular selection in the

top left-hand corner.

streaks you have just created randomly

across the image to create a range of textured

effects. For this image, the streaks were

duplicated next to the original and on to either

side of the NoPattern tag.

21 Looking at the image now as a ﬁnished product, the model still

needs a little more contrast. This ﬁnal step is your call – but for

this image the Brightness of the main image was lowered to -10 and the

Contrast upped to +20.

February 2006 | 55

14 Now you can

19 Now make another new layer and

15 Once you’ve

20 See some corners and

17 With a large soft-edged circle brush,

16 This effect shows projection from the

18 Now duplicate the layer and place the

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