Adjust the Opacity and add blur

I do the same thing for the other stained glass windows and the light that’s cast on the floor, always paying attention to perspective lines. If the results are too bright I can soften them in one of two ways: either by darkening the window, or playing with the Opacity and Fill options in the Layers palette. I also apply a Blur filter to the light on the floor.

Tackle the main character

Now I move on to the characters. I begin with the doomed Thomas Becket. He’s mostly in the shadow that’s cast by the column, so I paint him with desaturated and darker colours. He’s lit by the ambient light, except for the bright beam that’s projected on to his knees from one of the windows. To accentuate the brightness of the beam, I add some reflected light under Becket’s eyes, and on his nose, hands and tunic.