MAKE ADVANCED ADJUSTMENTS

Precise control over lighting effects is possible with localised edits

1 DARK RAW

To open your RAW file in Photoshop, you’ll first have to process it (e.g. in Adobe Camera Raw). Here we have kept the file looking dull, knowing we will enhance it with layers in PS.

2 ADD ADJUSTMENT LAYER

Click on the black/white circle at the bottom of the Layers panel. A list of layer types opens up – select Brightness/Contrast as this is the easiest to start with.

3 ADJUST THE PROPERTIES

Click on the black/white sun icon on the new layer to open the Properties panel (shown on the left). Adjust the brightness and contrast to taste.

4 INVERT MASK

The Layers panel shows the mask as a white rectangle. Click on it to make it active. Press Ctrl/Cmd + I (or Image>Adjustments> Invert) to fill in the mask.

5 PAINT IN THE LIGHT

Select the brush tool, colour white, Hardness 0%, Flow 100%, Smoothing 0%, mode Normal. Make the brush quite large and paint in a pool of sunlight.

6 MORE THAN ONE

Generally speaking, you’ll use more than one adjustment layer, so just repeat the process. Here a second ray of light has been added as an example.