a YouTube tapering a photograph a
product with a single-speed light I'm
gonna share a workflow for compositing
something like this fairly easy actually
with just a few exposures and some
digital enhancements so things I want to
touch on today getting this nice shimmer
across the label I think that's a lovely
final touch it's really classy secondly
I want to focus on the general nature of
how this products just kind of glowing
like we're really breathing life into
every angle to keep them - is a one
light setup we're gonna do an optional
drop shadow which is just a very
pleasant option to handle a client so
essentially we're building the actual
schemes that would accompany say these
TV boxes but we're taken out of the
proper studio setting and opting for
something a lot more minimal so you
might be asking what the heck's going on
over here this is just a really simple
black card with a lot of sight cutout to
the camera normally I do some more
manageable background you've seen me use
so just add a principle i'm gonna use
this i'm all about utility and it does
everything it needs to do it as a line
of sight to the lens we're gonna take
advantage of that with one of these $10
diffusion discs and a speedlight pretty
much creating a white background and I
have a histogram open so let me take a
look at this
okay this looks really lovely so it
almost looks like a great keyed frame so
what we could do from here is make a
really crude selection around the item
and that can be really crude even with a
soft feather and then once you invert it
you've now isolated the white areas and
with a simple white fill now we've
printed a nice base frame that will
composite onto in the future
okay let's proceed here and take a few
detail shots just with the same lighting
system I'm gonna kind of try to make the
top of this glow something that could
look kind of elegant so that's just one
light and that looks oddly sophisticated
for one light I will say I love the way
the logos sort of playing there though
certain areas certainly look
underwhelming so let's bring this image
as our base frame and we'll add that on
lighten mode and that's where we can
really begin to avoid these
unidirectional looks and start to build
you know multi-directional images that
you know breathe a lot of life in an end
result so let's set this is our base
frame and I'm gonna tether to on lighten
mode and we'll add a little detail shot
maybe at the front of the image
interesting so there it is unlight
enlighten and there's the raw capture
itself so you can begin to acutely light
areas and that's a really strong
approach so not that this is you know
the perfect finished product here with
the light modes added I just want to
illustrate the point and more so the
mindset that we approach this from okay
so I'm gonna stop broadcasting to you on
lighting mode now and just take a ton of
shots and when we're in the editing room
in the comfort of the editing room we
can really analyze these but hope you
guys enjoy just seeing them come up here
and I'll try a variety of angles
and even though the backgrounds are
completely sporadic nothing is brighter
than whites when we apply that light
mode we don't have to worry about any of
that it's gonna completely keyed out
focus on the sides here a bit now I'm
not going to use all these exposures I'd
be crazy to do that lovely sweep a few
strong options here and I'll enjoy
including the post at the end of this
episode now this episode is single-speed
light compositing and digital
enhancements so what is digital here
about our final image what can we take
care of well this little gradient this
little Apple
you know shimmer on the gloss we could
easily take care of that in
post-production and that's how I prefer
to do that you could certainly get that
in camera just follow the angle of
incidence and have a nice hard
reflection behind it so I'll show you
how we take care of that in Photoshop in
a moment
acute areas like this these gradients on
the side are certainly subject to being
you know tightened up made better in
post-production or completely
artificially recreated though I will say
because our item is floating the way it
is we had a lot of access to getting at
it at the sides so folks were headed to
post-production please like the video if
you enjoyed it and I'll see you all
there on the other side take it easy
welcome welcome in the post-production
element of this workflow I'm excited
you're here so I shot this set of
exposures with the proper background
stand but the exact same ideas apply and
when I imported this backlit frame I
applied a bit of contrast so that we're
on pure white pixels here which is
really important because that'll make
lighten mode become our best friend so
it's my base frame and it's a few fun
shots that I just sort of like painted
the item with like we just did so
starting with the backlight frame let's
make a new layer above it hit a little
make a really crude selection around it
having a solid silhouette is really the
crux of this technique you have to have
a base frame and has to be clean as a
whistle now the reason we can make this
selection crudely
because we're taking advantage of the
floating nature of our product and you
know it's swimming in catalog lights we
might as well make that selection
control shift I to invert alt delete' to
paste our foreground color which is
white and ctrl D to deselect and now we
have like 90% of a silhouette we have
everything we possibly could without you
know having to intervene manually like
we're gonna have to here now I see a bit
of yellow haze here let's actually do a
D saturation effect that'll get rid of
the chromatic aberration and any color
cast in our item so we need to manually
get rid of this part of the selection
I'm gonna advocate the pen tool for that
cuz it really handles curves well by
dragging these nodes we can really
acutely you know account for the
curvature of our product and accurately
select it now I probably should turn on
these light modes to accurately see the
edge but I already did create a
selection here so we'll just go right
along here the sake of the video and
show you what I would do so I'd close
that selection up I'd open my paths
dialog box and if this doesn't present
itself to you it's hiding up here in the
window tab and ctrl click to select the
path now we could paste white like we
did before and that would work but it'd
be kind of a short-sighted solution what
I prefer to do is make a new layer ctrl
G to group the layer and with this
selection present make a layer mask
using this button so what this will do
is it will make a selection it'll make a
mask out of the selection so once white
is in that grouping it essentially did
the same thing you're allowing a white
layer to exist in the confines of that
selection but it's kind of smart now
because it's editable I love preserving
the editing capabilities when possible
not only is it editable we can go back
and change this mask but we have a
feather dial here when organic
selections happen you know they're kind
of like hazy by nature even by like half
a pixel but when you artificially create
selections they're really straight and
sometimes it can look too crisp so by
applying even half a pixel of feather it
just becomes a bit more organic a bit
easier to look at especially when you're
a little bit zoomed out it's
it's nicely so let's merge these
together and just like a cooking show
air to have a nice one here so we do a
little switcheroo and I spent a bit more
time crafting this to you know really
respect the curve there at the front so
now we have a nice silhouette and like I
said this will serve as the base of our
entire project which is really important
now we have all of these layers here and
everything's on lighting mode so I'm
gonna put my base mode on normal and by
putting these little you know light
paints on light mode you essentially
just turn a light switch on so here's my
base frame here's my right and I put
some light over here on the left and
they're really gonna play well together
I think the reason I chose this as my
base frame over here it's because we
have a bit of front to back you know a
direction of the lighting that gives the
whole scheme a bit of movement and
serves well as a sort of
all-encompassing base then we skirted a
bit of light here in the right and the
left so here's the left exposure I think
it's really nice it's really low-key and
you know I did it from a low angle but
it plays really well with the base and
you can't even tell it to composite it
looks really like a to light setup I
think now the right exposure some of
it's a little sloppy so what I'm gonna
do is give it a layer mask and invert
that layer mask hit G to bring my
gradient set white as my foreground
color I'll do a radial gradient and you
know just awake this part of the product
up over here because it's looking kinda
too dark I like G to bring up the
gradient and just sort of skirt some
light and I'll try a few different
shapes I'm not really trying to make
this bright but just it looks
underwhelming when it's this dark and by
just doing a little something like that
you just wait that area up and give it a
bit of life and I think people
appreciate that in an e-commerce setting
so now that this is knock out gorgeous
lighting but I think we've breathed life
like I said into every angle of the
product and it's much more acceptable
for e-commerce and it's a decent basis
to start off on so why don't we start
digitally augmenting this puppy make a
new layer and you got my lasso tool and
we're gonna add that sort of Apple techy
shimmer to the logo here so to do that
I'm gonna make a crude selection and
please take more time in your selections
than I do
I just I really value people's time even
random people on the internet and no one
wants to wait through too long of a
tutorial so I try to stay speedy with
the crude selections not that this
selection needs to be like you know
amazingly airtight there's a bitter
wiggle room nice and see I have this
selection mode selected so I can just
keep adding to that and it won't
deselect and again I'll make a nice
crude mask okay and you know I went a
little too high there so I'll patch that
up lovely and I'll just get over here
nice now that's not perfect let's keep
moving here so just like before in a hit
ctrl G to group that and make that
selection a layer mask so now anything
that happens in this group is going to
be contained to the parameters of the
logo mask and I'll name a logo like if
we painted white in here we would paint
white where the logo is but that's not
what we want we wanted to sort of cut
through like a shimmer same hit L and in
this layer within the grouping I'm going
to decide where I want that shimmer to
exist so what angle here something like
that and you'll notice I'm being very
crude with the way I'm selecting this
because we're within this group so it
doesn't matter we can paste white and
it'll only show up there does that make
sense to everybody
okay now this looks really fake because
it's all one tone and that's not that
good so we could lower the opacity sure
but it's still gonna be sort of to
linear so what we could do is actually
give the group give this layer a group
within the grouping then if we give it a
mask we can sort of fade it out on the
side so I'm gonna give it a black mask
so it disappears and I'm just gonna do a
white gradient and that'll sort of give
more you know movement to the gradations
like if I did it really extremely you'd
see what this is doing here's a more
subtle version just by having some
movement there you're not allowing it to
all be a uniform tone and it looks a
little bit more believable and that's
also kind of motivated by the
front-to-back direction of the lighting
you know and the whole scheme of things
so I think that was kind of cool we have
a bit of a central Radio gradient
and that looks nice there's a bit of a
beveled nature to this so why don't I
actually select that I'm gonna hit
select modify contract in this shrink it
by a pixel control ship I to invert that
and then put black into the mask that's
just gonna shrink the selection and kind
of make it respect the bevel a little
bit more now it looks way too hard edged
as well so I'm gonna go back into the
feathering and that's you know another
benefit of keeping everything editable
tricky word to say editable half a pixel
is decent now that's election work was a
little sloppy but I think we're on the
right track and I think you get you know
how you would nail that with the proper
amount of time so that's nice we lifted
that area up digitally and that's great
but we add a little LED to the front
here I use an elliptical marquee tool
I'll make a kind of small selection
paste white as my foreground oops I
didn't make a new layer yet there we go
paste white is the foreground deselect
and I'm gonna shrink this to be pretty
narrow so it looks nice and techy and
ctrl T to bring up those scaling
properties and I'll just rotate it such
that it's flush with the angles here
something like that and I'll kind of and
try to put that in the middle now
that'll look really fake but it's just
you know it's just information to work
with that's what all this is including
that you just give yourself information
to work with
and then you fine-tune it until it looks
believable and you know it's really
through a fresh perspective and an
e-commerce setting that people are going
to see this and they're not gonna see
you know all the editing you did there's
gonna get the final result so that looks
nice know what I'm gonna do is blur this
just to create a bit of almost like a
glowing light effect and it'll look kind
of cheesy when it's just one light I'll
agree but what we'll do is we'll keep it
real subtle so what we can do is begin
to duplicate these layers we can grow
them we can shrink them we can adjust
their opacities and just by creating
multiple layers we kind of create depth
within our light and have a more
believable glow so let me just take a
bit of time
here to craft this until I think it
looks half decent okay I don't think
that's perfect but I think that serves
the purpose that's actually how I
recreated it in my final version and
maybe I spent a few more layers just to
make that all make sure that all blends
together nicely but actually think that
looks decently strong so now we have
something that may not be award-winning
but you know it's acceptable illuminated
for e-commerce and it's a good you know
starting point for our editing so I
won't merge everything together I won't
even bother renaming is if you don't
mind
I'll merge everything together but first
actually I'll duplicate this base frame
I'll merge all this together now if
you're happy with pure white and you
don't need a drop shadow this may be
perfect for you you can shoot stuff
without a shadow for e-commerce all day
using a single speedlacing this method
pretty powerful now if you want a bit
more control or maybe you're interested
in a drop shadow let me show you a few
techniques that you can employ so I'm
going to copy this base frame we created
and let me show you another great use
for it we can give this grouping here a
layer mask alt click to view the mask
and then paste the base frame in there
and that's kind of the antithesis of
what we want so we'll invert the mask
and now what we've done is pretty much
use that silhouette to actually
completely render out our item and how
beautiful is that
so let's bring in white as our
foreground color here that's really nice
and I'll duplicate that and I'll invert
it so we also have black
okay so let's hide this black layer and
get some drop shadows going here so
let's ctrl click our mask and again I'll
make a new layer and I'll just paste
black in this layer and this is gonna
actually act as our shadow essentially
so we'll bring that below our grouping
and also bring that slightly lower than
our item just so we can see it and let's
hit ctrl T and holding alt and shift
also make that a little smaller and a
little lower maybe something like that
nice now I'm gonna make this really
subtle and this will be you know a
fairly hard
with a hard edge I will do filter blur
and just do a pretty subtle blur but
we're gonna do this in combination with
a more you know blurred shadow and it's
gonna inject a lot of realism so we'll
duplicate that and let's do a more
serious blur something nice and blurry
kind of like that and we don't want that
to be completely visible but let's blend
it into a certain amount and you know
what I'm gonna actually make the hard
shadow even less visible and the reason
I do this - shadow method is just by
having a hard shadow and a soft shadow
you just kind of inject a bit of realism
by not allowing it to look really linear
and simple and it looks a little more
complex and believable I find it
actually looks kind of like it was lit
from the top with a softbox which is how
it could have been lit in fact the way
we digitally augmented that it kind of
suggests that maybe that's how it was
lit to be honest so I think that's
looking half-decent but the nice part is
because we created this mask you know we
completely can have a drop shadow and
not worry about it bleeding into our
actual information so that's a nine
percent that's an 80 percent it'll
reduce that to seventy it's become a bit
more subtle and you know you can tweak
that to the high heavens but I think
that that looks half decent so what I'll
often do with a client is I'll deliver
you know this shot and then I'll deliver
this shot just to give them options and
that's a really beautiful thing because
it makes your client feel like they have
even more control and it's as pleasant
if you can quickly do that and just
offer them you know an array of options
so speaking of options and this is my
favorite part about this technique is
let me turn on this black layer again
and don't reduce the opacity and what
you'll notice is by increasing the
opacity of this black layer I know I
should begin to pull this into gray and
just reveal to us that we're completely
able to change the background color of
our layer here just by changing the mix
between black and white when you put any
color in the background I find that's
such a powerful technique that often
gets glossed over because you can
deliver this not just on pure white or
pure black but a really specific hue
color which is really important
especially if you're crafting hero
images or cover photos well you know
marketing ads where you need to have a
real
specific hue that happens a lot well
this is completely a subject to that and
that's beautiful
like I love putting things on a flat
gray when possible it looks a little
different and I think it's a nice techy
look this is also completely open to
having like completely insane colors I
want to do a crazy gradient just to
illustrate a point here maybe something
like that so a linear gradient I'll do
foreground to background and this is
gonna look nutty so hold on to your
horses ready whoa that looks crazy but
the point is you're completely existing
outside of your item with the simple
selections we took and that's a really
powerful technique moving forward so
whether you want to deliver on gray or
deliver on white it's up to you this is
the image I threw together and I did
this fairly quickly like I really don't
think this is breathtaking but I just
unlocked so much potential by doing this
myself that it was so exciting I thought
I'd just share this process with you so
you can start to rebuild these kind of
looks or you know use these in your own
e-commerce ventures make sure to LIKE
the video if this helped you it's a
beautiful way to help out the channel
here and it really improves our SEO so I
appreciate you thumbing up the video
check in back next week for what we're
up to I'm sure it'll be something very
fun and until then I hope everyone has a
great time I'll see you all later take
care everybody
you