Discover key techniques in image editing, including the adjustment and removal of hard lines to improve image quality. Learn how to resize and proportion images correctly, and the benefits of using shadows to enhance photo realism.
Key Insights
- The article focuses on image editing techniques such as adjusting and removing hard lines to enhance image quality. This process is done by using the paintbrush tool and dragging to the right to remove lines.
- Resizing and positioning images correctly is crucial to maintaining proportion and realism in the final output. The image of the hiker, for example, is resized based on its position on the sidewalk.
- The addition of shadows to images can significantly improve their realism. The article demonstrates how to create a shadow using the ellipse tool, adjusting its opacity to create a more natural effect.
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In this video, we’ll be adjusting our hiker as well as removing some of the hard lines from our crane and Hiker Removed image.
As we can see on the top right, we have lines going across. This is because if we hold ALT and click on our images, we’ll see that the masks show hard lines across the top. Holding ALT on our Hiker Removed layer, we’ll see that the hard lines are there as well.
To fix this, we’ll hold ALT and click on the mask thumbnail. Then, going to our Paintbrush Tool, we’ll use it, making sure that our foreground color is black. To remove these lines, we’ll simply click and drag to the right.
Next, we need to remove the lines from our Crane Removed Branded layer.
We’ll select the mask thumbnail to the right of the Crane Removed Branded layer, and doing the same thing, we’ll simply click and drag across, down, and to the right.
Let’s zoom in so that we can get close to this bottom tower, and we’ll drag to the right. We’ve now removed those lines from our image.
Let’s hit CTRL S to save our work, and now let’s begin changing our Hiker Removed image.
To do this, let’s zoom out and select the Hiker Removed layer.
Next, we’ll hit CTRL T to transform our image.
Here, we have the opportunity to resize our hiker. Based on how large we resize him, we’ll need to adjust his size depending on where he is on the sidewalk.
So, obviously, if he’s further on the sidewalk, this is too large, so we’ll need to shrink him down if he’s up front. If he’s further back, we’ll have to make him significantly larger.
In this case, we want him to be about halfway up the sidewalk, so we’re going to resize him to about this size. There’s no exact science to how we resize him.
However, it is important to resize him so that he looks proportional within the overall image.
I think he looks good right here, so I’ll hit ENTER and zoom out to check my work.
In my opinion, he looks proportionate. However, for your image, you can make that assessment yourself.
Next, let’s adjust our hiker by adding a shadow below.
As we can see from the bus on the left-hand side, as well as the bus on the right, there is a shadow below, signifying that there’s a light source up to the left-hand side of our image.
Therefore, to add our hiker to the image appropriately, we also want to add a shadow to the bottom right-hand side of our image.
To do this, let’s first create a new layer and name it ‘Hiker Shadow.’
Next, with Hiker Shadow selected, let’s create an ellipse using the Ellipse Tool, and we’ll simply drag a large ellipse within our image.
We’ll then drag our layer below the Hiker Removed layer so it’s below him, and we’re creating a shadow right below him on the path.
We’ll then go into Properties and select Fill. In this case, we’ll be using a gradient.
We have multiple gradients available to us. However, let’s use the Black and White gradient, as we’ll be having black in the middle. Now, we’ll change the other side (currently white) by double-clicking the color stop and dragging it down to black as well.
We now have black on the left and black on the right, and we’re going to change this from a Linear Gradient to a Radial Gradient.
Finally, even though it looks like black fading into black, we’re going to change the opacity of our right-hand gradient stop. We’ll double-click on it and change the opacity to zero, then hit ENTER.
We can now see that this looks like a shadow.
Going back into our Properties and selecting the gradient, we’ll click on the left stop and change the opacity to something a little less aggressive.
We don’t need it to be quite so dark, so we’ll change it from 100 to 70 and hit ENTER.
Next, we simply want to move it. We can use the Move Tool by pressing V on our keyboard and dragging it down and to the right just a little.
Finally, I think this is still a little too dark, so we’ll go back to our Hiker Shadow, select it, select the Gradient Fill, and choosing the left stop, we’ll change the opacity from 70 to 50 and hit ENTER.
There, I think we can see that we have a bit of a shadow. However, it’s not too overbearing, and it looks consistent with the rest of our image.
We’ll click outside the Layers Panel and see how it looks.
Looks pretty good.
We’ve now created a shadow for our hiker, as well as placed the crane in the top right-hand corner.
If we zoom out, we’ll see that we have an image incorporating all of the necessary elements.
Let’s save using CTRL S on the keyboard, and we’ve now finished our image.
Nicely done. In the next video, we’ll begin using these same elements to create a new scene with our hiker and crane.
See you then!