Fill flash with Gradient tool

By Les Chang, October 20, 2006 on 3:50 am | In Tutorials |

I’m sure you have encountered this, sometimes your flash didn’t not fire or your object under shade., this would help to brighten up your object and maintain the exposure of the surrounding.

Before:
_dsc9789_before.jpg

After:

_dsc9789_after.jpg

How do I solve this?

1st, duplicate the layer, attach a layer mask onto it.

make tonal adjustment on the new layer to your desired brightness (using curve or level)
with the layer mask is active, select linear gradient tool, colour=foreground to transparent, mode=multiply, drag the gradients as shown in green arrows.

_dsc9789_gradient.jpg

_dsc9789_drag.jpg

Adjust the opacity of blending before you flatten it down.

Voila, now the photo looked nicer.

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5 Comments »

  1. good technique.
    tried it on Paint Shop Pro, didn’t get the dragging stuff but worked just as same.
    however my result has more saturation to it.

    Comment by gold3knight gold3knight — October 20, 2006 #

  2. Good technique.
    tried it on Paint Shop Pro.
    Worked just as well, though didn’t have the dragging.
    Tried the in-software fill flash, not as good.
    Thanks for sharing.

    Comment by gold3knight gold3knight — October 20, 2006 #

  3. suggestion only, y dont use the circle gradient? so no need multple drag.. but condition.. the face need to be quite round lah.. :) :)

    Comment by ccwong ccwong — October 20, 2006 #

  4. yupe, it can be done, some people prefer using soft edges brush.

    Comment by Les Chang Les Chang — October 21, 2006 #

  5. The first time i saw Les do it, i went of and try… I couldn’t figure out how come he can do multiple gradients….0o0o00h have to set to multiply mode.. sooooo des neeh…

    I just shot Lionel319’s wedding last nite… I hope I will be able to share some pix from his wedding with u’all… let me ask him later ;)

    Comment by big_fish big_fish — October 23, 2006 #

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