Isolation problem

Fotosmurf · #1 (**permalink**) 05-13-2007, 10:31 AM

Yesterday I had this shoot with a lovely little kitten, but obviously it was kind of hard to get her to sit still, pay attention to the lighting etc. I brought a background with me that reflects a little but I can't get the shadows right by any means as you can see from the photo below... I know someone explained how to get shadows on isolations with setting the brush on dodge to a smaller % which is what I tried but it just looks wrong...
If anyone has any tips on how to get this better looking I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks
Simone

RTimages · #2 (**permalink**) 05-14-2007, 06:21 AM

Hi,
Easiest way to get natural and realistic shadows is to do it the way it's shown on this link:

Photoshop Effects Adding a Shadow Tutorial

You can't go wrong and it takes seconds.

Fotosmurf · #3 (**permalink**) 05-14-2007, 07:03 AM

Thanks for the link Richard! I will have a look at it and see if I can make it work! I also noticed that the photo I attached is too small to make any sense out of it...

Karimala · #4 (**permalink**) 05-14-2007, 08:46 PM

When I want a little bit of shadow leftover, I use the dodge tool at 20% or less. The trick is to use it set on all three settings: highlights, midtones, shadow. The closer I get to the object, the darker the light I will dodge. For example, the furthest edges get the highlights treatment, then as I get up closer to the subject I switch over to midtones, and lastly I use shadow for the areas closest to the subject. What I end up with are nice soft shadows that don't have that ugly yellow cast.

Fotosmurf · #5 (**permalink**) 05-16-2007, 11:57 AM

I was getting that yellow cast all the time, but then I tried to do it all with highlights... Doesn't the shadow get darker when you use midtones instead of lighter? Let me try it anyway! Sounds like it might work as well.

Richard I tried to do the shadow thing on one of the cat pictures and although I got a shadow it somehow was difficult to get it in the right position for this particular shot. I will try the technique again on a person maybe as I sometimes like to have a shadow but they never come out quite right.... Still a great tutorial!!