Page 48 - Photoshop User March 2017

››HOWTO
MATCHING LUMINOSITY & CONTRAST
One of the best ways to ensure that all the ele- ments in a composite seem like they’re part of the same photo is to match the contrast and luminance values. In many cases, it’s hard to compare the contrast and luminance values of each object in your composite with the naked eye. The color in the image may be distracting, and you won’t be able to see the difference in contrast. But, by desaturating the image, the dif- ferences become more apparent.
Step One: Create a Black & White adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Black & White) on top of the two layers of your compos- ite. Rename this adjustment layer “Luminosity Check.” By desaturating the image, it becomes more apparent that our model has less contrast and is much brighter than the background.
Step Two: Click on the model’s layer in the Layers panel and create a Curves adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves) directly above it. Press Command-Option-G (PC: Ctrl-Alt-G) to clip the Curves adjustment layer to the Woman Red Dress smart object layer so that the changes don’t affect the background (you can also click the icon of the square with a bent arrow at the bottom of the Properties panel to clip the adjustment layer). Then, press Option-Shift-Y (PC: Alt-Shift-Y), or select Lumi- nosity from the blend mode pop-up menu (near the top left of the Layers panel), to make it so that this adjustment layer only affects the lumi- nance values of the layer below, and not the hue or saturation.
Use the Curves adjustment layer to match the contrast and luminance values as best as possible. As you make changes to the curve in the Prop- erties panel, the model will either get darker or brighter. Try to make the black-and-white com- posite seem as real as possible by having the dark- est and brightest points of both layers match.
Step Three: When you’ve completed making your adjustments, disable the Luminosity Check layer by clicking on the Eye icon to its left. Notice that the model seems like she fits better in the
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