Dual Lightning Effect | DIE Week 3 - Teach Me Wednesday

This is a tutorial on how to give a portrait a natural dual lightning effect.

Set these things first:

• Find an image you want to edit and open it in Photoshop.
• Once your Photoshop is open, make sure you have the colors set to black (foreground) and white (background).

Step 1: With the Selection tool you prefer, select the subject of the image. Once you have it selected, go to the Layers Panel, and click on the New Group icon.

Step 2: On the same panel, click create Layer Mask, and you'll get a mask based on your selection. Then go down, click on the New Adjustment Layer icon, and choose Black and White (the default colors are set in black and white already, if not, change it). 

Step 3: Go back to the New Adjustment Layer icon and select Gradient Map. Click on the gradient preview to open the Gradient Editor.

Step 4: Double-click on the white color swatch to open the Color Picker, and select the color you want to use. Then close both the Color Picker and the Gradient Editor.

Step 5: Open the Blending Mode dropdown and select Hard Light, set the Opacity to 90% or as you wish.

Step 6: Being on the Gradient Map Layer, using a Soft Brush (Tool Bar>Brush Tool), set the brush size to 150 px, and hardness to 0%. Start by painting on the right side where you think the other color light will hit.

Step 7: Duplicate the Gradient Map, Command-J (Ctrl-J), then invert the layer with Command-I (Ctrl-I).

Step 8: Change this new Gradient Map color by clicking on the gradient preview to open the Gradient Editor, and then repeating Step 4, and you're done.