Day 6: Let There Be Light!

Welcome back to day 6 of Thingadailies. Want to play along? The full video is here.

Today's starting point: 5:34

Ending point: 6:54

Today's changes were a big part of why I chose this particular project. In this 80 seconds, we change the direction of the light that's hitting the forest. That's pretty amazing and really useful. One of the challenges of using multiple photos in a composite is that the light source isn't always coming from the same direction.

(Yes, I feel a little stupid for not figuring out how to do this on my own, but it's one of those things that is only obvious after you see someone else do it. For me, anyhow.)

Today's starting point:

Step 1: Give the buffalo a shadow

In this step, I copied the forest layer, darkened it using the levels, masked it, and then allowed that layer to come through around the buffalo's side and where the head should cast a shadow, based on the light hitting the buffalo's face.

Did I put the shadows in the right place? Eh... Sure, it's fine.

Step 2: Light in the forest

Another copy of the forest layer, but this time, I lightened it (using curves) and highlighted the sunny side of the trees. This was duplicated a couple more times with various levels and curves. I have some doubts about my choices, but I'm comforted by the fact that much of this will be covered in a layer of fog tomorrow.

In progress...

And where I stopped and said "Sure, that's fine."

For comparison, here is a screenshot from the video at this point:

I mean... my errors choices are starting to pile up a bit, but I think I'm doing okay here.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I add fog and cover up all my mistakes!

Tip of the day:

Layer groups really help keep things tidy.