Let there be more Light

To finish off the image use the curves to alter the overall brightness. Colours > Adjust > Curves. In the sample I have raised the midtones and lowered the shadow areas.

Before	After

The beauty of the Illuminations Effects filter is that you are not restricted to indoor portraits, you can use it on outdoor scenes as in our example train shot. Here I have only applied two lights, a strong orange light from the left and a very soft yellow spotlight on the face. What you are trying to achieve is a convincing looking effect.

How the filter works

Imagine a print and you’re shining a torch on it, that, in a nutshell, is what the Illuminations Effects is doing, only you have far more control with colour intensity etc. Although you can achieve some remarkable results with the filter, it is no substitute for actually mastering and using lights.

Hints and tips:

Don’t panic if you forget to save your lighting preset, the next time you launch the Illumination Effects it will apply the Last used. Save it now or all will be lost.

Don’t use too many lights on an image, you will find it harder to get a controllable effect. Three lamps maximum should do for most jobs.

There are several light Presets included, use these as a starting point and alter the values to suit your own images.

Try different colours on the lights, making sure they complement the overall picture.

Make sure the shadows in you picture (if any) match the light source direction.

A basic workaround for corrections

Before	After

Grid and Guide Properties in PSP

We can all make the mistake of not getting the horizon straight. An easy way to straighten out the wonky shot is to rotate it. Turn on the Grid – from the Menu bar, View > Grid. You may have to change the grid colour and size to suit your picture - View > Change Grid and Guide Properties.

Values for Rotations in PSP require some experimentation

Open the Rotate panel – from the Menu bar, Image > Rotate… Decide the image rotation direction, left or right, and enter a value. You will have to do some trial and error work on your own images, but our castle picture needs a 1.60 rotation to the left. With the picture now rotated, turn off the Grid (Ctrl + Alt + G) and use the crop tool to remove the white areas.

If your not confident with curves then try this Auto Enhancement

Most digital images benefit from an adjustment in the tonal values, PSP has a number of Automatic Enhancements. For the castle picture I have used the Automatic Contrast Enhancement feature. From the Menu, Effects > Enhance Photo > Automatic Contrast Enhancement. I have selected a darker Bias, Normal Strength and a Bold appearance.

To give the image a nostalgic feel I have applied a Colourize effect. From the Menu – Colours > Colourize. In the dialog box I have entered these values, Hue 30 and Saturation 50. You can try other values to suit your own pictures. As an alternative to the Colourize try the Colour > Adjust > Hue/Saturation/Lightness or Ctrl + H. This will give more control on the choice of colours.On the final picture I have added an Illumination Effect.

The Final result