Creating depth and shadows in Photoshop

Below is (I hope) a tutorial showing you how to create depth and shading using a base image and a few textures in Photoshop.

1. First find a good source image for the main image (it helps a lot if it has a clean background) if you haven’t got one or want to follow along you can download all the images used here by simply clicking on the pictures.

2. Duplicate the image so you have a copy of the original in case of an emergency.

3. Rename it “body background”.

Now you need to subtract the background (that’s why it helps to have a clean image to begin with).  There are many ways of doing this depending on what level of precision you need but here we are going to use a quick (and somewhat rough method)…..

4. Click on select > colour range…..

5. Next click  anywhere on the white background and press ok….

6. Right click > Select Inverse (or go to select > inverse) and then right click again >Layer via Copy….

7. Now if you turn off the layers below you should be left with a simple cut out.  Lets name this “body”

As I said earlier this is a rough way off cutting out images from a background, you can see what I mean  if you create a new layer below the body layer and fill it with a dark colour (362e2e). (Rename this layer colour background). The result is not so good….

8. To help get rid of the white edges go to Select > Colour Range.  Zoom in (it helps to have the dark background layer turned on so you can see the white edges more clearly) and click on the white/grey lines.  You may have to do this a few times, adjusting the fuzziness so only the pixels you want to get rid of are selected.

We now have our cutout image.  For the finished result here we are not looking for sharp edges, its not neccessary with the texture overlays and shadows but if you want them for your picture I suggest you use another method.

If you’re interested there is an great tutorial on masking and cutting out tricky details (in this case hair) at Spoon Graphics blog.

9. Carrying on….. add a drop shadow to the body layer, set the blend mode to Multiply, opacity 36% (see the pic below)

10. Duplicate the body layer and rename it “shadow”.  Drag it below the body layer and offset it slightly.  Pull up the Layer Style menu and change the Colour Overlay to a dark, almost black colour.

11. Name it “shadow” and place it below the body layer. Finally reduce the opacity of the layer to 28%.

12. ctrl + right click on the body layer, anywhere in the square box, to only selection the body layer image.

13. Create a new layer, fill with black and again drag it so it’s beneath the body layer and rename it” blur”.

14. Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur (amount 39, method spin, quality good)

15. Grab a grungy, rough texture background.

…….and place it beneath the colour background and then reduce the opacity of the colour background to between 20 – 75 % depending on the effect you want to create.  I often come back to the layers later and tweak them a bit.  (Note: In the final picture I have reduced the opacity of the colour background  layer to 72%)

16. Next add a colour overlay layer just above the texture background layer and fill it with a golden hue (I used 8d8432), set to Colour Dodge, opacity 70%

17. One more texture, a crumpled piece of paper.

18. This one goes above the colour background layer, set to Multiply.

19. Duplicate the bottom shadow layer and place it above the body layer, reducing the opacity to 42%, to create a bit more shading on his left shoulder.

20. Almost there.  If your happy with the result merge the layers (If not now is the time to play around with the levels).  When you’re done add some highlights with the dodge brush……and the result should look similar to the one below :)

Using the same methods I also created this one, just slightly changing the opacity of each layer:

Thanks must go to Groll Greggan for his inspiring and highly detailed avatars (more coming on this later)