Unmesh Dinda 0:03
Hi there, this is Unmesh from PiXimperfect. And today I'm going to show you how to fake
a Sun, the one that you see in the sky, with Photoshop. We have two examples lined up for you. So, without any further ado, let's get started. So here we are back in the magical world of
Photoshop and you want to go ahead and download any of the photos shown in the tutorial, check
the links in the description. So with example number one, the first thing
we need to do is to create a gradient. So, click on the Adjustment layer icon and
choose the second option right there, which is Gradient. Now, we need a Radial Gradient because Sun
is what? It's a circle, right? So click on in here and choose the Gradient
from Opaque to Transparent. So, in this case, we're going to choose the
second one which is Foreground to Transparent and we can change the colors. Just make sure the left top slider has the
Opacity of 100 and the right top slider has the Opacity zero. Now let's choose the color. On the left hand side, you can double click
on it, and change the color to some what yellowish, that's fine, bright yellow. I like that. Hit OK. Now as it fades, we're going to choose red. It's going to turn into red. Click on this one, you can also single click
on the color to choose the color. So we're going to choose something like this. That looks fine. Hit OK. Now hit OK again. Of course it's going to be radial. So change the style from Linear to Radial. Now we have the 'Sun' kind of shape right
there, and we can move it anywhere we want. So I'm going to keep it right there. At this moment, it's very huge. So let's make it smaller by decreasing what? The Scaling. So decrease the Scaling from 100 to, let's
go for about, how about 25? That looks to be about right. So hit OK. You can always change this later. Now, it doesn't look anything like the Sun. I can totally get it. We just need to use the power of Blend Modes. Now, what is Sun? It's bright. So, what is brightening in Photoshop? Well, what is the terminology, what is the
technique? Dodging, right? We also want to add some colors. So why not change the Blend Mode to Color
Dodge. So change the Blend Mode from Normal to Color
Dodge. Coloring a little bit, dodging, brightening,
right. Change it to that. Now, it looks pretty alright, but, you know,
something just doesn't fit right. So what do we do? We just need to simply change the colors and
move it a little bit to the left. So again, double click on in here, and we
can move it right there, it seems to be pretty alright. I think if we single click on this one and
change the color to a little bit whiter color, that would look better. So change the color from yellow to a little
bit more white. You see, that looks better. So let's choose this color. Hit OK. And on the right hand side, let's choose a
little more, you know, orange-ish. No, orange doesn't fit right, so red is fine. A touch of magenta. Hit OK. Hit OK again. That fits to be all right. Now, we can decrease the Scale if you want
to. But I guess, for this example, 24 or 25 would
be pretty nice. Now, if you think the Sun is too powerful,
you can always do this - decrease the Fill. Now, keep in mind, Color Dodge is one of the
eight special Blend Modes. So, Opacity and Fill is different on these
special eight Blend Modes. So Fill controls the projection, whereas Opacity
is simply lightening it up. So, if you simply decrease the Opacity, see
it's fading it, but if you decrease the Fill, it will control the projection, as you can
see right there. If you think it's too powerful, you can always
decrease the Fill. For this example, we're going to keep it at
about 97. That's pretty alright. Now, we have created the Sun, but we still
need to create the light around it. So again..I think the Fill is kind of too
much. We can actually move the Sun if you want to. Let's move it a little down like that, and
decrease the Scaling to about 20. Hit OK. That's good. Fill - let's increase it. I think it was fine. 86 was okay. We need to create the light around the Sun. How do we do that? Again, let's create one more gradient. So click on the Adjustment layer icon and
this time again choose Gradient. Now we will choose the color yellow again
and on the right hand side, as it fades, we will choose red, which is okay. Hit OK. All right, we need change the Blend Mode from
Linear to Radial. Now, let's move it over the Sun, just exactly
right there. Now, Scaling is kind of too much. So we're going to keep the light around it
at about 56%. Let's keep it 50. Hit OK. Now, we just want the light, we just want
brightening. That's it. Now, what is the Blend Mode which brightens
stuff? Screen. So change the Blend Mode from Normal to Screen. See, the light around it is looking so fine
and amazing. Now, let's add a little magenta to it because,
have a look at the background, there's so much magenta. So, we're going to go back and let's make
it a little more magenta. So let's try a little magenta color or let's
pick a color from here. No problem at all. This is okay. I think the yellow needs to be a little more
orange-ish. So we're going to change the hue a little
bit to make it more orange-ish. You know, that fits a little more. Hit OK. Hit OK again and we can move it any place
we want. This place is fine. Scaling, we can decrease it or increase it,
it's upon us. So, I'm feeling like 32. Let's go for 32. Now this is all right. But we still need the light around it, we
still need the atmosphere. And we can do that by using Curves. Now, I'm going to say it again and again,
I've said it before, I will say that in future and that is, if there's one thing you need
to master in Photoshop, it's going to be Curves. And there's already a video guide on it which
you can watch right here. So, click on the Curves Adjustment layer by
clicking on the Adjustment layer icon and then choosing Curves. Now, we need to take it up, just like this. Now, in the bright areas, what do we want? A little more yellow color. So let's go to the Blue Channel and decrease
the blues and the highlights. Why? Because blue is the opposite of yellow. So, if you just simply decrease it, you bring
in a little bit of the yellows. Now, we want a little magenta too, right? So decrease the greens in the highlights. Wow. Now we are on to something. Let's get back to RGB and make it even brighter,
just like this. Now, we don't want all of this brightening
to be applied on these gradients or the Sun that we added. We can actually group both of them. Select the first one, hold the Ctrl or Command,
select the second one, Ctrl or Command + G. You can name this Sun if you want to. But this brightening, we want it just on the
landscape, right, just on this background. So let's bring the curves below the Sun. Right, we have all this. Now, we don't want the brightness on the dark
areas. So, we want to take it away from the dark
areas. And what do we do to do that? You already know that. Blend If. So double click on the right hand side of
the layer. The Layer Style dialog box shows up. We want to take away the dark areas of the
underlying layer from the current layer, which is the Curves. So, let's take this slider of the underlying
layer from left to right. See the atmosphere we're creating, right? But, if you have a close look, it's very harsh. So hold the Alt key or the Option key, click
on the slider to break it apart right there and just break it apart. You can even extend it on this side as well,
but I'm liking this. There you go. Hit OK. Now what we wanted is for this light to just
be in that specific area, not anywhere else. So click on the Curves Adjustment layers Mask,
press Ctrl or Command + I and then you can take the brush, make it larger, with a very
huge brush, make sure the foreground color is white, you can press X to toggle between
the foreground and the background, and D to reset the swatches, just dab. Make sure Opacity and Flow at 100, dab on
the Sun. Now, only that area is brightening. You can dab on other areas as well. Have a look at this, only that area is brightened. Now, we want to just darken the rest of the
areas, so you can create one more Curves Adjustment layer under it and add an overall darkening. Something like that. Now, I want you to have a look at this. Here's the before, here's the after. See how we fake the Sun right there, right? Now, if you want, you can always decrease
the Opacity of this light, extra light that we added. I think it's kind of too much. So, we're going to keep it at about 70, 70%. Or if you want a little extreme, let's go
for 80. And that looks fantastic. Here's the before, here's the after. That's how we fake a Sun. Now, I want to show you one more thing. Here, example number 2, there is no sign of
Sun, but we're going to create it. We're going to use the same method and, you
don't have to do it all over again, I'm just going to copy and paste the Sun layer, group
actually. So, you can select the group, Press Ctrl or
Command + C, and then come back in here, Ctrl or Command + V. So, we don't want this magic ball of light
on the grass. We want to move it. So, let's open the properties one by one. So, let's turn up first and double click on
this one. Let's move it to the sun area. I think this would be a right area to be in. And I think this is great. Hit OK and let's turn this on as well. Open the Properties and move over that area. I think we can go a little larger in this
case. Let's go for about 45. What do you think? Does that look all right? I hope you could respond, that would be fantastic. But anyway, this looks okay. And this is very, very bright. It looks like an explosion just happened there. So we need to decrease the Fill. So, let's come back to this one and decrease
the Fill. All right, and let's move a little bit to
the right hand side, that looks okay. And we need to mask out the top. The top looks a little strange. So select the Mask, take the brush, foreground
color - black, and just make the brush a little smaller because we had made it huge in the
previous example. Alrighty. Okay, this looks to be all right. Now just paint black over it. Alright, this is okay. Sun is okay, the light is okay. Maybe you want to recreate the Sun too. Let's add some white in here. That looks all right. Now once we have the Sun, we need to create
the lighting. So, just above it, you can collapse the group
if you want to by clicking here, click on the Adjustment layer icon, we're going to
choose the same old technique - Curves, brighten it a lot like that. Of course we want yellow. So we'll go to the Blues and decrease the
blues to add some yellows. Now, as you can see there's a ton of green
in there. So we need to go to the Green Channel and
decrease the green in the highlights, just like this. Now we are getting somewhere. It's looking great. Let's go to the Blue Channel again. Maybe let's increase it a bit. Anyway, so RGB Channel, let's increase it
even more. Now, that looks fantastic. Now of course, we only want it in the bright
areas. So double click on the right hand side of
the layer, take the slider of the underlying layer from left to right, just like this. Hold the Alt or Option, click on the slider
to break it apart. Wow. Now, that looks like something, right? Hit OK. We need to mask it too. Click on the Mask, Ctrl or Command + I, then
you can take the brush, take a soft brush and then just dab on the areas where you want
some extra lighting. So, white as the foreground color, just dab
on here. See, how we add the light? Let's make it even larger. Let's add some light in these areas as well. Now, you can take your time to be as much
accurate as possible. I'm just adding some light here and there. You can actually make the brush a little smaller
and take your time to dodge and burn if you want to. Want to take it away from certain areas, you
can do that too. See how we are taking it away from some areas. Let's make it a little smaller. Now, change the color to black and take it
away from the corners so that it looks like the light is more realistic and limited. There we go. This is great. Now take it away from the sky too because
it's also brightening the sky. So make the brush a little smaller and paint
with black over the sky. This is all right. Now, we need to add some extra brightness
based on the bumps. We don't want any of the details of the grass. So, first of all, let's make a copy of the
Background layer by pressing Ctrl or Command + J and let's blur it out because we just
want the bump details. So, go to Filter - Blur and then Gaussian
Blur. But, we won't be able to see it, right? Let's turn off everything. Filter - Blur and then Gaussian Blur. Let's blur it to the point where you just
see the bumps here and there. Alright, so this is okay. Let's go for 55. Hit OK again. Now Ctrl or Command + L to add some levels,
and we are just creating a Mask. Now we have something to play with, a little
bump here and there. Let's create one more Curves Adjustment layer. You can actually turn the Bump off and turn
on everything. And this is some extra brightening. Go to the Blue Channel, let's decrease the
blues. Go to the Green Channel, let's decrease the
greens. Right. Now, we want to use this Bump as a Mask. So, how do we do that? Let's turn it on first. Ctrl or Command + A, Ctrl or Command + C and
you can actually delete it right now. Let's go to the Mask of this one by holding
the Alt or Option, clicking on the Mask, we are into the Mask, and then paste it - Ctrl
or Command + V. Now we are using this as a Mask. Now, we don't want the sky to be in there. So, first of all, hold the Alt or Option,
click on the Mask. So, see the Bump, see the brightness we're
adding according to the bumps, which is okay, but it also brightens the sky. So, of course, we need to select the Mask,
take the brush, black as the foreground color, and then just erase it off. You can, of course, decrease or increase the
Opacity. We're going to keep it at about 48. That's okay. And you can delete this Bump thing if you
want to. Now, one of this is looking all right, looking
okay, but you know what's missing? The amazing dramatic sky. So, let's add some sky. We can actually copy and paste the sky too. So, turn off the Sun. Let's create a new layer - Ctrl + Alt + Shift
+ E. Now we have something - Ctrl + A, Ctrl + C. Now let's move to the other document
by clicking on the tab. And then select the topmost layer and then
press Ctrl or Command + V. Now, before we transform anything, let's change
it to a Smart Object by right clicking on it and choosing Convert to Smart Object. Now, let's resize it accordingly. Let's keep it at about this size match the
horizons that's okay. And that seems to be about right. Now, we're not doing some advanced blending
in here. I'm just placing it right there. If you want to know how to match the sky,
replace the sky, there are tons of videos on this channel. They all are linked in the description. So, once this is selected, the layer selected
- new sky - click on the Mask button, take the brush and simply mask it out. We are not doing some advanced blending in
this case. Black as the foreground color and just masking
it out, simply. Now, we need to adjust the brightness of the
new sky. So we can always create a Curves Adjustment
layer. Click on the Adjustment layer icon and then
choose Curves. Now, whatever we do inside of the Curves affects
everything. We just want to affect the sky. So what do we do? Create a Clipping Mask. So click on this button, see this arrow right
here, it just means that whatever we do inside of the Curves Adjustment layer, it limits
it to just the sky or the layer underneath it. So, take the darks a little down, or maybe
let's keep it the way it is. Let's brighten it just a bit, brighten the
shadows. This seems to be all right. Now to add an overall look, you can also add
a Color Lookup Table and you already know what I'm going to add if you have watched
the previous tutorials. Click on the Adjustment layer icon and then
choose Color Lookup, and we're going to choose Crisp_Warm. There are two choices I have right here. Crisp_Warm looks amazing. You can always decrease or increase the Opacity. Let's keep it at about, let's go for 40%. Now you can also add one more. Click on the Adjustment layer icon - Color
Lookup and this time you can also choose LateSunset. Wow, this is fantastic too. Let's decrease the Opacity. Increase a just a touch at about 38% or 40%. And there you have it. I want you to have a look at the before and
after. So, here's the before. Oh my God. This is the after. Look at the difference. Isn't that amazing? I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. That's how to add a fake Sun or that's how
to add the Sun effect or whatever you want to call it, call it faking a Sun, especially
the one that you see in the sky in Photoshop. Simply all you have to do is to add a Gradient,
change the Blend Mode to what? Color Dodge and make sure it is a gradient
from something opaque, an opaque color which is bright yellow to transparent. Now, as it fades, you can change the color
to red, or whatever suits you landscape. It can be red, orange, magenta. And on top of that, to add some flare around
it, simply add one more gradient and this time we're going to choose the Blend Mode
- Screen. So that creates the Sun, as you can see. But creating the Sun is not enough. We need to create an atmosphere around it. And that is something we do by using Curves. So, by using Curves and Blend If, we create
light and drama around the Sun. And after that, if you want, you can also
change the sky, add some Color Lookup tables if you wish to. And that's all there is to do. I hope this video helped you and if it did,
make sure to give us a like and also don't forget to subscribe and not just subscribe,
ring the bell so that you, my friend, don't miss any other future tip, trick or tutorial. I would like to take this moment to thank
all these nice and amazing people for supporting this channel on Patreon and helping keep PiXimperfect
free for everybody forever. Thanks again for watching. Thank you for your support. I'll see you guys in my next one. Till then, stay tuned and make sure that you
keep creating. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
