Photoshop: Highlights and Shadows

Photoshop is an amazing tool, we can all agree on that right? But there’s always something new to learn in this program and use more tools to make pictures even greater. One tool I found extremely helpful is the patch tool. This is used to help create highlight and shadow in the places you need it in your photo. In Photoshop, first click on the healing brush and go to patch tool. Draw the shape of the area that you want to change. You’ll then see the “Marching ants” around that area. Then drag that circle into any area in your photo with the lighting/shadow you like best for that area and release. Repeat if necessary until you have the desired lighting you want. If you want to emphasize it even more, then add a new layer called curves and drag the lines up/down to darken/lighten the photo, then mask the layer (cmd+delete for mac or ctrl+delete for windows), then paint the area on. Here are some of the photos that I used this tool on:

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Hope this tool was proven useful and that it will help your photos even further.

Here’s the link if you want a further description of the lesson with the patch tool:

Working with shadows and highlights