Sims 4 Editing - Tumblr Posts
How do you get your lighting so scrumptious in edits?
Lighting tutorial under the cut (it's long lol) I use photoshop + topaz clean btw :)
This will be our starting pic!! I use @hazelminesims photoshop action (all in one) to get the smoothening and overall base done first.
First step to colograding is using the 'Camera Raw Filter' in photoshop and adjusting the tint and curves tools. I generally like a greener, more cool toned color for pictures.
2. Now for the shadows on the sim! I make a new layer, set to 'Multiply' and use a soft brush at around 25-40% opacity with the color Black. I generally will add shadows to the parts of the body that are being 'covered' (neck, side of the nose, forehead, insides of arms and clothes). *If you use reshade/ gshade and have the mxao filter on, mimic where that filter adds shadows and either enhance it or add it in photoshop!*
3. In a new 'Multiply' layer, I do the same thing with the background. I darken the elements in the back to emphasize that my sim is in the forefront of the shot. TIP: don't add shadow to the light sources (neon signs, lights in the background) ! We actually want to enhance those.
4. Make a new layer, set to 'Pin light' at 100%. Grab a soft brush and highlight those light sources in the back. You can go crazy here, just take the Eyedropper tool to color match the highlights you want to emphasize. It might look a bit much right now, but we can tone this down by decreasing the layer opacity, Gaussian blurring the layer, and erasing any excess highlights if we want.
5. Now we add highlights to the sim. I make a new layer, set to 'Soft light' at 100% opacity, and with the white color, I highlight the sims body and clothes. (Now we want to add light to the 'raised areas' such as the center of the forehead, nose bridge, chin, chest, and arms). I also like to highlight any jewelry (necklace and belt buckle).
On a separate new layer, set to 'Vivid Light', I changed the brush colors to the ones in the background light sources (I used blue, yellow, and purple.) I'll go over the outlines of the sim's body with these colors (shoulders and arms, hair, side of face and neck.)
If you ever feel like you've gone overboard, just lower the opacity of the highlight layers and Gaussian blur them!
6. After you've messed around with the highlights, add the finishing touches. Usually once I merged all the layers I would go over with the Dodge and Burn tools to enhance the contrasts even more. I also recommend downloading and using LUTs for photoshop (I just use any free ones I find online).