Tutorial 3A: Shading Realistically

Step 30:

To start shading, select the Retouch tool. Click the tab with the gears on it, and select Darken RGB.

Step 31:

Start on your highest layer with color that needs shading. It's easiest to go in order with the shading so you don't get confused. With the brush set to 0 Hardness, move the Darken brush over the recessed areas of the picture, or the areas farthest away from your light source. Do all the shadowed areas on the one layer. If the shadowing is coming out to dark, lower the Opacity a little.

Step 32:

Next, select Lighten RGB to do the highlights. Do it the same was as you did the shadows, keeping in mind that the protruding parts and parts closest to the light source will have it. For hair and metal (or other shiny things), you can make the highlights a lot brighter than on just clothing or something.

Step 33:

Next, on the layer you're working on, click the button that looks like a lock with a red X through it. This button is to Lock Transparency, which means that if you have it so there is no red X, the only places you can edit on the image will be places that already have color on them. This is very useful for the next step.

Step 34:

Go back to the tab with the gears on it and select Soften.

Step 35:

With the Hardness and Opacity set to 0, run the brush all over the shaded image to soften out the shading job you did. The reason to have the transparency locked with the soften brush is because if you didn't, the color would be softened on out from the lines (the soften brush sort of pushes the color pixels apart and away to get the effect). Meaning you would get out of lines and it'd look bad. Repeat steps 30-35 for each layer, keeping in mind that the Lock Transparency button is important. I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but if you haven't yet figured it out the button that looks like a pair of glasses on the Layer Palette make it so when clicked, the layer it's next to goes invisible.

Step 36:

Add a spiffy background (make sure it's the very lowest layer... sorry, no more tips than that, I SUCK at backgrounds). Right click any of the layers (make absolutely sure you're satisfied with everything in the picture! no going back after this step!), and click Merge (Flatten). Resize the image to about 600 pixels tall (or whatever you like) and save it as a JPG with no compression (in the save box click Options and then Uncompressed).

Step 37:

Voila! All done!