FILL- IN FLASH - Using layers to combine flash & ambient lighting.

• Enhancing a gray day • Day to night • Fill-in flash with layers • Perspective control • Auto Levels • Design a Wine label
Create a wood texture • Back to main Photoshop page • Wavy borders. • Create a planet in space• Filling with colour
All images by Jon Davison unless otherwise stated.


Even diffused Fill-in flash can be harsh on faces, making them look pasty and lifeless. One option is to combine a normal
non-flash image with a flash image into one composition. This way you get the best of both worlds, the ambient high lights of the day that
the fill-in flash can give, plus a more natural looking face without flash. See below to get the image files for this tutorial.

 

 

Above left: Flash image . Right: Ambient lighting, no flash.
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In this example I photographed Rosslyn against the sun to get the
ambient warmth of sunset as a background, yet I wanted a softer
look for her face.
You can see that the fill-in flash version (left) has read for the
background and recorded it well, but has pumped a lot of light on
her face. This is a bit too harsh. In the non-flash image (right), the
meter has read for the illumination off her face (light bouncing off
a building behind me) and has burnt out the sky in the process
accordingly.

In some cases the fill-in flash works well, with architecture and
machinery etc where you have nice reflective surfaces, but not a face.
With Photoshop planted firmly in your mind, you take two
shots during the session. One normal, with a reading off the face,
the other a fill-in flash, both WITHOUT moving your relative position
too much, if at all.


Final image with elements of both layers combined..

The rich sunset combined with the softer tones on the face
combine to give a more pleasing feel to this location portrait.
The final composite two layer image offers a more pleasing
overall effect.

 
The Method

1. Click to open the two images of ‘rosslyn_a.jpg’ and
rosslyn_b.jpg’ Once open in your browser, you can drag
the images to your desktop or Photoshop icon.

2. If the layers panel is not visible, go; ‘WINDOW - Show Layers’
3. Drag the ‘rosslyn_a’ on top of ‘rosslyn_b’. You should now
have two layers in your layers pallete (below).



4. Reduce the opacity of the top layer by 50% to view the one
beneath. This will show you if they are not aligned.
if not, use your keyboard arrows to slide into alignment.



5. Select the Eraser tool (E) and
Start rubbing out the face area of the flash image, to reveal
the layer beneath (below ).
You can adjust the opacity of the Eraser tool to suit the feel of
the image.You may wish to incorporate element elements of
both images, therefore set the opacity at say 50%.







Layout style from my forthcoming book 'Photoshop for photographers'

 



6. Make sure that you create a smooth blend between the
face and the hair line. What youdon’t want here is any clear
cut or hard lines. So include some of the hairline when you
erase the face.
7. If need be adjust the brightness and contrast to suit;
‘WINDOW - Adjustments - Brightness Contast’

You can achieve even more subtle changes by making the
glasses/eyes slightly more dominant.





8. Select (Lasso tool) and copy the glasses from the flash
layer, paste this back as a separate layer, then rub out any
bits you don’t need. Adjust the opacity of this layer to get
the feel you want.



Often it looks like there is very little change at all, but
sometimes it is just this that is enough to set your image
apart. The glasses (left) have just enough of a high-light
to make it look plausible.





An animated GIFF to show the various
stages of this effect.

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