I'm again going to quote Amy's post.
| "make 2 curves layers... one curve pulled down, the other pulled up. I fill both masks black and then paint in areas on the individual layers that i want to carve down or up (0% hardness on the brush, 100% opacity, 1% flow). This is method make a low-impact on your file size, but i dislike it because i have to switch back and forth between layers. ." |
So we have our image from last time with the dodge and burn copy. What we do next is create two seperate curve adjustment layers.
Make sure we have our topmost layer highlighted (noticed I've called our dodge and burn layer 'D&B Layer'. It is highly recommended that you name layers as you progress through your work). Click the 'Add adjustment layer' icon at the bottom of the layer palette and select 'Curves...'
Fig 8.
The curves window will appear. Here we will just very slightly lift the curve to brighten the whole photo.
Fig 9.
Notice too that we have a new layers called 'Curves 1' complete with it's own mask. Click OK.
We will now invert the mask (i.e. remove the effect of the raised curve). To do this make sure that the mask is highlighted, and then press CTRL-I.
You should notice two things. Firstly the image will restore back to what you had before and secondly the mask will now be black.
Now to add highlights all we do is paint with a slow flowing, soft white brush onto the mask to add highlights. If you've went too far then switch to black and paint away the excess highlights
It is important to point out here that you have to fairly careful where you paint highlights. You should be looking to enhance the already present highlights on the skin, otherwise you are going to start making the image look unnatural. Saying that, this can also be used to lift some darkness in shadows, but don't go too far.
On this image you will see the added highlights. If you roll the mouse over the image you will get an idea of the mask I've added to enhance the highlights.
These are the very first rough highlights I've thrown down. I'll enhance and clean these up as I do this method, but this should give you the general idea.
Fig 10.
This is very similar to Step 1 except the new adjustment layer will have the curve slightly dropped down.
Fig 11.
As before we will invert the mask, and then using a white brush slowly paint in areas where you want to enhance the shadow detail.
If you are very good at sketching the human form you may get this done very quickly. However you may need to keep switching between the layers getting your effect right (this is the reason Amy doesn't like this method). Adjust your brush size and carve away at your image until you are happy.
As mentioned earlier you have to keep jumping between the layers tweaking your masks. Lay them down roughly first, and then clean up.
OK... we are finished with this method
Here is the after image, and you can roll you mouse over it to see the version just after dodging and burning.
Fig 12.
