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	<title>Confessions of a Keytarist &#187; Soft Light</title>
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	<description>Only an idiot blames his fools... tools.. damn keyboard</description>
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		<title>Softly does it</title>
		<link>http://www.blog.ianmellor.co.uk/2009/08/26/softly-does-it/</link>
		<comments>http://www.blog.ianmellor.co.uk/2009/08/26/softly-does-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:45:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sk93</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Computers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Photography]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Photoshop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Filters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Soft Light]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tricks]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Following on nicely from the last post, I have another quick trick I often use to give some of my more “meh” photos a bit more “yeh”.
We’ll start with the same photo as before:
 
As before, the image appears quite “flat” and lifeless. We can try and fix this with a very quick and (usually) efficient [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Following on nicely from the last post, I have another quick trick I often use to give some of my more “meh” photos a bit more “yeh”.</p>
<p>We’ll start with the same photo as before:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.blog.ianmellor.co.uk/images/Softlydoesit_E618/nosoftlight.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="nosoftlight" src="http://www.blog.ianmellor.co.uk/images/Softlydoesit_E618/nosoftlight_thumb.jpg" border="0" alt="nosoftlight" width="217" height="244" /></a> </p>
<p>As before, the image appears quite “flat” and lifeless. We can try and fix this with a very quick and (usually) efficient contrast tweak using a “soft light” layer.</p>
<p><span id="more-67"></span></p>
<p>To this, open your image up in Photoshop, then create a duplicate of the original background layer (right-click on the background layer and select “duplicate”..).<br />
Now, with the duplicate layer selected , choose “Soft Light” from the dropdown list of layer types:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.blog.ianmellor.co.uk/images/Softlydoesit_E618/softlight_layers.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="softlight_layers" src="http://www.blog.ianmellor.co.uk/images/Softlydoesit_E618/softlight_layers_thumb.jpg" border="0" alt="softlight_layers" width="239" height="179" /></a></p>
<p>At this point, your image may already look better, but it some cases (including this image), the soft light can be a little overpowering on full opacity.<br />
Obviously, every image is different, so there’s not a “one size fits all” opacity setting, so you’ll need to experiment with each image; Try dropping the opacity down to around 70%, or until you gain a good contrast.</p>
<p>I settled for 70% for this image, and the results I gained were a good deal better than the original:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.blog.ianmellor.co.uk/images/Softlydoesit_E618/softlight.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="softlight" src="http://www.blog.ianmellor.co.uk/images/Softlydoesit_E618/softlight_thumb.jpg" border="0" alt="softlight" width="217" height="244" /></a></p>
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