Tuesday, June 14

CoffeeShop "Light Leak Magic, Top" Photoshop/PSE Action!


Yesterday I showed you one of the ways I add beautiful colorful top light leaks to images. Today I am posting an action that does most of the work for you. It is called "Light Leak Magic, Top" and you can customize the light color.

I would suggest reading the tutorial I posted yesterday and the action tutorial below before using this action. This edit isn't difficult, but there are a few adjustment tips that will help you get your own perfect edit.

You can make the light leak any color you wish. I added pink light on this gorgeous image from Bloom Photography in the image above.

I will be posting tutorials and actions to add left, right, and creative light leaks in the next weeks. :-)

CoffeeShop "Light Leak Magic, Top" Photoshop/PSE Action Tutorial:


I am using this gorgeous image (girl with teddy) from Sarah Mak Photography in my tutorial today.


Start the action. It will automatically apply an orange top light leak, but it is very easy to adjust while the action runs or after it is finished.

In this example I want to move the light up so it isn't covering her face as much, and also make the orange color brighter.

Click on the "Gradient" to change the color and position of the light.


In the Gradient Editor, click on the bottom left orange slider (seen on the screenshot above circled in red) to adjust the light color. The Color Picker will open up and simply click on your color of choice and then click OK.


Move the top right white slide to the left to move the light up if needed. I didn't want it on her face. Once you are happy with the light placement, click OK.

You can change the color and adjust the placement later if needed.


The next prompt is to add the color tint of your light leak to the rest of the image. Select the similar color used for the light leak on top. You can adjust this setting later also.


Finally, you can adjust the lightness of your  image using "Levels". If needed, slide the left black Output Levels slider to adjust the overlay contrast of your image. In this image I moved it from 20 to 28 to add additional light.


This is the image after the action finishes running. You can adjust each layer if needed.


First I turned on the "Glow" layer and adjusted the opacity to taste.


These next adjustments are usually only necessary if you are working on portraits and the tinted light is on their skin.

I used a soft low opacity black brush to remove some of the" Slight Color Tint" layer off her skin and eyes. I didn't want her face to be too orange. You can also adjust the opacity of this layer.


As my final step I used a soft black brush at 50% opacity to remove the "Top Light" layer off her face. I could also remove it from the "Top Light 2" layer, but I wanted some of the warmth on her skin to match the rest of the image.

I hope you have fun with this new action! I would love to see your own before/afters on my Facebook page.

Download the CoffeeShop "Light Leak Magic, Top" Photoshop/PSE Action.

Do you want to download thousands of professional CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop actions (including exclusive ones not found anywhere for free), textures/overlays, scrapbooking papers, clip art/design elements, photo storyboards and frames, and Lightroom presets from this site in one convenient zipped file AND help support this one-woman blog?

Just click here for my CoffeeShop Mega Download Pack!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the action and the great tips from yesterday and today.

    Lisa D.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love this, Rita! Time for me to play with your great action. Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you! Looks like a fun action to play with!

    ReplyDelete

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Rita