Lighting effects: how to use Photoshop to add atmosphere to outdoor portraits

In this tutorial we show you how a few simple Photoshop effects using Lens Flare filters can add romantic lighting to your outdoor portraits.

Shooting into the light is a great way to create a variety of different effects, and while silhouettes are an obvious choice and easy to shoot, adding a bit of lens flare can have an equally dramatic effect.
As always, there’s a Photoshop filter that can not only apply the effect, but can also be adjusted to fit and blend in with your image 
with seamless results.
Here we are going to show you how to quickly enhance a portrait so colour, light and tone reflect that of an image shot into the light, before adding a touch of lens flare to give a final flourish to the effect.

How to enhance outdoor portraits with Photoshop Lens Flare effects


01 Portrait retouching
Select the Patch tool and draw under the darkness of the left eye. Keep your finger held on the mouse button drag and release the selection onto the cheek. Use the same technique to remove the shadow from the nose. Use the Spot Healing Brush to remove spots and blemishes.


02 Warm the skin tones
Create a new Curves Adjustment Layer. Select Red from channel drop-down. Warm skin tones by making a single point with Input value of 126. Select Blue channel. Add point near centre in bottom right quarter with Output value of 119 and Input of 139, click OK. Drop layer Opacity to 38%.


03 Lighten the mid-tones
Create a new Levels Adjustment Layer. Increase mid-tone slider to 1.24.lick OK. From Layer Options select Flatten Image. From the top menu bar choose Filters>Render >Lens Flare. At the bottom of window make sure default option of Lens Type 50-300mm is selected.


04 Adding Lens Flare
In the top of the window’s preview, move flare preview from the centre of the image to top right, the lens flare will cast a direction diagonally to the bottom left. Use the brightness slider to 162 to increase flare’s intensity. Adjust position of the preview if needed, click OK to finish.Other Lens Flare Photoshop effects

Besides the 50-300m Zoom flare, there are three other types of Lens Flare to choose from, each replicates the optics of a certain size lens

Other Lens Flare Photoshop effects

Besides the 50-300m Zoom flare, there are three other types of Lens Flare to choose from, each replicates the optics of a certain size lens

35mm Prime


105mm Prime


Movie Prime

Other uses for the Photoshop Lens Flare filter

Photoshop’s Lens Flare filter can add some sparkling flourishes to your digital images. Here are some great ideas to try it out on.

Silhouettes
This is a more common technique for shooting into the light that can also be enhanced with the quick addition of lens flare. It’s a tweak well worth making.

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Add an extra element of excitement and a sense of cinematic drama with the addition of lens flare breaking over the horizon.

Macro
By firstly adding a warm yellow glow and then the lens flare you can quickly add atmosphere to your macro shots. This flower shot is full of the joys of spring.

Action
With the addition of a lens flare effect through the trees, we’ve created a sense of movement and action to the cyclist which brings this image to life.

Studio portrait
Lens flare is a great addition when getting creative with studio portraits. In the example here, we’ve added flare to follow the lines of the studio lighting.

Comments

  1. Zack Nilsson22 March 2023 at 02:03

    I'm glad you enjoyed the tutorial on Photoshop's Lens Flare effects! Thank you for your kind words and for checking out both yesterday's post on Photoshop masking and today's tutorial. It's great to hear that you find the content from Clipping Path Center fantastic. I will definitely continue to provide helpful tutorials and tips.

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