Master Photo Editing: 5 Tricks to Create Stunning Depth (Phone or Desktop)

1. Introduction: Depth in photography is super important. And while it's always better to create as much depth as possible while shooting, in this class, I want to share with you five ways I use very often when I want to increase depth in my photos in post production. Everything I'm showing you can be done on a computer or on a smartphone. 2. 5 Ways to Increase Depth in Your Photos in Post Production: Talk about that, you need to think of creating different layers in a photo because a photo, yes is in two D, but we can enhance it by thinking of different layers. And the main way to do this is using the bouquet effect that expensive camera do. What if you don't have an expensive camera? Well, there is a way on how we can do this. Anyway. But let me explain you first. If you have a look at this picture, now, how many layers do you see Well, there is the first one, which is these flowers that are blurred. Then there is a subject. Then there are some trees, then there are some bushes, and then there is a sky with a little reflection. We already identified many layers in this photo. And this applies to any type of photo. If we have a look at this product photo, we can see that there is an iPhone, there is the cover. There are some lights. That goes basically on a straight line. Then there are some lights even behind, then there is a black background. So this is just a product. But the same thing could be also for landscape. If you have a look at this photo of the Dolomts, we can see that there are some brushes. There is some grass in the foreground of the photo. Then there is a very nice little mountain or green with some trees. Then there is a huge mountain in the back with some clouds. Then there is a sky and there is also a sun that is coming from the lab. So we need to think of this as different layers. Okay. Now that we understood how we can identify depth in a photo. We can start with the very first step about increasing depth, and this is about highlighting the subject and making it stand out from the background. And we can do so quite easily using light room. I'm going to show you using desktop, but it's the same exact process using mobile. When you go in the mask menu, there is the select subject option. So you just need to click on it, and that light room will automatically create a mask. And then you'll be able to play either on the subject or just inverting the mask playing on the background. In this case, we're just going to create actually two masks. I'm going to duplicate this one. After I duplicate it, I just need to invert it and then I can play around with the subject itself. We just need to increase it a tiny bit and we can see already a massive difference between the before and after. There is so much more depth because the subject is actually standing out. It's really important that we try to separate our figure from the background. Now, the second method using torn curves. Now, I already edited this picture with basic adjustments, as you can see. So we got the before and after, it's really much better, but let me show you what happens when you create an S curve in all the turn curves that we have in lat room. So let's start from the luminosity first, so we're going to create one point in the shadows and one point in the highlights. There you go. Then we're going to do the same thing in the other three. So now we're doing the red one, and then we're going to do the green as well. And to finish the blue one. Now, if we tuggle this button on and off, we'll be able to see the difference between before and after just of the turn curve. This is the before, and this is the after only with the tone curve panel. It's not considering anything else. If you have a look at the before and after of the overall image, this is what we have. One more way to add that in your photo is actually play around with contrasting colors. Right now, we have this image, which is unedited. Let me just do some very very basic adjustments. Even in this case, I'm going to select the subject and then try to increase its lominosity and exposure. There we go. We got the before and after already so much better, but there is one more thing that we can do. This is actually using contrasting color like blue and yellow, different part of the image to create extra contrast. In this case, I'm just going to use a radial filter, then create a filter right at the bottom of the image and move the temperature towards the blue. Then I'm going to create a nodule radial filter, but this time at the top. And moving the temperature towards the opposite side towards the yellow. There you go. Now the difference is that there is more contrast than before because this part is in the foregone and this part is in the background and they have contrasting colors, then we have more depth in the photo comparing to before. Then we can take this photo actually one step further. We're going to open it in photoshop. Then what I want to do, I want to try to add a fake sun here in this part because if we read the image, we can see that the highlights are here on her head. Therefore, it's okay to have a sun right here. So I'm just going to use my overlays and then I go in light rays, and then I'm going to put the light number four, which is an orange sun. It will create an amazing contrast probably with the blue of the pool. We just need to change the blending mode and then the background will be removed automatically. We're just going to increase the dimension of the sun and then just let it touch a little bit on her ad. There you go. If we want, we can mask out some of the parts of the sun if we don't want them. Now, why this photo is so much better than before is because there is this contrast between the blue of the foreground water and the sun of the background. One more way that we can use them to increase depth in our porches. This is about creating reflections in course production. How do we do this? Well, we can use overlays to do this. For example, in this photo, we see that there is actually a backlight that is hitting her at here. What about we try to exploit this part and try to have a reflection that actually goes through the whole photo. In this case, I'm just going to have a look at the overlays and see what we have. I'm probably going to use this phrase number 11 and see if we can work out how to place it properly without looking to fake. Then we're just going to click, and we need to change the blending mode into screen in order to remove the background automatically. Then I think this looks pretty good already, but we need to change the color because this light is clear yellow. We're going to create a solid color, and then we're going to pick anything that is like yellow, we'll be able to change it afterwards, so don't worry about it too much. Then we're going to change in color. Then make sure that is created a clipima, so that is affecting only the rays below and not the whole image. Now, it's obviously too strong, so we just to decrease the opacity until we are matching and we are happy with what we have. In this case, as you can see, we created an extra layer. There is the light that is coming from behind to the front, and then there is the person and then there is the background. Let me give you another example for reflections. This case, we have KB here, and then what we can do is simply add maybe a film leak. We go in the overlays, we go in film leak, and then maybe we can pick Anything, let's try to pick the number 45, and then we rotate it, we make it big. Put it in the corner right here, and then we change the blende moon into screen, which will remove the back. Then we're good. Now the image is a little bit too affected by this, we're just going to create a mask with the brush that is black, and then we're going to paint where we want to delay, not having the overlay. We can always click common or control J on this layer. Then we duplicate it until we are happy with the result. I'm pretty happy actually right now because this reflection is actually increasing depth of the photo I is very close to the camera, and then there's the subject, and then there's something else behind just right here. Some more examples from previous images that I edited. Then another way on how we can increase depth is actually using shadows. In this case, I'm going to use my own shadows overlays that you can find the same pack as with any other overlay that I'm using. Here you have loads of choices. Maybe I can try to go with the shadow number 22 and then try to place it behind the subject. I just rotate it, I make it as big as the image, and then simply by duplicating this layer, I'm going to put it on top, then select. Subject and then mask it. There you go. Now, we placed a shadow right behind the subject, and as you can see, is not only the subject and the white, but there is the subject. There is the window, and there is the background. So we added an extra layer in just a few seconds and a couple of clicks. And to do it with your phone, you just need to use a free app for both iPhone and Android call Pixar. So when you open Pixar, you just need to click plus and then open any photo that you have in your camera. For example, let's pick this one, and then you want to go and add photo. There you go right here, and then you're going to add the overlay. So, in this case, you're just going to use two fingers to make it bigger, and then in this part, rotate it, maybe even bigger. There you go. Like so, make it slightly bigger, bam. Now, what you want to do is that you go in blend. And then you change the mode into screen, again, and it's going to be the exact same result as we obtain with our computer. But if you want to delete this kind of line that you see here, then you click the rubber, then you go in erase, then we're going to increase the size, reduce the opacity, reduce the hardness, and then boom, you're just going to paint a little bit where the line is too strong. You want to check out my overlays pack containing 480 plus overlays for desktop and mobile, I'm going to link them down below in the class description. For the class project, take one of your images and try to adapt using one of the five ways we explored. Follow me on skillse and I'll see you in one of my other classes. Chow.