How To Darken A Background In Photoshop

3 unlike ways to darken the background

This Tutorial shows 3 different means (Levels, Selective Color, Lighting Effects Filter) to darken the background of an image with Photoshop 7/CS.
It also briefly discusses how to apply Blending Modes for layers and Layer Masks. Levels, Lighting Effects Filters and Blending as well work for Photoshop Elements three.

There are several other ways to darken backgrounds in Photoshop (Curves, ...) and many other image processing tools offer similar functionality to improve your photos.

Have fun - Sabine

Earlier	Earlier	Before

Afterwards: Levels	Afterward: Selective Color	After: Lighting Effects Filter

Use the Levels tool to darken the background

When to employ:	If yous simply want to further darken already nighttime areas in your prototype. Call up that you will loose particular on the dark side, i.east. your main subject should be something light.
Photoshop Tool:	Layers carte du jour: New Adjustment Layer: Levels
See too:	Some time ago i wrote a basic folio about Levels and Levels Aligning and a tutorial virtually Manual and Automatic Level Adjustment.
Epitome Info:	Risbecia pulchella on ugly sandy groundwork (Kubu, East Bali)
EXIF Info:	Automatic with F11 at 1/100s, full zoom, internal strobe
Problem:	I wanted to generally darken the whole background.

Pace 1: Create an adjustment layer for the Levels tool

It is important to utilise an adjustment layer to exist able to fine tune the consequence afterwards past irresolute opacity or using a blending mode. With Photoshop CS or 7 we tin can also use the layer mask to apply the issue to specific areas only. This is not possible with Photoshop Elements. To create the layer: In the layers palette, select the groundwork layer. In the Layers menu choose New aligning layer and select Levels as adjustment tool. The dialog to adjust Levels opens up. Merely click OK to create the adjustment level.
Your layers palette should look like this now: To reopen the Levels dialog, simply double cklick on the Levels icon (cherry-red arrow).

Step 2: Increasing the Input Levels Shadow Value with the Levels tool

Reopen the Levels tool and move the left slider nether the Input Levels histogram to the right or modify the value for Input Shadows to something greater than 0.
This darkens already dark areas in your image. If you movement the slider completely to the right about the whole image turns black.
My Input Shadow Value of 50 is enough to darken the gray sand without loosing too much detail on the nudibranch.

This is probably plenty for a quick and like shooting fish in a barrel fix.

Pace 3: Use a layer mask to utilise the adjustment (Photoshop 7/CS only).

Assuming that i wanted to further darken the background without loosing detail on the nudibranch or if the slug was a fleck darker, i could utilize a layer mask to control the areas where the aligning should be applied and mask areas that i want to preserve the fashion they are.
Photoshop 7/CS automatically creates an empty layer mask for each adjustment level.

To actuate the layer mask for the adjustment level, simply click on it.
You tin can mask and unmask epitome areas by directly painting on the image with a tool of your choice, like the brush. Utilize Black to mask areas, White to unmask areas and different Greys to create more or less semi-transparent areas (to create smooth transitions).
The layer mask also has it's own channel, but switch to channels and activate information technology there to see what is masked

In this version of the image i increased the Input Shadow Value to 75 to amend show the issue of the layer mask. And so i activated the mask and carefully painted Black and Gray on the image. here the layer mask is not completed to testify the difference between masked and unmasked areas.

Photoshop Element does not support layer masks only y'all can help yourself by selecting the area to darken (or to keep, depending on what is easier to select), copy your option to a new layer (Ctrl C, Ctrl V will create a new layer with your selection) and create the adjustment layer for levels on top of the paradigm layer to conform.

Step 4: Finetuning the Layer Mask

The best style to control your layer mask is to switch from the levels to the channels tab. The Layer mask has it'southward ain channel here. Only select it and continue to paint on your image.
If you display (small center left of the channel) the layer mask channel while the RGB channel is also displayed, you can see the mask on your image (default mask color is blood-red). If y'all hibernate the RGB channel, you see the mask every bit yous painted it in black, grey and white.

Here is the final effect:

Using Selective Colour to darken the background (Photoshop CS/7 only)

When to utilize:	If you need to control exactly which colors to darken and which to keep.
Photoshop Tool:	Layers carte: New Adjustment Layer: Selective Colour
Paradigm Info:	Black-spot Surgeonfish (Acanthurus bariene) portrait (Tulamben Wreck, East Bali)
EXIF Info:	Manual with F11 at 1/125s, focal length eight,2mm, external strobe with half power
Problem:	I wanted an almost blackness groundwork for this fish portrait. I also assumed that after darkening the background, at that place would be less backscatter to remove.

Step i: Create an adjustment layer for the Selective Color tool

It is of import to use an aligning layer to be able to use the layer mask to utilise the consequence to specific areas only.
To create the layer: In the layers palette, select the background layer. In the Layers menu cull New aligning layer and select Selective Color as aligning tool.
The dialog to conform Colors opens up. Simply click OK to create the adjustment level.
To reopen the Selective Color dialog, simply double cklick on the Selective Color icon (equally decribed for the levels tool in Pace 1 of the previous case).

Pace 2: Paint on the layer mask to protect the fish

Create the layer mask as described in Steps 3 and four of the previous examle.
You tin can even utilise a Gaussian Mistiness (of ~ five pixels) to the mask to create a smooth transition from masked to unmasked areas.
The resulting mask should expect like this (when viewed as channel):

Step 3: Adapt colors to darken the background.

Reopen the Selective Colour tool and and select Absolute as Method for now.
The difference between Relative and Absolute is sometimes hard to see and sometimes stunning. Absolute increases or decreases the amount of the chosen color contained of how stiff it's amount already is, whereas Relative takes the amount of already existing color into account. If you increment the amount of Blackness in Cherry-red past 100%, Absolute volition do this evenly, no affair if it's lite Red or night Red, whereas Relative volition add less Black to lite Red and more Blackness to nighttime Carmine.
Without our layer mask, Relative would be the better method.

The easiest way to darken a color is to merely increase it's value for black.

In the Selective Color dialog, choose Black as color to conform.

Increment Blackness in Black past 100%. Increasing Cyan in Black past 25% and decreasing Yellow in Blackness by 25% gives our black a nice bluish cast.

Now Cull Grey as color to accommodate.
Increase Black in Grey past 100%. Increase Cyan in Grey by 10% and decrease Xanthous in Grey by 10% to keep the blue black background.

Finaly Choose Cyan as color to adjust (no picture) and Increase Blackness in Cyan past 100%.

Most of the backscatter in the background should be gone by now.

Here is the final result:

I used the clone tool on the original background (make sure to select information technology earlier cloning) to go rid of the last backscatter. Then i reduced all my layers to the background layer (Levels carte du jour).

Simulating a strobe with the Lighting Effects Filter to darken the background

When to use:	If you desire to highlight a specific area and darken it's environs.
Photoshop Tool:	Filter carte: Rendering Filters: Lighting Furnishings
Image Info:	Pom-Pom Frogfish (Antennarius hispidus sp.) camouflaged in a bed of algae (Secret Bay, W Bali)
EXIF Info:	Automatic with F11 at 1/30s, no zoom, internal strobe
Problem:	I wanted to darken the background on the left side to make the fish popular out a picayune bit more than and get rid of the Anglerfish human foot (there were several of them close together) in the elevation left corner. Using the clone tool to become rid of the other fish and Levels or Selective Color applied to a layer mask to manipulate specific areas of the epitome would accept been other options merely applying a simulated strobe was the easiest solution here.

Step 1: Duplicate the background layer

It is important to apply this filter to a re-create of the background layer to be able to fine tune the result afterwards by changing opacity or using a blending fashion.
To create a re-create: In the layers palette, select the background layer. Right click on it and cull duplicate layer from the popup menu or choose Duplicate layer from the Layers menu.

Step 2: Apply the Lighting Furnishings Filter

Select the copy of the background layer in the layers palette. Adjacent choose Rendering Filters: Lighting Effects from the Filters menu.
Set the Style to Strobe and the Light Type to Spot. Suit the colour, eye and direction of the light besides as the other properties equally shown hither to create the desired consequence and keep in mind that the direction of the light should match the original strobe position.
(Sorry i had to english language version of PS bachelor. The Texture chanel must exist set up to None)

This looks rather unnatural, we'll have to tone downward the issue

Step 3a: Change the layer opacity to tone downwards the effect.

Fortunately we applied the filter to a copy of our background layer, where nosotros can simply decrease the Opacity to create a much more natural effect..
Select the copy of the background layer in the layers palette and change the value for opacity to ~30% (type in a new value, click into the value field and utilise the Up and Downwardly arrows to change the value by one or Shift Up/Downwards to alter the value past 10 or utilize the slider).

By clicking on the small eye symbol left of the layer y'all tin switch the adjustment on and off.

This is better than the original, but i'm not yet really happy with it.

Footstep 3b: Utilise some other blending mode

So far, we just used the normal blending fashion for our layer with the strobe effect.
Photoshop offers a variety of different blending style to create interesting and sometimes foreign effects.
One of my varourite blending modes is Soft Light and i'll use it here to further darken the background.

Make sure that the copy of the background layer is selected in the layers palette.
Set the value for opacity back up to 100% to get a better idea of how unlike blending modes change your image.
The blending manner of each layer is by default gear up to Normal. Simply open the Choice list and select Soft Light equally new blending mode (or play around with the other options).

With opacity set to 100% the blending effect is rather dramatic. Decrease the opacity until the outcome is toned down to look natural (unless y'all desire to create an cocked looking epitome).
I ended up with an opacity of 50%