Help Me Make My Renders Look Not Shit

[Daniel 565]

So I've been miring a lot of the graphic work here this last week or so and thought I'd reach out for some help with some of the main problems I've been having. I notice all your renders look really nicely "stylized" (idk if that's the right word), and I was wondering if someone could give me some hep as to how to achieve this. I cut my own out ofphotographs so anyone who could give me some advice about taking them from that state to actually working in a sig would be amazing. Thanks in advance guis

[Beketov 8,941]

My usual system is a little topaz and a lot of lighting.

[gorlab 4,321]

yea i find topaz adjust to be the best/easiest way to do it

[Daniel 565]

10 hours ago, gorlab said:

yea i find topaz adjust to be the best/easiest way to do it

 

You got a legit version or a crack or something? I feel like with paying for photoshop already it seems ridiculous to add another $50 or whatever it costs

[gorlab 4,321]

i know mine is a cracked version

 

what version of photoshop do you have?

 

 

 

another way to stylize renders is to make a transparent layer, and use the colour GREY (808080) or any other shade of grey, to colour over JUST the render itself. From there, you set the layer style to OVERLAY (and they grey colouring you did will pretty much disappear). From there, you use the BURN/DODGE tool, set to like 30% STRENGTH/OPACITY, on that grey overlay layer, and use it to lighten/darken certain parts of the render. I think Burn = makes it darker, Dodge = makes it lighter. This is also a good method for making/fixing/changing the lighting of a render. (i.e. you DODGE where the light source of your sig should be hitting the render, and then you BURN the shadows that the light source would create).

 

 

[gorlab 4,321]

of course, you can experiment with different shades of grey as the overlay layer, along with different strengths on the dodge/burn (i think the slider is called strength, but it might be opacity... pretty sure it's strength)

 

[boubabi 4,725]

the best is to apply the render efx only on the render so you can work with it after. So don't apply your effects on the whole sig. 

[Kendrick 4,741]

21 minutes ago, boubabi said:

the best is to apply the render efx only on the render so you can work with it after. So don't apply your effects on the whole sig. 

Say I have a render layer on top of a stock image. How would I adjust the Hue/Brightness on the render without it effecting the stock image underneath? Every time I do it the stock also seems to change effect.

[Will 4,660]

1 minute ago, Kendrick said:

Say I have a render layer on top of a stock image. How would I adjust the Hue/Brightness on the render without it effecting the stock image underneath? Every time I do it the stock also seems to change effect.

 

Add the adjustment layer as you normally would and when you get the render looking how you want it to, merge the render layer and the adjustment layer to stop the adjust layer from affecting other layers.

[boubabi 4,725]

If you're on photoshop, you can do a clipping mask (the short-cut in ctlr+alt+g I think). What a clipping mask does is it applies the layer (or in this case the hue and saturation) below it and only it. You'll see an arrow pointing the layer below him to say that the clipping mask is applied. Here's a picture to show what it will look like.

 

Here's a tutorial about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoKyP_vFsRI

[boubabi 4,725]

But there's other more complex ways to achieve the same result too. You can obviously have layer mask and such.

[gorlab 4,321]

agrd @ easiest way being to right-click the adjustment layer and go 'CREATE CLIPPING MASK' as it will only affect the layer below it... but I think you can only use ONE adjustment layer this way (I may be wrong) but the second clipping mask will "clip" to the adjustment layer that is the clipping mask of the render.

 

Pretty sure if u want multiple adjustment layers to just affect the render, you need to create a layer mask for each adjustment layer and use BLACK to colour out where you don't want the adjustment to show, and leave where you want the adjustment layer to show WHITE  (i.e. on the render). There is a "create layer mask button" under the list of layers. It looks like a grey square with a circle in the middle of it... You highlight the layer you want to mask, click that button, and a  WHITE LAYER will appear BESIDE the existing layer. That's what you click on and colour with black or white, to hide or show parts of that layer. 

[boubabi 4,725]

you can clip infinite number of layers/adjustement layers on it. It doesn't make much sense, but the arrow will point the adjustment layer but it will apply only on the layer we want to adjust.

[boubabi 4,725]

but, doing clipping mask is useful because you can go back to your setting and change it if you aren't happy with the result. BUT, if you are confident that you won't need to change your setting, you can just go in image>apply> and then you'll have your adjustment layers there. Your layer must not be a smart layer, so be sure to rasterize it. 

[Beketov 8,941]

4 hours ago, gorlab said:

agrd @ easiest way being to right-click the adjustment layer and go 'CREATE CLIPPING MASK' as it will only affect the layer below it... but I think you can only use ONE adjustment layer this way (I may be wrong) but the second clipping mask will "clip" to the adjustment layer that is the clipping mask of the render.

 

Pretty sure if u want multiple adjustment layers to just affect the render, you need to create a layer mask for each adjustment layer and use BLACK to colour out where you don't want the adjustment to show, and leave where you want the adjustment layer to show WHITE  (i.e. on the render). There is a "create layer mask button" under the list of layers. It looks like a grey square with a circle in the middle of it... You highlight the layer you want to mask, click that button, and a  WHITE LAYER will appear BESIDE the existing layer. That's what you click on and colour with black or white, to hide or show parts of that layer. 

 

If it were a clipping mask of say an image onto a text layer or something only the top image would apply. However, adjustment layers are infinite. You can add as many as you want.

 

For example, to help my lighting I clip two curves layers to my render. One to brighten, on to darken. I then mask them based on what is needed.

 

Also, as a general hint, you can apply clipping masks by holding alt and clicking the line between the layers you want clipped.