Beach photo.

[pixmedic]

Everyone needs to step away from the keyboard for a minute, take a deep breath, and relax.

Lets not push this thread to a point it needs to be cleaned up or locked.

 

[amolitor]

If you're going to play games like painting in modeling shadows and highlights, the key to success is always going to be a very light hand.

I like to do the effect on a separate layer, so I can adjust the degree of effect. I paint away cheerfully, getting a pretty dramatic look. Then gaussian blur that layer to taste, to smooth out the paintmarks, even though I use a soft edged brush a little blur seems to "pull it together" more and make it look more natural. If a burn/dodge or other effect "slops over" some edge in the original picture (for example, a painted-on "shadow" blurs over the sharp object edge that is supposedly casting the shadow) I'll use a sharp-edged brush to clean that edge up.

I don't go nuts trying to paint on every conceivable shadow, nor do I try to make it look super realistic, because:

As the last step, I dial back the effect layer's translucency (in GIMP, not sure what PS calls the "how heavily to apply this" knob?) until the effect looks delicate but pretty good. Then dial back another 10 percent or so. At this point it should be hard to actually "see" the effect as an effect, even though I know it's there. Removing the layer makes it obvious, but only in a before/after direct comparison.

Then you know you've probably done a pretty good job of just giving the viewer the right subtle hints, at an almost unconscious level, without making it obvious that you've been merrily painting all over the dang thing. Being subtle about how strong the effect is means that you can be surprisingly sloppy about the actual work!