How To Create Light Wraps In Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create Light Wraps in Photoshop.

Light Wraps (or Light spills) is a technique that video compositors use that helps them create better blends between the background and foreground.

Usually, you would use a program like Adobe After Effects to create a Light Wrap for video footage. Still, in this tutorial, we’ll use Photoshop to apply this technique to photographs.

You can think of a Light Wrap as a way to simulate the ambient light in a scene that would cast onto the subject by the background.

This is a very subtle effect, you may not even notice it, but that’s the whole point. All those little details make the most significant difference in the end.

In my second example, I’ll show you how to apply a light wrap to a scene where the subject is indoors and in a darker area.

I’ll also show you how to add ambient color to the subject to blend better into the scene.

Remember that this tutorial shows you a technique that could be created and applied in many different ways and that you may find different blending modes or adjustments that work better in your scene.

You need to learn why this effect can help your images rather than the specific values I use.

Also, remember that this tutorial is all about Light Wraps, and we’ll disregard other issues that these composites may have.

But I think these examples help illustrate the benefit of Light Wraps.

Final Image

Drag The Slider To See Before & After