Making sure the lighting on multiple layers in a Photoshop image is consistent

Question

I am trying to superimpose people (gotten from other pictures) on top of another image in Photoshop but the lighting on some of the new people make it obvious that they aren't in the original picture.

Is there any feature or tool that allows you to make the lighting consistent across multiple layers in a Photoshop file?

Answer 1

Not sure if I can help but I use Levels or Curves to adjust the tone or lighting. You'd probably know this already but image adjustments can be made through [Image -> Edit -> *].

Or you could try applying image adjusted to all layers below it. You can do this by looking at the layers panel, at the very bottom there's a couple of buttons. One of them is black and white circle of halves. You can click it to apply various adjustments to a layer which affects all layers below it in the layer panel.

Sorry if it doesn't help. I'm sure there's probably more useful tools, Photoshop has sooo many.

Answer 2

You can use soft brushes in your layer masks as well to manually add finer effects than the all-over filtering the first answer mentions. However obvious directional lighting from different directions would be beyond my knowledge to fix (if you have that).

Some info on this is here:

http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/photography/photoshop_hdr.html

Skip down to the stuff from 'Basic Clean Up' and below to find what you're looking for.

Answer 3

masks can be applied to dim or blot out parts of layers. they can also be used on adjustment layers (levels or curves, e.g.) adjusting the size, opacity and hardness (not sure exactly how brush 'fill' works) of the brush (painting with black or white in the mask, not the layer itself) allows you to achieve detailed effects on layers, or where the adjustment layers will apply. the stacking order of layers and adjustment layers is important, as they effect everything visible after other layers and masks below them, but nothing above. You can also globally adjust the opacity of the layer in the layers panel in conjunction with masks. This is best learned with practice, as you need eyeballs on the screen and a hand on the mouse to follow in detail. Don't be afraid to try new things, and don't save over the originals (or edits you like). [side note: filters unlike adjustment layers, alter the current layer, not create a new one. they can still be undone until you quit (up to maximum undos which you can set to 100, but is 10 by default, I think. each brush click steals one undo]

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/layers/layer-masks/