After Effects for Photography

This course is very different from most other After Effects courses in that we’re going to be focusing on using After Effects to enhance, embellish and add special effects to photography. We’ll use effects to augment, colorize and stylize some photographs, as well as create textures and patterns that are generated from our images.

Each folder within the chapter folders will contain a photo in either a JPG or the native Photoshop format. You are also encouraged you to use some of your own photographs as well. Now if you are familiar with After Effects, you can skip ahead to the next chapter. However, if you have never used After Effects before, the next few videos will give you a brief overview.

After Effects works in much the same way as Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. In fact, the main panels in After Effects function the same way as panels in the other apps. The only real difference is what they are named. When you first look at the after effects interface, it can be a little intimidating, but for this course, we’re only going be using a few panels.

This course uses the Creative Cloud 2019 version of After Effects. However, most of this course will work back the Creative Suite versions of After Effects. We’ll take a look at the interface, timeline and workspace to get comfortable working in the software. We’ll also view a chart so you can create a composition big enough to print.

After Effects can import a wide range of file types — including many graphic file formats, some 3d formats, and of course, a range of video formats. For instance, if you import a native Photoshop file, After Effects will bring in all the layers or you can choose a specific layer. You can create a composition and the link to the source file is maintained. 

After Effects includes support for Camera RAW images, just like Lightroom, Bridge, and Photoshop. So you can import RAW images directly into your project and you’ll see the familiar Adobe Camera RAW dialog box. And once you choose your settings After Effects will open the image with the adjustments, and create an XMP sidecar file, just like the other Adobe Apps, which means that the other apps can now open this RAW image with the same settings.

The key way we can use After Effects artwork in non-video related projects is to export a composition directly to the Photoshop format — complete with layers and full transparency support. And in addition to PSD files, After Effects can also render directly to JPEG and full 8-bit transparent PNG files.

Many times, your photography may be used in a graphic design project and designers may need to remove the background. Here’s a technique for removing a solid color background or ‘keying’ the background color. While you can certainly do this in Photoshop, I would argue that this can be done much faster in After Effects.

In this example, we’ll add a lighting effect to a photo composite I got from Adobe Stock and I would like to thank the Stock Team for giving me written permission to include the watermarked images with this course. The elements in the example image were separated in Photoshop, so we can ‘burst’ the light in After Effects.

In this two part example, I want to add a more exaggerated ripple effect to the a reflection in my photo. So here in Part 1, I’ll begin by opening the file in Photoshop to show you the mask I have prepared in this image. We’ll need to create a new comp with a 3D solid layer and applied fractal noise. 

This is part 2 of this 2 part example on creating a rippled reflection in a photograph. We completed adding a solid to our composition, making it a 3D layer, and wrapping it into a nested composition — so now we’ll continue by adding an effect to the reflection, and using the nested composition as a map for displacement.

Double exposures can look cool when done nicely. We’ll use the Magnify effect to create a double exposure effect on a portrait. I’d like to thank the Adobe Stock team for giving me permission to include this watermarked photo in this course. To create this look, we’ve combined the Magnify effect with a second copy of the same layer, giving us a lot of control and a quick way to create a fully editable double exposure effect.

In this example, we’ll take a look at the CC Toner effect. This is an interesting colorizing effect that quickly replicates 2-color printing techniques, as well as 3 and 5 custom-color renditions of your photograph. Experiment with your own photos to create color combinations that will let your stylize your photos to match a corporate brand, or maybe an illustration style, or to just make something you find interesting.

In this example we’ll take a look at the Channel Mixer effect, which will allow us to make dramatic color changes and we’ll also be using adjustment layers and masking tools to affect different areas of the photo. So give these effects a try on your own photos and see what kind of interesting color combinations you can come up with.

The Colorama effect is interesting because it let’s you colorize an image, kind of like CCToner—except you get to define as many colors as you like and you can assign them to any range in the original photo — and there’s lots of presets to get you started. Applying and modifying different presets will give you countless options for stylizing your photographs.

The MotionTile effect lets you create a repeating pattern from a photo and includes options for setting vertical or horizontal offsets to the pattern. You can create a repeating pattern at any size, all from the same photograph and the original photo does not have to be transparent. So try this technique with any photograph and create some amazing patterns.

The RepeTile effect works a lot like MotionTile combined with some kaleidoscope-type of controls. We’ll start from a photo thats not very interesting, and create something unique with this effect. I think that the most interesting patterns in RepeTile come from photos that have different values and colors in the corners.

The Ball Action effect has some really interesting controls for turning your photos into textures. This effect re-creates your image out of colored spheres, and allows you to control the size of the spheres and even disperse and twist them in 3d space. We’ll use this effect to make the example photo look like it is being broadcast on an oversized outdoor display.

The Roughen Edges effect allows you to create a wide range of edges for your photo with lots of options for fractal and smooth edges. Once you like the edges, save your Composition as a Photoshop file, or a PNG, as we discuss in the intro videos, and the edges will be transparent so you can add in another background, or use this in a photo composite project.