Digital spotlight

When you are faced with a very distracting background during an indoor stage performance, you can eliminate it with a believable spot light created in Photoshop.  For example, this musician was part of a musical show in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and the background was a large white wall design that was lit too brightly.  I selected the performer with the pen tool and then chose 'Select > inverse.  This selected the background, and then I made the color selections in the foreground/background color boxes -- magenta and black, respectively.  I then applied the circular gradient tool, dragging the cursor from the center of the musician to the edge of the frame.  That created a would-be spot light that simulates a light on the background.