Frosty Snow Tutorial

I've recently learned several methods for adding haze to a photograph. Sometimes you want your pictures sharp, sharp, sharp, and other times you want to add a little atmosphere. There are several methods for adding light, haze, or mist to your photos using Photoshop.

In short, here are two major methods for adding haze:

1 - Curves

Open up curves in either Adobe Camera Raw or Adobe Photoshop and pull up the left corner of your curves adjustment until you like the effect (usually about halfway). Then make adjustments for contrast and dark colors to bring back the details which are lost in the haze.

2 - Levels

Open up a levels adjustment layer. Pull the bottom black slider to the right until you get the desired effect. Then make adjustments for contrast and dark colors to bring back the details which are lost in the haze.

A Frosty Tutorial

Here, I walk you through my process of adjusting one of my images to add more of a haze effect to the photo. This particular photo was taken in a blustery moment during a snow storm and I wanted to capture the feeling of fog and blowing snow in my image.

Original Photo

 

The Final Frosty, Snowy Photo

 

Step One, open up Curves in either Adobe Camera Raw or Adobe Photoshop (I use Adobe Photoshop CS6). Use a curves adjustment layer in order to make changes non-permanent if opening in Photoshop. Above, I open up curves in Adobe Camera Raw.

You will want to pull up the left hand side of your curve as shown in the above photo. Do this until you get the desired (but not finished) effect.

Step Two, you will want to adjust the image to bring back out the colors, darkness, and details. I prefer to do this in Camera Raw. So, after adjusting my curve in Camera Raw, I head back to Basic adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw (as seen above). Pay attention to exposure, contrast, shadows, blacks, and vibrance. I also upped my highlights on this photo to try and bring out the snowflakes more clearly.

Step Three, now head over to Photoshop to make your adjustments. One of my favorite, quick ways of adjusting photographs is to add a new adjustment layer and create a screened and a soft light adjustment layer. I set both of these layers to around 20-30% opacity. The "screen"ed layer adds more of a light effect to your photo (and a bit of a hazy effect in and of itself). The "soft light" later makes the colors more vibrant. To add a layer go to your "create new fill or adjustment layer" button and click on it for each layer (the button is a half dark/half white circle at the bottom of your adjustment layers box). To make your layer have the screen effect, click on your new layer and choose "screen" from the adjustment pull-down box. Set the opacity to around 30% (you can adjust it after making your soft light adjustment layer). To make your next layer have the soft light effect, click on the next new layer and choose "soft light" from the adjustment pull down box. And adjust opacity to your liking (I suggest around 20%), making sure to go in and tweak the opacity of the screen adjustment layer again to your liking now that you also have the "soft light" effect.

Above, you see my two new layers, one with a "screen effect" applied and one with the "soft light" effect applied.

Now we're almost done.

Step Four, the last thing I want to do is adjust the colors slightly. In the case of this photo, I want my colors to be a tad stronger (due to the hazy effect) and I want the photo to be slightly blue because I am attempting to capture the feeling of snow. If I were doing a hazy photo for a sunny day, I would try and the blues out of my highlights and get a slightly yellow effect.

Open up a curves adjustment layer (choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves from the upper menu system and click OK). You will want to click on the RGB pull down menu inside the curves dialog box, and adjust each of the Red, Green, and Blue layers. To the red and green layers, I suggest just pulling the middle of the curve up slightly (very slightly) to give the colors a bit more pop. You could leave these layers alone, it wouldn't make a huge difference, but play with them to your liking. The key to getting the blue feel is the blue adjustment layer, as shown above. Once you select your blue curves layer, you will want to pull the upper right hand side of your adjustment layer slightly to the left. And you will want to pull up the left hand side of your adjustment layer slightly, to your liking.

And that is it.

Playing Around

I've been playing around with Photoshop tonight. Mostly, I've been playing around with this tutorial:

http://pshero.com/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/calculations-and-colorization

The tutorial is all about converting to black and white using Image > Calculations, and then adding a gradient to the black and white image.

The Calculations method of converting to black and white is really dramatic and super easy. There are so many interesting methods of converting to black and white. One of my other favorites, I write about here:

http://createdforinspiration.blogspot.com/2009/03/black-white-baby-portrait.html

But, this method seems simpler to me and gives you a different result.

Of course, you can also simply:

Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Or,

Image > Mode > Grayscale.

Or,

Create An Adjustment Layer (Round Black/White circle at the bottom of your layers pallette) and choose Black & White from the pull down menu, and play with the sliders.

Or,

Create An Adjustment Layer and choose Channel Mixer. Then, click the Monochrome box in the Channel Mixer and play with the sliders.

Here are some images I made tonight with the Calculations and Colorization tutorial listed above. I used the exact tutorial on my flower pictures. Then, I used the high contrast black and white conversion using Calculations to adjust some photos that never quite showed the full range of colors or contrast that I saw with my eyes, using different blending techniques (soft light and overlay and different combinations of opacity for various layers).

Even enhanced here in Photoshop, this photo didn't do justice to the BLUE, BLUE stream I saw here at Yellowstone. Unfortuneately, we drove by it at noon day and then stopped by when the light was lower in the sky. The irradescent blue bacteria in the stream were really cool.

Truly, the Grand Prismatic pool at Yellowstone has all these colors and more. It's a sight to behold. Make sure, if you ever go to Yellowstone, to stop at this one.

Photoshop Shapes

I came across a Photoshop Shape Tutorial. Photoshop actually has quite rich shape features. They are a lot of fun to play with.

Here is the link:

http://www.showandtell-graphics.com/fun-with-shapes.php

Here are some images I made with the technique:

Enhancing Skies

Thanks to Marla, I learned a second method for enhancing dull skies. Part Two of this tutorial: http://www.layersmagazine.com/exposure-blending-in-photoshop.html

This technique is also good for high contrast photos that have heavy shadows and heavy highlights. It brings out the details in the photos that are typically missing in deep shadows or bright highlights.

Basically, by opening your RAW image as a Smart Object, you are able to create a second version of your image which you can adjust with Camera Raw. Then you apply a adjustment filter to it, to hide portion where you want to use the original settings from your first Camera Raw version of the photo.

I compared this to the other technique I learned for enhancing skies...which is to add a second layer at 50% grey, apply color burn, and make an adjustment layer to get back your original image for the non-burned layer.

Just for fun, I played around with these two techniques to compare them. I took an old photo from Hawaii and applied the two techniques. Basically, the Camera Raw/Smart Object version seems to restore the actual details of the sky. The Color Burn version seems to be an artistic addition to your photo. It produces slightly unreal colors in the sky...but color popularly seen in digital photography today. Here are the versions...

Original

Camera Raw/Smart Object

Color Burn (again this technique brought out the noise, so I ran the Noise Filter on it when done)

Neat Trick - Enhancing Skies

OK. Here's a neat trick that I read about in one of my Photoshop books. If you have a washed out sky, you can darken or intensify the sky pretty easily. I did notice that it intensified some of the noise of my original picture, but the effect was minimal and my camera typically has some noise with sky pictures.

• Add a layer above your picture and fill it with 50% gray
  
• Choose a Blend Mode of Color Burn. (To get to Blend Mode right click on your 50% gray layer and choose Blending Options. Blend Mode is one of the top pull down menus.
  
• So that the rest of your picture isn't darkened too much, make an Adjustment Layer (the "square with a circle in it" icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette) and using a soft black brush, fill in the areas of your photograph that aren't the sky.
  
• Adjust the opacity of the 50% Gray Layer as necessary.
  

Here are a couple screen prints of the process, followed by a before and after shot of a enhanced sky on a photo.

This was the original.

This was the enhanced version.

This was the enhanced version with Noiseware Community Edition run on it.

Not Much Excitement Here

I have been very short on pictures lately and on anything related to photography and web design. But, as of the last few days, I have been feeling a bit better and so I'm playing with Photoshop and Illustrator. Hopefully, I will get to taking more photos of my darling girls soon, but it is so uninspiring when it rain, rain, rains and your photos are limited to the living room and a flash.

Anyhow, back to my really basic blog entry. I'm going to show you the culmination of my efforts in Photoshop.

This image includes some of the custom brushes I made. I have real drawing talent, don't I?

This background texture is made using a couple of the brushes I made.

Well, the above images is precisely why my blog entry isn't very exciting. But, I'm experimenting with shapes and textures and custom brushes in Photoshop and Illustrator and hopefully I will learn enough to make something interesting. But, for now, I'll share with you something very simple.

If you make a shape in Photoshop (or import it from another program like Illustrator) and want to make it into a brush, it's very easy. Just choose Edit > Define Brush Preset and give it a name. You can change how the image is spaced and presented when using your brush by then going to your Brushes palette (which is the list looking thing on your Brushed Toolbar.

It is equally easy to save your shape as a shape (assuming it's in the right format for a shape). Just choose Edit > Define Custom Shape.

Here are some tutorials I was working on, but didn't get finished with. I want to go back to them.

Swirl Mania

Create A Spectacular Style Text Effect

Color Cast

I've been playing around with an old flash I have. I have a ring flash that I purchased a long time ago to take better pictures of products with my old G2. Unfortuneately, even though I owned a fancy flash back then and read the manual several times, flashes were mysterious to me.

I've been reading a lot at Strobist. And, boy, I must say I'm still confused, but the light is starting to glow. I also recently got Scott Kelby's third Digital Photography Book which deals a lot with flashes and deals with off-camera flash (which is what Strobist is all about).

Anyhow, my ring light fits on my macro lens and you can take it off and hold it via it's cord, if you like (you could bungee it to something, but the cord isn't very long). I was playing with it today. The whole idea with flash, as Scott Kelby says so plainly, is to use it in manual mode and balance your flash with the ambient light. There are a couple big problems with that idea though - 1) if your flash is sitting right next to your lens the light is non-dimensional and hard, 2) you have to shoot in manual mode on both your camera and flash to really shoot manually and it can be tricky to get the hang of, and 3) the ambient light (existing light), especially if shot indoors, is usually a different color than the light from the flash.

So, ultimately I'd like to get off-camera. That will involve some purchases. I think I am sold on not going the Canon route for getting off-camera because, although it is my cheapest up front possibility, it is the least flexible. Either buying a second Canon flash and using it as master, or buying the Canon wireless controller, limits your range to a 20-30 degree line of sight. I might want a second Canon flash down the road, anyhow, so that might be a possibility of a next purchase, but I'm not sure. What I've got my heart set on are a pair of Pocket Wizards. These are really fun toys if you don't know what they are. They can remotely trigger your flash or a second camera for that matter. What fun! One day.

So, I was playing around with my macro ring light today and toning down its power and holding it off to the side (my beginning attempts at off-camera flash).

Money set aside at this time may not cover the pocket wizards and accessories at this time, however, what I want to talk about next is that color cast your pictures can get when shot with flash. You can alter your flash light to match the ambient light by putting on either an orange gel (most lighting) or a green gel (flourescent lighting). Gels are cheap and can be velcroed or even taped on.

The following picture is an example. The area, after the fade off from the flash has a real yellow cast. The wall was not yellow. If I am to alter my entire photo, it would be very off-cast. But, I learned a cool little trick in Photoshop recently.

How To Photoshop Out A Color Cast

What I did to this photo and what you can do with most photos (but not all) is Select a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer and choose the color which is dominating your photo. Then desaturate your color to your liking and increase your lightness. In the case, I desaturated 50% and increased lightness to 100%.

Here is the original:

Here is the desaturated version:

Tutorial Reminder

I want to go back and try some of these tutorials. This is just a reminder to myself.

www.tripwiremagazine.com/2009/03/stunning-photoshop-text-effect-tutorials.html

Cow Collage

I made this collage using this tutorial http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/collage-warp/. The only thing I would add to the tutorial is that when you make a copy of your warped photo and fill it with black, you'll want to make sure your fill is set to "Preserve Transparency". To do this, instead of using the shortcut, just use Edit > Fill and click the "Preserve Transparency" box. This is so that the fill doesn't fill your entire layer, but just the non-transparent parts.

High Contrast Photo

Over at Graphic Illustrations they call this technique "Lomoization". If you like the technique, you'll want to head over there and follow her video tutorial. In a nutshell we're creating a strong contrast image. Here are some basic steps you take to get this effect. My steps might vary from hers a bit.

1) Select around your main subject using the lasso tool or round eliptical tool.
2) Make sure your feather on the lasso tool is set pretty high (like 50 or more depending on the size of your image).
2) Select the inverse.
3) Use the Levels slider to adjust the background, by taking the grey slider and moving it up. (If you don't like how your selection turned out now is a good time to go back to step one and fix it.)
4) Flatten your image.
5) Apply a curves layer and give it a strong (a little too strong) contrast.
6) Open a new layer and fill it with black.
7) Take the new top layer (black layer) and right-click on it selecting Blending Option. Choose hue in the Blend Mode pull down menu within the Blending Options menu.
8) Lower the opacity of the blended black layer by pulling the opacity slider to the left, until you like the effect on the contrasty-ness of your subject.
9) Open a new levels layer and do a final tweek of your blacks, greys, and whites by pulling the blacks down to make the background darker and adjusting the greys and whites to bring the subject to you liking.

Here are some of my high-contrast images and their originals.

This is the image altered with the technique described above.

This is the "original" image, which was an image I was absolutely thrilled with for it's rich textures and "popping". This image to me looks "lomoized" even before the technique was applied. How I got the result was by accidentally over-exposing, and then pulling down the exposure in Camera Raw. I've got to get out more and experiment with this effect more. Below, you'll see an image that was pretty much "properly exposed".

The pretty much "properly" exposed image.

Technique Is Applied To The Above Image

Original

Technique Is Applied To The Above Image

Original

Photoshop Shapes

One of my main goals in having this blog is to have a place to be able to experiment with Photography Techniques and with Photoshop and Illustrator. With it being a New Year and with everyone talking about their goals for the coming year, I am thinking about how to further myself in my hobbies of being a photographer and a graphic artist. This is just one way I wish to further myself...is just to take a little bit of time here and there and work through Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials. Today I've been over at Graphic Illustrations. I was playing around with a tutorial, how to create pop-art circles. You can use those circles in turn in a collage and create a really nice effect. Check out her site. But, here is the basics of what you do:

1) Open a new document that is square in shape (such as 600 px x 600 px).
2) In your layer's pallete choose gradient and choose radial (make sure your gradient is set to black to transparent).
3) Invert the image
4) Change your file to a grayscale file (so the pixelation we're about to do doesn't end up being in color - you can try it in color for some fun).
5) Go to Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone
6) Adjust the size of the circle and the angles of the circle to your liking (setting within Color Halftone)

NOTE: You can also make cool effects by creating a gradient of a different shape or by adding other effects to your image such as Filter > Distort > Twirl.

Cropping For The Feeling Of The Photo

Texas Chicks Blogs And Pics recently had a blog entry discussing cropping. Of course we all crop. But, the topic of discussion was cropping for the essence or feeling of the photo. So, I thought I'd do some crops of my own. Here are my crops:

Yawning

 

 

Daddy and Daughter

 

 

Bagel Girl

 

 

 

Vintage Effect

I worked through a great
tutorial tonight on adding a vintage effect to your photos. Here is the tutorial from Verle's Blog. Here are some directions in a nutshell:

• Do some modified cross processing and up the contrast to create a really strong image. (Not new to me.)
  
• Run an edge darkening vignette by going to Filter >> Distort >> Lens Correction and adjusting the vignette there. (This was not new to me.)
  
• (Here's where it gets interesting.) Go to Hue/Saturation and check the "Colorize" box. Move the Hue and Saturation sliders around until you get a Sepia you like. (It dawned on me as I did this that this must be how some Photoshoppers get that real chocolate brown or true Sepia pictures more than by using Photo Filters.) Now for a vintage look decrease the Sepia opacity to 50% or so.
  
• (Something else I did not know.) Old photos have a pinkish cast to them. So, add a magenta pink solid color filter and decrease it's opacity to 5% or so.
  

Turned out great I think. Go to her tutorial for more thorough directions. Here are my photos (followed by their originals).

Clipping Masks & Displacement

I had some fun following this tutorial. Once again, this uses clipping masks. The tutorial also teaches you to make a displacement mask. Very handy skill, I think.

Shapes In Photoshop

I made this:

Using this tutorial. I didn't realize that you could manipulate shapes with the direct select tool much the same way you do in Illustrator.

Another Clipping Mask Plus Texture

Here is another picture done with a clipping mask.

Only to get a good border, I had to paint the side, then select the transparent cells, fill those with black, and select inverse again to get the original painting on the side, and delete. Then, I could use the transparent cells on the side to make my border. (A bit of a pain. There is probably an easier way.)

And I added a layer at the bottom with the color black for my background color.

I also added a texture and followed my standard texture protocol...which in a nutshell is...

• Add the layer I want to texture, choose blending options and change the blend mode under "General Blending" to my liking.
  
• Create a copy of my original image. Choose Alt-Add Layer Mask (the circle button at the bottom of the layers pallete). Paint on the mask with white to bring clarity back to the main subject.
  

Rough Edges With A Clipping Mask

Using the same (EASY) technique I write about in the previous entry, I also made this. I

For the above photo, instead of using a shape for my black clipping layer, I just painted with a large, rough brush on a transparent layer, and made sure the color was black. Then I ALT clicked the line between the black layer (bottom) and the photo (top).

If you want an edge other than standard Photoshop brushes, this gal has quite a few she offers for free (and others for a good price). Or, you could make your own.

Rounded Corners With A Clipping Mask

Rounded Corner Image with Border

 

I was over at Pioneer Woman. She has recently asked readers to submit their photos with rounded corners. Rounded corners, of course give your photo a different feel and certain photos look especially great with rounded corners.

I was also recently over at Coffee Shop Photography. She has a couple of tutorials over there on making story boards with clipping masks.

Do you ever have something you want to do in Photoshop and it isn't that Photoshop's directions are so terrible, but you have to know what that thing you want to do is called so that you can look it up. I think Photoshop's directions on this are quite clear. If you don't find mine clear, just look up Adobe Help in Photoshop and type in "Clipping Mask".

Pioneer Woman gives you one technique for making rounded corners. It is how I've been making rounded corner images up until now. But, having just learned about "Clipping Masks", I'm thinking clipping masks to be the most straightforward way to do this. So, I'm including a little tutorial.

1. Open your image.
   
2. Choose the rectangular shape tool. This will automatically make a new layer. Choose the rounded type of rectangle (you do this on the shape tool bar at the top of your window) and choose how much of a radius you want for your rounded corners. I was working with a full sized image so I chose 300px. Also make sure the color of your shape is black.
   
   

   
   
   The arrows point to the settings on your rectangle that you want to pay attention to.
   

3. Now take your picture and make it the top layer above your rounded rectangle. You can do this by clicking on that layer and dragging it above the other layer.
   
4. Now press and hold ALT (CMD on a Mac)and take your mouse and click it on the line in between your picture (on the bottom) and the rectangle (on the top). You will see this little symbool when you are pressing ALT and hovering over the line. This is the Clipping Mask symbol.
   

   
   
   

5. You should now have a clipped version that top layer (your picture) and it will now have rounded corners. Save.
   
   

   
   

If you further want to add a black border around the rounded image you can easily do so by merging visible layers (don't flatten), right-clicking on the image and choosing to bring "Layer From Background", right-clicking and choosing blending option, choose stroke, make the color black or other desirable color, choose your width, and for position choose inside. This will give you a border.

I plan on adding a tutorial for making a story board or collage with clipping masks soon too, but this should get you started with them. A very handy tool to be familiar with.