02 photo art blends manual
By Linda Sattgast
Photo Art Blends | Lesson 2 Lesson 2: Mood Photo Editing The following four Lessons, 2 through 5, will show unique ways to edit your photos to best prepare them for incorporating them with our class kit products and lessons, adding to the retro feel. Try all of the editing techniques on the same photo to see the varying effects you can achieve. Used alone they provide creative results for your digital scrapbooking images, too! We’ll start with a moody edit with the help of adjustment layers. Instagram is an awesome phoneography community to glean current photography trends and moody, evocative images are definitely popular right now. Food stylists are also heavily shooting in this style, as well. I recommend using cloudy day or indoor photos for this effect. Bright sun or dreamy sun flare photos are not optimal images to use, but give it a shot if you want to see for yourself. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? • Open Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop. • Select File > Open and select the photo you want to edit. • Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button (half black/half white circle) located at the bottom of the Layers Panel (or top depending on version). Select Levels. • Locate the Output Levels at the bottom of the Adjustments Panel (PSE) or Properties Panel (PS). • Move the black slider (left) to the right, increasing the lightness of the shadows and the white slider (right) to the left, decreasing the lightness of the highlights. Then adjust the midtone input levels (middle slider above) to the left a little, lightening the whole image a small amount. Adjust all three of these sliders until you achieve a low contrast effect that suits the image. • Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button in the Layers Panel. Select Hue/Saturation. • Check the “Colorize” box near the bottom of the Adjustments Panel (PSE) or Properties Panel (PS). Adjust the Hue and Saturation sliders until the color is aqua blue (Hue: 160-180; Saturation: 25-30). There are other colors that work well, too. Olive green, burnt orange, or lavender are good choices; you have to experiment with what works best with your photo. Adjust the Saturation if desired. • Decrease the opacity of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to around 70%. Photo Art Blends © 2013 CottageArts.net, LLC, all rights reserved.
• With the Background Layer selected, select Layer > Duplicate Layer, click OK when the dialog box appears. In the Layer’s Panel drag this photo copy to the very top, above both adjustment layers. • Set the blend mode of this top photo layer to “Color Burn” and decrease the opacity until there is a good amount of contrast, but not too dark; around 30-60%. For this example, we set it at 40%. • Go back and adjust the opacity of the Levels or the Hue/ Saturation layers if you want; otherwise enjoy your new moody image! Here is the before and after for comparison: • Save in .psd format to retain layers and allow for future editing. • Save as a high quality .jpg to upload to preferred print vendor for printing. See Printing Tips for print vendor suggestions and other printing advice. Here’s an example of a moody edit using magenta rather than aqua blue: the before and after, along with the Layers Panel, the Levels Adjustments, and the Colorization Hue/Saturation Adjustments (Hue: 294; Saturation: 26; Colorize box checked).
Page 2
Photo Art Blends © 2013 CottageArts.net, LLC, all rights reserved.
This magenta looks great with sunset portraits and autumn foliage, too!
See our In the Mood Photography board on Pinterest for more inspiration!
Page 3
Photo Art Blends © 2013 CottageArts.net, LLC, all rights reserved.
Photo Art Blends | Lesson 2 Lesson 2: Mood Photo Editing The following four Lessons, 2 through 5, will show unique ways to edit your photos to best prepare them for incorporating them with our class kit products and lessons, adding to the retro feel. Try all of the editing techniques on the same photo to see the varying effects you can achieve. Used alone they provide creative results for your digital scrapbooking images, too! We’ll start with a moody edit with the help of adjustment layers. Instagram is an awesome phoneography community to glean current photography trends and moody, evocative images are definitely popular right now. Food stylists are also heavily shooting in this style, as well. I recommend using cloudy day or indoor photos for this effect. Bright sun or dreamy sun flare photos are not optimal images to use, but give it a shot if you want to see for yourself. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? • Open Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop. • Select File > Open and select the photo you want to edit. • Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button (half black/half white circle) located at the bottom of the Layers Panel (or top depending on version). Select Levels. • Locate the Output Levels at the bottom of the Adjustments Panel (PSE) or Properties Panel (PS). • Move the black slider (left) to the right, increasing the lightness of the shadows and the white slider (right) to the left, decreasing the lightness of the highlights. Then adjust the midtone input levels (middle slider above) to the left a little, lightening the whole image a small amount. Adjust all three of these sliders until you achieve a low contrast effect that suits the image. • Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button in the Layers Panel. Select Hue/Saturation. • Check the “Colorize” box near the bottom of the Adjustments Panel (PSE) or Properties Panel (PS). Adjust the Hue and Saturation sliders until the color is aqua blue (Hue: 160-180; Saturation: 25-30). There are other colors that work well, too. Olive green, burnt orange, or lavender are good choices; you have to experiment with what works best with your photo. Adjust the Saturation if desired. • Decrease the opacity of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to around 70%. Photo Art Blends © 2013 CottageArts.net, LLC, all rights reserved.
• With the Background Layer selected, select Layer > Duplicate Layer, click OK when the dialog box appears. In the Layer’s Panel drag this photo copy to the very top, above both adjustment layers. • Set the blend mode of this top photo layer to “Color Burn” and decrease the opacity until there is a good amount of contrast, but not too dark; around 30-60%. For this example, we set it at 40%. • Go back and adjust the opacity of the Levels or the Hue/ Saturation layers if you want; otherwise enjoy your new moody image! Here is the before and after for comparison: • Save in .psd format to retain layers and allow for future editing. • Save as a high quality .jpg to upload to preferred print vendor for printing. See Printing Tips for print vendor suggestions and other printing advice. Here’s an example of a moody edit using magenta rather than aqua blue: the before and after, along with the Layers Panel, the Levels Adjustments, and the Colorization Hue/Saturation Adjustments (Hue: 294; Saturation: 26; Colorize box checked).
Page 2
Photo Art Blends © 2013 CottageArts.net, LLC, all rights reserved.
This magenta looks great with sunset portraits and autumn foliage, too!
See our In the Mood Photography board on Pinterest for more inspiration!
Page 3
Photo Art Blends © 2013 CottageArts.net, LLC, all rights reserved.
