Photography – Adding Golden Glow In Photoshop

adding golden glow in photoshop tutorial

Adding golden glow to your images is a simple yet effective editing technique that allows you to bring more warmth, glow and contrast to your images.

I remembered this simple technique while editing the pictures for my latest recipe – the langos.

 
 

adding golden glow in photoshop tutorial

When I was looking at the pictures I took and compared them to reality, I thought that the delicious fried bread shown in my images was lacking a bit of the beautifully golden color that it actually possessed. The pictures were just not doing the real thing justice.

 
 

langos AFTER

This is the image after the golden glow effect was applied.

The change is slight and rather subtle. But it did just what I was looking for – it deepened the image, added more contrast, and most importantly, it brought nice warming golden glow to my subject.

 
 

adding golden glow in photoshop tutorial

To add more glow to your pictures, just follow these simple steps.

1. Open your image in Photoshop (I am using Photoshop Elements 11 here).

2. Duplicate the background layer (Ctrl + J for PC/Command + J for Mac).

3. In the top bar of your screen press Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and in the small window that pops up move the slider to choose the setting that blurs your image completely (I went up to 37.5 % for my image).

4. Press OK.

 
 

adding golden glow in photoshop tutorial

5. Change the Blending Mode to Slight Light. You can find the Blending Mode option in the upper right part of your screen, right above the open layers.

6. If you are happy with the result, just save the image. If you’d like to reduce the effect, you can use the Opacity slider to make the effect more subtle (you can find the Opacity slider in the upper right part of your screen, right above the open layers). In this particular image, I liked the result of the effect at 63 % opacity.

 
 

langos - golden glow - wm

And that’s it! Pretty easy, right?

Enjoy your editing!

Love,
Petra

 

Photography – Adventures With HDR

colorful pinwheel hdr

Have you ever heard about HDR?

HDR stands for high dynamic range. And that, let me tell you, is a truly magical thing.

It works like this – you take a series of images with your camera, each shot with a different exposure from darkest to lightest (there’s a special setting in you camera to achieve that.)

 

3 exposure for pinwheel hdr

Then you open these images in a program which is able to combine the best parts of the three overexposed, underexposed and balanced shots to create a dramatic image with beautiful shadowing and highlights.
 

colorful pinwheel hdr

Isn’t that idea just amazing?

I love it!

What I especially adore is the contrast and detail which these pictures seem to have and which I could not really achieve before.

 

I came across this technique some time ago, but just recently I got myself a software which helps to make this kind of magic happen (there are quite a few in the market, I chose Photomatix; you can find some really cute examples of HDR photography on their site.)

 
 

flower in vase on tray

Me and HDR, this is just the beginning of our journey together. And I am so looking forward to that adventure!

 

I made a few more pictures to play with this new software thingy… here they are…

 
 

breakfast hdr

 
 

crochet owl cushions hdr

(Note: You can find the owls here and here.)

 
 

flowers on doily hdr

 
 

flower and colorful vases

 
 

crochet floor cushion in progress hdr

I will definitely let you know when I learn something new in this amazing realm of photography.

Thank you for letting me share.

Wishing you a nice day!

Love,
Petra

 
 

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