photo editing

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

 

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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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Moving Photos – Simple Animation Tutorial

how to create animated moving photos in Photoshop Elements

(365/16)

Let me introduce my new favorite mirror to you. Love it! It was, as it often happens in my life, a gift from my Mom. Thank you Mommy!

To show you all that my new mirror can ‘do’, I have put together a small and simple animation for you.

If you wish to create something similar with your own pictures, just follow these simple steps:

1. To make your own animation, you need at least two pictures. Open both of them in Photoshop Elements (I am using Photoshop Elements 8 here). I am sure that most of the other photo editing programs out there can do the same thing too.

2. Now you need to get these two (or more) pictures into one file. To do so, drag one ‘preview’ picture from the lower menu over the ‘real-size’ picture in the center of your screen (now both pictures are in one file, but as two separate layers).

3. Go to File menu -> Save for Web and select the format as GIF, check the checkbox ‘Animate’. Also check the ‘Loop’ checkbox and specify the delay timing. I chose 1.5 seconds there. Click OK.

And that’s it! Your animation has been created!!

Yay!

Have a very good day!

Love,
Petra

 

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Photography ~ How To Create White Vignette

how to add white misty border to a picture Photoshop tutorial

Because many of you, my dear readers, liked my last article on adding more light to your pictures during these tough months of winter, I decided to share another one of my light finding tricks with you.

I call it ‘white vignette’, despite the fact that the word vignette is usually used to describe dark blurred border around the picture.

I like adding dark vignette to my pictures. I find them cute because they nicely draw attention to the center of an image. I even wrote a tutorial about it once.  But my winter photos, oh my winter photos do not need it that much, they need more light, that’s what they need.

Long story short, one day it occurred to me that  – maybe – if I used white color instead of black one while creating the vignette, it could help my darker pictures to look better.

I liked the idea, and I loved the result.

Just have a look…

 

how to add white misty border to a picture Photoshop tutorial

This is the before picture.

When I was taking this picture, the display of my camera was saying it looked alright and that it was properly exposed.

But I did not think so when I saw it on the screen of my laptop.

 

 

how to add white misty border to a picture Photoshop tutorial, unsharp mask to add contrast, sharpening with unsharp mask, light with levels

This is the same picture after a little bit of editing in Photoshop Elements 8 has been done (no vignette yet).

Much better, I think.

I corrected exposure with levels (tutorial here).

I improved contrast with unsharp mask (tutorial here).

And I sharpened the picture a little (tutorial here).

 

 

how to add white misty border to a picture Photoshop tutorial, white vignette

And then I added my white vignette.

I like how it creates an illusion of more light coming in.

These are the steps that I took:

Read more…

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