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 – Photo Editing with RadLab

tulip - totally rad presets - before and after comparison

Lately I’ve received quite a few questions asking me what my photo editing process looks like. This got me thinking about how many stages in photo processing I have actually gone through.

A few months ago I put together this post about my favorite retouching techniques.

And just recently I found a real gem. It is a cute set of actions (or ‘stylets’) called RadLab. And I ADORE that thing! The actions/stylets are super-easy to use and make the whole photo editing process really quick and enjoyable.

Here are a few example for you to compare…

 
 

chocolate - rad lab presets - before and after comparison

 
 

cake - rad lab action - before and after

 
 

dogs and gardne - rad lab action - before and after

 
 

truffles - rad lab actions - before and after

What do you think? Do you like the difference?

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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Magic Street – Before and After

photo editing process Photoshop

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago.

It shows a magical street of a lovely city called Gyor in Hungary.

We like going there, it’s a nice place.

 

Since, as you might already know, I never leave my pictures untouched (because that would cause my brain to break), I had to open it in my editing software (Photoshop Elements Eight) and play with it for awhile.

This is what I did, step-by-step…

 

photo editing process Photoshop

The original picture.

No editing at all.

 

I like the magic of the place.

I like how the shadows and bright spots interact.

I like how the history still lives and breathes there.

Captivating.
photo editing process Photoshop, the Pioneer Woman actions

1. I applied the Pioneer Woman Boost Action here.

 

I use that action a lot.

It’s awesome!
photo editing process Photoshop

2. Here I ‘burned the remaining haze’ a little using the Unsharp Mask.

 

That is my favorite editing technique of all times.

Actually, I once wrote a tutorial about it.
photo editing process Photoshop

3. In this step, I used the Unsharp Mask again.

Only this time to sharpen the image a little more.

 

I’ll soon bring a tutorial on what settings I use to sharpen my pictures.

photo editing process Photoshop

The final result.
photo editing process Photoshop

And again – before and after.

 

In fact, the whole transition took me no more than 5 minutes.

Just a few clicks can lead to a very different, punchy and bold result.

 

What do you think, dear friends?

Do you use any of the mentioned techniques?

Let me know!

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