Dream-Like Image:
- Create a copy of your background layer, name it channel mixer
- At the bottom of your layers palette, click on the create a new fill/adjustment layer icon, which looks like a half black, half white circle
- Click on channel mixer
- Click on “Monochrome” in the channel mixer adjustment window (should appear right above your layers palette
- Adjust the color meters so that the red and green source channels are adjusted high, and the blue and constant meters are adjusted low, you should have a pretty highly contrasted image, that is a little on the dark side
- Merge this layer into the copy of the background layer by right clicking (or pressing “control” awhile clicking) and selecting “merge down”
- Add a Gaussian Blur to this layer by clicking on filter > blur > Gaussian blur, and adjust it so that your photograph is a little out of focus, but not so much that you start to lose detail in the photo
- Now we are ready to adjust the opacity of this layer, to make it somewhat transparent, bring the opacity (at the top of the layers palette) somewhere between 40%-60%
Example:
Antiqued Image
- Create a copy of your background layer, name it Gaussian blur
- Add a Gaussian blur to this layer by clicking filter > blur > Gaussian Blur, adjust the blur so that your photograph is a little out of focus, but not so much that you start to lose detail in the photo, click OK
- Create a layer mask on this blurred layer by clicking on the icon on the layers palette that looks like a circle inside of a rectangle, you will notice that next to the thumbnail of this layer there is now a white box
- Make sure that your background color is white, and your foreground color is black, and select the gradient tool
- Make sure that in the tool options you have the “radial gradient” tool selected, this is a circular gradient
- Click on your focal point of your photo, and drag so that you create a line from the focal point out, the longer line you drag, the more of your photograph will be in focus
- To add a sepia tone to your photograph click layer > new adjustment layer > hue/saturation
- Click the option to “colorize” the photograph
- Adjust the “hue” meter to somewhere in between orange and yellow, so that your photo has the sepia look
- Create a new blank layer, by clicking the create a new layer icon in the layers window
- Using the rectangular marquee tool, select the center of the photograph, leaving a border of about 1”-2” all the way around the edge of the photograph
- Click the “q” button on the keyboard to make a quickmask appear, this will turn the border of the photo red
- Add another Gaussian blur to this layer, the Gaussian blur should make the photo entirely out of focus this time, you may need to adjust this blur all the way up, click OK
- Exit the quick mask mode by pressing “q” on the keyboard again
- Select the inverse, so that your border is selected by clicking select > inverse
- Using the brush tool, select a very large brush with an extremely soft edge by clicking up top in the tool options bar and bringing the size of the brush up, and the hardness of the brush completely down to zero
- Once you have a large, soft edged brush, color in the border of your photograph so that it is darkened
- Adjust the opacity of this layer to make a more subtle vignette
Links for Photoshop Tutorials:
Didn’t find something you liked? Try doing a google search for “Photoshop
Tutorials” or "Photoshop Editing Techniques". There are literally thousands of youtube
videos or step-by-step written tutorials for you to experiment with.
Past Examples:
Past Examples:
Double Exposure Images:
There are many different ways to do a double exposure,
essentially, a double exposure is just combining two or more images into one. Here are a few ideas:
Example:
2. Layer two pictures on top of one other. Select an entire image (cmnd+a – select all), copy (cmnd+c), and paste (cmnd+v) over another picture. Adjust the opacity of the top layer so that It’s somewhat transparent and the other picture shows through
Example:
3. Layer two pictures on top of one another. Select the subject in the image on the top layer using the quick select tool. Refine the edge. Erase the subject (press delete/backspace on the keyboard) so that the layer behind it shows through. This makes for a more abstract, surrealist edit.
Example:
