August 5, 2009

Photoshop Tip

I use this little technique on almost all of my photos. Sometimes it's the only thing I do to them, sometimes I use it along with other actions. It works on 90% of my photos. It's simple and I love it.
  1. Open your image.
  2. Duplicate your background layer.
  3. On the new layer, apply Gaussian blur at 1.9 (you can do more or less but I like 1.9)
  4. Change the mode of this layer to Soft Light (you can try different modes but I almost always use soft light or overlay).
  5. Adjust the opacity of that layer to get the look you want.
Sometimes I lighten a bit or use my unsharp mask afterwards, I love the "depth" that it gives the photo. It deepens the shadows and makes it appear more 3-D'ish.

Here's an example for you.
Straight out of the camera.

Using my tip.

and of course a side by side comparison....


So go play with your photos!!!!!

2 comments:

Jessica said...

Great side by side comparison! Thanks for the tip! I only have Elements, but I think I can apply these actions in it, so that's great. Thanks for the tip!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing..I'll be giving it a try. I have alot of fun tweeking my pics from time to time!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

For those of you who are new followers/readers, don't forget to check out the forum and join in on our discussions there.

My Country Blog of This and That Forum

I love each and every comment my blogging friends leave for me!


All images and graphics on this page were made by me with the exception of that little rooster! He came from Beth Logan's Checkered Chickens at pccrafter.com. Photos were taken by me and graphics were created using Photoshop CS2.
If you see something you like please ask for permission before using it!
Thank you!