Using the layer blending option

valentino · Using the layer blending option

UncleAJ has asked me to share some of my photos and after seeing his merging guide figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. I'm always learning new things in PS so its a good idea I blog them to keep track for myself and hopefully to help others.

Unlike grey head, I've not given screen shots - just examples and pointers on the way.

I started with this picture:

I then used an image of cracked mud to add as a new layer similar to this one

I stretched the layer to match the original image. I then desaturated the layer and ramped up the contrast so the cracks were lifted from the now grey/white area. The layer was then set to use the colour burn blend mode and opacity set to 90%.

The result is this:

The aim, I hope, is to share something I learnt that is quite simple to use yet very effective. I don't profess to be the worlds greatest but hopefully you migh want to give things a try.

valentino

This one is a little different...

I started off with this image

The original image is a nicely expose shot that my friend took of herself. I felt it needed a little touch to match the feeling she had - also I tend to like to make good looking girls look a bit different. My psychologist blames mind warping kids tv.

This was acheived, from memory, by running an action called urban acid (I'll compile all the actions, frames, layers I use and link you to them later) - after this I used some layers to adjust saturation, brightness etc. This is how the veins were brought out without having to touch over them with ink

Next I wanted to try something different using the lens distortion filter. This is a nice filter where you can adjust perspective, rotate, even use it to add vignetting... (select filter/distort/lens correction)

I rotated the image 180 degrees then used a negative value for "Remove Distortion". This causes the image to bulge outwards making the hand more prominent. The "edge" was then set to "edge extention" which results in the warping effect leading away from her. Using a negative "verticle perspective" draws the top of the image closer to the front whilst pushing the lower part and sides away. You then can use a mixture of this and the edge scaler to fill the void spaces.

Once this was done I converted the image to "Lab colour" - (Image/mode/Lab colour). For an action I wanetd to use I had to adjust the saturation. I used an adjustment layer called "curves". Setting the adjustment to the a-chanel I brought the top and bottom points in by 1 square, this was then set for the b-chanel too.

The result is a very saturated image but thats ok I needed that for the "vintage film" action. The next step was to convert back to RGB (Image/Mode/RGB) colour space and run the vintage film action. Once the action had been run I used an adjustment layer to adjust the saturation. Then below the vintage film layer a brightness/contrast layer to adjust the contrast

The result

Tools

Great stuff.

Thanks, I have bookmarked this so I can refer to it and try some ideas...

uncle aj

I preferred her in the original picture.

Now can you make yourself handsome in Photoshop, that would be a challenge.

(Don't worry folks, we go back a long way)

PS Thanks for the input Mike.

Tardis

I preferred her in the original picture.

So did I!!!!!

valentino

AJ its called art, look it up some time ;)

The cracked version gets different reactions - I like both but think I will work some more on the lips so that the mud is breaking out from there.

uncle aj