photoshop recipe sharing ~ day 2 ~ sweet & soft effect

as promised, i am back with another recipe.....  be sure to mouse over to see the before.

so let's get started.

day 2 ~ the sweet & soft effect...

the recipe steps are the same in Elements and full Photoshop unless otherwise noted:

Layer 1:
i duplicated the base image.
Applied a gaussian blur filter at 67 pixels. Lowered the opacity of the layer so i could see the basic outline of the image.

PHOTOSHOP: added a layer mask to the duplicate layer and used a black soft round brush set to around 45% to remove the blur from the 3 main dresses.
ELEMENTS: used the eraser tool set at about 45% opacity and soft round brush to remove the blur from the 3 dresses to reveal the base image below.

Then bumped the opacity of the layer back to 100% and assessed the image to make sure i didn't remove too much of the blur or perhaps not enough.
the result should be a dreamy blur in the background... drawing your eye to the sweet little dresses.

Layer 2:
Created a new layer.  Selected a soft round brush at approximately 35% opacity.  And selected a light grey shade from the image using the color picker and painted over the darker background areas.  Then applied a gaussian blur to that layer at about 37 pixels.
then adjusted the layer opacity to around 62%

Layer 3:
Added the 'uncle clarence' texture at soft light 100%.

Layer 4:
added a hue/saturation adjustment layer and clipped it to the texture layer....and dropped the saturation down to -100.

Layer 5:
Selected the adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette and then added a solid color adjustment layer in white set to soft light 100% opacity.

Layer 6:
Added a final hue/saturation adjustment layer and dropped the saturation down to -54.

you can find the 'uncle clarence' texture in today's 2 for offering...

see you tomorrow for day 3....

xxo,

Comments

[Angela]

I love your processing. This is just brilliant!

[Monica de Moss]

Good morning Kim,
Absolutely LOVE this image, texture and I really enjoyed the "How to Video". I had a great chuckle at the ringing phone. :-)
It never fails ...
Love your stuff - keep up the great work!
Hugs.
Monica

[Tammie]

I love how we can move the pointer over the photo to see the original. Your photo is lovely. I have never played with PS, perhaps you will inspire me.

[Divas and dreams photography b]

Thanks for sharing this Kim, it´s great!!!!

[Gilding Lilies]

Thank you so much I am loving these tutorials. It's like visiting the inside of an artists head. Your work is lovely!

[A Box of Chocolates]

Kim I have to say you are my absolute favourite right now, I adore your images and your video tuts are fabulous. Thank you thank you

[Karen]

Kim,
I never knew laundry could look so beautiful!
You are the best. Thank you for sharing your process with us, amazing, just amazing.

[Jamie]

The things you do with photoshop are pure magic

[Jennifer]

I cant wait to try this! Thanks.

[Marcie]

Thank-you - Kim - for sharing. Love the resultant effect. Am going to have to try it for myself!!

[kelly@thebluemuse]

I think I am speechless...that is just absolutely gorgeous!

[Maureen @ Cottage 960]

okay, I'll try this again.
Oh how I love your tutorials/recipes. Today's recipe is exactly what I've been trying to achieve, with the background blur. You make it so simple. I blogged my first attempt with your recipe http://cottage960.blogspot.com/2010/08/black-and-white-almost.html" rel="nofollow">here

thank you, thank you
♥ maureen

[snowfall1127]

Oh, Kim this looks wonderful!
I'm copying down the recipe & will post something as soon as I try it. I LOVE these recipes, thank you :)))

Happy weekend to you!