Photoshop ~ Extreme Grunge Texture Tutorial - the Prairie eDition

Hey there, my sweet friends.  Friday has arrived!!  And can I just say that this has been a pretty wonderful week?

How was your week?  I hope you found some simple blessings in each day. After all, I think it's the simple things that give us the greatest joy!

My week began with a Sunday evening drive around our beautiful prairies with my husband.
It was the first drive we have taken without Andy.  I just couldn't bring myself to go without my sweet navigator.... But I took a deep breath and off we went.
I have to say it was really hard.  It's honestly like a part of me was/is missing. 
Andy loved our photo excursions so much!  Because Andy insisted on being up close and personal I would give him the front seat.  John would drive, Andy was the navigator and I sat in the back with my camera gear.
I know it may sound crazy, but he was such a gift in my life.  The front seat made him happy.... so it made me happy to sit in the back and see 2 of my favorite fellas steering the ship.

Love to you Andy boy.... miss you so much.....

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Today I thought I would share a little textured eDition of our beautiful prairies.

And it's Friday!!  So list members, you know what that means...
a freebie texture is coming to your inbox in just a few.
If you aren't on my texture lovin' list, you can sign up here. 
Once you sign up, I will zap you today's texture right away.

It's also Day 5 of the Recipe Sharing week.
I thought I'd end our week with an extreme grunge textured eDition.

Before I share my recipe, check out today's texture.

I call it 'EXTREME GRUNGE'.... :)

Here's another little piece of the prairies.  An old grain elevator in a tiny town not too far from us.  If you look close you can see the town name, Bradwardine, on the elevator.

Now for the recipe.

I applied the same steps to both of these images. 

Oh and I must tell you, it was a little too bright at the time I took these pics...and I was having a heck of time reading my camera settings because of that...

So the results were some not soooo great images.

Thank goodness for the magic of photoshop!

Let's get started.

Day 5 Extreme Texture Tutorial

Layer 1

Duplicated the background layer and changed the blending mode to soft light 100% opacity.  This can be a wondrous first step in boosting your photos.  And it's super simple!!

Layer 2

To boost the fabulous red in the barn and the elevator I added a hue/saturation adjustment layer and bumped up the saturation to +14.  I didn't have to remove any of the adjustment.  It seem to give the images an all around boost.  Of course you can always utilitze the layer mask and remove it from areas of the photo that may be over saturated.

Layer 3

I wanted to warm up the grass and give it a slightly golden hue.  So I applied a color balance adjustment layer and adjusted settings to 0, -59 and 0.  I then used a black soft round brush set to 65% opacity and removed the adjustment from the barn.

Layers 4 & 5

Time for the texture I so lovingly call 'extreme'.  I set the blending mode to Multiply and adjusted the opacity to 72%.  I removed a bit of the texture from the barn using a layer mask.  In Elements you would use your eraser tool.

I then duplicated the texture layer and changed the blending mode to soft light at 50% opacity.

And that my friends is that! 

Be sure to mouse over to see the before image.  It's quite the transformation. 

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Thanks so much for all the sweet comments and recipe enthusiasm!

I have some fab news to share next week. I think the recipe lovers are going to be quite excited!

Oh, did you have a chance to comment on yesterday's posting? 

I'm giving away The inspiration Stay-cation eBook to 3 lucky commenters. 

Check it out.  The eBook is packed full of juicy creative inspiration!

Before I sign off, I have to tell you a fabulous tidbit from my week.

I'm a new contributor to the fantastic eZine, The Daily Brainstorm!! 

I fell in love with the site a few weeks ago!  In fact it's been my home page since the day I stumbled upon it.  They share the best of the best stuff online.  Anyhow, I'm humbled to have the café featured in this amazing publication.  And I'm over the moon excited to say my first two postings have been featured on the front page!  wooot, woooot!  :)  Thanks you Daily Brainstorm!! You are AWESOME.

If you have a minute, pop over and check it out.  It's full of GOOD stuff!

Talk soon my friends... xxo,

 

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8 Steps to a Soft & Pretty Photoshop Effect

Happy Thursday my sweet blogging friends.

I'm going to share a little secret with you....

These sweet pink daisies were not found in a wildflower garden ....Honest they weren't.. 
:)
I took this shot at the local greenhouse.
These happy daisies were sitting on the table amongst all the other flowers... waiting quite patiently for a garden to grow in....
The trick to getting this shot...... get level, get up close and personal, and of course some fabulous natural light helps immensely....

I used my sigma 50mm f/2.8 macro to capture this.  I adore my macro lens.  And I use it over and over...not just for macro shots, either.

Are you ready for today's photoshop recipe?  Be sure to mouse over to see the before image above...

Let's get started.

Day 4: Soft & Pretty with just a Hint of Pink

All steps applicable to Photoshop CS and Photoshop Elements.

Layer 1
I duplicated the base layer.  (remember yesterday's tip... control j or command j to duplicate the layer). 

Layer 2
Added a hue/saturation adjustment layer and dropped the saturation down to about -65.  Don't panic, it's going to make the daisies look UGLY!  Really UGLY!

Layer 3
Added a levels adjustment layer.  My settings : 0, 1, 195

Layers 4 & 5
Another adjustment layer.  This time I used the photo filter adjustment layer set to the default warming filter 85 at 25% opacity and preserve luminosity checked off.  Here's the trick, change the blend mode to soft light 100% and you will see a wonderful improvement.  To create just a little more oomph, I duplicated the filter layer.

Layer 6
Added a solid color adjustment layer in a soft lilac shade (hex cod#e0d9e0) blending mode soft light opacity 85%.

Layer 7
Optional:  I used some grungy bar brushes from an old stash by nrj.  I looked for a link to them, but I could find it anywhere.  I purchased them over a year ago.  If you happen to know where to find them,...please leave me a comment so I can add the link.
In the meantime, do a search for grungy bar brushes, there are tons of freebies available. 

I stamped/painted the border with the white grungy bar brush at 65% opacity and changed the blending mode to soft light., using the brush menu to rotate the brush as I worked my way around the border.

Layer 8
Finishing Touch  - added a texture.  It was quite pretty without the texture, but I wanted to add a fabulous finishing touch.  I used the History texture from Texture Collection #1.  Set the blending mode to soft light 100%.  And that was that.  It simply finished the pretty pic. 

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I have a surprise for you today. 
Wanna try creating this image on your own?
You can download a low res version of this photo along with the texture and give it a try.
Click here to access the photo and texture download.

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I'm also sharing a give away today.  Post a comment below to enter the inspiration stay-cation eBook give away. I will select 3 winners using a random # generator on Monday, August 30th.

See you tomorrow with the day 5 recipe and of course Friday's freebie texture! 

Did you enjoy this tutorial?  Consider signing up for my texture lovin' list to keep up with the latest offerings, freebies and fabulousness.

Or wanna dig into photoshop a little deeper?  Check out my eClasses HERE.
talk soon my friends... xxo,

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Photoshop Tutorial ~ Black and White Done Right

Hey there,

I'm back with another recipe to share. 

Check out the transformation on this image. Simply mouse over to see the before.  Pretty cool, don't you think?

There's something so beautiful about 2 people holding hands!

Let's get started with our.....

Day 3 Recipe -  Black & white Done Right

Layer 1
So for this image I duplicated the background layer.  Did you know you can type control j to duplicate a layer? 
Then I applied a gaussian blur filter to the duplicate layer at about 45 pixels.  You may have noticed I use the blur filter a lot!!
I removed the blur from their hands and arms and lowered the opacity of the layer to 84%.

Layer 2, 3 & 4
Then to convert this image to a fabulous black and white I added 3 black to white gradient map adjustment layers.  I set the first layer at normal blending mode 100%, the second layer at soft light 100% and the third layer at screen 65%. 

Layer 5 & 6
Create a new layer: Then select a soft round brush and a light grey shade and painted over Alannah's shorts to soften the color.  I set the blending mode to soft light.  That wasn't quite soft enough so I duplicated the layer.

Layer 7
Next I added a solid color adjustment layer in white, set to soft light at 100%.

Layer 8
Time for our texture:  I used the texture 'frosted' for this image.  It's part of the baker's dozen collection, which you can find here.  There's something about it that seems to work magic for me.  I set the blending mode to multiply and lowered the opacity to 51%.  I added a layer mask and removed the texture from the hands and arms.

Layer  9
Duplicated Layer 8 and change the blending mode to soft light and the opacity to 75%.

Layer 10 & 11
I added the text 'all because two people fell in love" using the font vt portable remington which i downloaded from dafont.com and set the blending mode to soft light.  I wanted it to be a little darker so I duplicated the layer.

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That's that my friends.  It's all in the layers!  :)

I hope you have a fantastic Wednesday.  See you back here tomorrow for the day 4 recipe.

xxo,

p.s. if you found this post helpful, please consider sharing it via facebook or twitter using the buttons below.

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,

5 days of Photoshop Recipes ~ Day 1 ~ adding drama

happiest monday sweet friends...
how was your weekend? 
mine was really good... 
we visited a lovely local shop (lady of the lake) and they let me go camera crazy....
i scored a mint condition mountain bike for 40 bucks at the bike shop next to above mentioned shop....
i had 2 awesome, but super hot walks on the trail....  can you say sweat? :)
i managed to get my main floor vacuumed, dusted and spruced up a little.
had a lovely family supper at my parents, that included baby potatoes and green beans from John's garden....
and ended the weekend with a drive around the country side looking for old barns and abandonment to photograph....

lots to be thankful for.....

how bout you?  i'd love to hear a highlight or 2 from your weekend. 

so, i have much to share....  i can barely contain myself.... 
but i'm going to take a deep breath and begin with

5 days of recipe sharing!!

sound good? 

let's get started.....

with today's image.... above...
be sure to mouse over to see the before.... the difference is quite dramatic.

day 1 ~ let's add some drama...

Recipe: steps are the same in Elements and Full Photoshop unless otherwise noted:

Layer 1:
Duplicated the base image. 
Applied a gaussian blur filter at 67 pixels.  Changed the blending mode to soft light. 
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 focal part of the image. 
ELEMENTS:  used the eraser tool to remove the blur on the main area to reveal the base image below.

Then switched the blending mode back to normal.
the result: a dreamy blur in the background... drawing your eye to the pretty table setting.

Layer 2:
Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer.  Checked off the colorize option box in the hue/sat dialogue box. 
Adjusted the Settings to: Hue: 230, Saturation: 25
Blending Mode: Soft Light 100%

Layer 3:
Added another Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer: Dropped the saturation level to -78.  Blending mode normal at 68% opacity.

Layer 4:
Added a vignette by selecting a soft round brush and black as the foreground color.  Brush opacity about 55%.  and painted around the edge of the image.  Changed the blending mode to soft light.  Then went to filter>gaussian blur and set the blur to around 35pixels.

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that's it for today....

see you tomorrow with some 2 fors..... and perhaps a little surprise?
and the day 2 recipe.....

 

xxo,

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