Skip to main content

Hand-tinted prints with Photoshop

I'm back in a digital mood.  It's not that I don't want to make another quilt or a new collage, but I've been having so much fun just poking about with Photoshop and figuring out some new techniques.  Don't forget about all the other techniques that are already listed on the Digital Effects page linked on the sidebar.  Today and tomorrow I want to share two easy new ideas for you to try out. (Here's the link to the next post!)

I don't know about you, but I often take pictures that are less than perfect!  One of my biggest problems is that I fail to see what's in the background.  Here's a shot I took at a wedding, with someone's backside right behind (ha ha) the flowers that I was aiming for.  And there's a stack of dirty cups back there too.  In fact, two stacks!  Great... 

      
If I can make this picture into something interesting, it will be a miracle.  That's what makes it a really good shot to use for experimenting!  I decided to start with a printmaking technique that I've been wanting to experiment with.  First you need to get a good strong outline of the main objects without color being involved, and then you need to add the color back into the shot in a way that mimics tinted prints.  Here's what I did:

 

1. Duplicate your image twice. Name the top one "edges", the middle one "color", and leave the original alone.

2. There are a couple of ways to get a black and white outline, including Poster Edges, but I used Filter > Stylize > Find Edges on the top layer.

3. Add an adjustment layer to "edges" and drag the Threshold slider until you like the look of the outline.

4. Add some Gaussian blur to "edges" to further refine the outline.

5. Drag the "color" layer to the top of the stack.  Choose Multiply for the blending mode and play with the opacity until the color looks like handpainted tints.

6. Optional - Use the move tool to create a slight offset between the "edges" and the "color" layers.  Re-crop the image. 


Copyright 2010 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

Technorati Tags:,,,,,,

Comments

Karen said…
that looks cool! i need to get more familiarized with photoshop!
Nice effect. Don't you just love Photoshop!?

Sometimes you can't wait for the behinds or beer bellies to get out of your frame.

I recently caught my sister-in-law reading poolside. I say caught because she didn't want her picture taken.

I grabbed the fleeting moment not realizing there was a stranger standing right beside her chair.

I couldn't crop him out. So I made two layer copies in Photoshop, used the polygonal lasso tool to cut him out of one, then selected, copied and moved into place the parts I needed to fill the hole seamlessy. Shhh!
Cyndi L said…
Karen, it's a lot of fun to just play around with little tutorials like this...you learn how different parts of the program work :-)
Cyndi L said…
Eileen, I don't know how I ever survived before Photoshop!