Photoshop Tutorial (A Guest Post by Captivus Living)

Sorry if you get multiple postings today, friends of Olivia  :-)  I think things got confused, LOL! Olivia's email said for me to post on the 6th and so I shall! The show must go on! 

Hello everyone here at Olivia's part of the world! My name is Shaunna, blogger and creator of Captivus Living, my little part of the world where I showcase my best work related to my photography, Captivus Photography. I am honored and excited to share a bit of my photography knowledge with you all today as a guest speaker. If you are into photography and work with Photoshop, THAT is what I will be talking about today! I will be sharing a little tutorial on creating a summer, hazy look to your photographs in Photoshop. No need for actions! {Actions can become addicting and viewed as "important" to have in Photoshop, but it is actually not that necessary if you know how to work with Photoshop}. So let me show you how to create a summer, hazy look!

SOOC

EDITED

First, a tip to remember when wanting to enhance your images, duplicating your background (main layer) and selecting SOFT LIGHT in the layer options drop down menu, will automatically give the image a pop!

You would then adjust it so, according to your preference.

I then add a LENS FLARE by going to FILTER>RENDER>LENS FLARE.

I drag the "cross" to the upper left hand corner (in this case because the sun was coming from that direction). I keep my lens type "50-300mm Zoom". I bring the brightness (%) to about 175ish. Don't worry, this will be warmth up/smoothed down in the next step.

I then RIGHT CLICK on the background copy layer (or double click on the layer to bring up that window) and select BLENDING OPTIONS.

I select the GRADIENT OVERLY box on the left side of the pop up window. Make sure you have highlighted that option so you can edit the details of the gradient effects.

I then click on the gradient blended color bar (should have a blending of black and white). Another window will pop up showing you options of different styles of gradients. Keep it the the third style to the right (from left to right, the third option).

Down below that you will see SMOOTHNESS and arrows on the top, bottom, and middle of the gradient sample. DOUBLE CLICK on the bottom left arrow. A color window will pop up. Select a light orange color. I use #e9cd77, which you can type in on the bottom of that color pop up window. Click OK.

Now double click on the RIGHT bottom arrow. The color pop up window will show up again. Select a super light orange/yellow color. I use #fefaea. Select OK until you get back to the LAYER STYLE window.

You will see a little circle that says ANGLE next to it. Angle it -30. Where it says BLEND MODE above that circle, select SOFT LIGHT.

You can also leave that BLEND MODE as NORMAL, but then exit out and make sure to adjust the layer opacity down so you can see through it. This gives it a hazy look, which we plan on adding whether you choose SOFT LIGHT or NORMAL (thing to note: too much haze could be blinding or foggy).

Flatten your layers by going to LAYER>FLATTEN IMAGE.

Next create a new SOLID FILL LAYER by going to LAYER>NEW FILL LAYER>SOLID COLOR...

Keep it white.

Now adjust your FILL and OPACITY until you get the haze you desire for your image.

Now you may notice the sparkle dots across your image that is from the LENS FLARE. You can clone those out if you prefer (if it is crossing a face, which would not be flattering perhaps). To learn more about the clone tool, click HERE.

DONE!

Come by and visit my FREEBIES PAGE to grab some "presents"! Also you can check out my tutorials that I share for all kinds of techniques when it comes to Photoshop and photography. Even though I am not a fan of actions, I do give out free actions! Come check it out and see what you find if you are into these kind of things. Otherwise, check out my ABOUT ME page to learn more about who I am and what I do. Briefly I am a history major (about to start on my masters) and a professional photographer, a mother and a wife. I am from California, lived in Germany for a couple years, but now we are living in the Seattle area. Thanks for reading!