Winter it up

I had said I was going to try to winter up the Christmas tree pictures, and I have.

I'm on the fence about this method. Maybe it's me, because I know they aren't originally winter scenes. But this is also my first attempt at it and I'm sure there are a few things I could do to make it a touch better. I'll have to play with them in the future, but this is the first try.

I've provided the original photo below the winter version so you can see what I started with.

Scroll to the end as I've listed how I created the winter feel to the photos.

So how did I make wintery? 

1) Open the original image in Photoshop.

2) Click the Hue/Saturation button on the Adjustments tab above Layers.

 -- Click the pointing finger and select the color I want to turn white from the image.

 -- You'll see the selection bar between the bottom two color scales. Make sure to include the colors you want. If there's green and yellows, like in my first image, I moved the center scales to include those colors. 

 -- Then, slide the Lightness marker to the level of "white" to appear.

3) If you need to bring skin colors back: click to make a new mask (while in this layer) which is the box icon with circle in it. Make sure your foreground/background colors are black/white. Then Using brush in size to your face(s) go over the people to bring them back out.

**If you have colors that still bleed through that you want whiter, create a new Adjustment for Hue/Saturation as needed.

Add Snow: (I downloaded different brushes so I have them in my brushes.)

1) Add new layer (the icon that looks like a piece of paper with bottom left corner folded up).

2) Click Brush and selected brush type and size. Then clicked on image. (Don't worry if cover people, you can remove that!)

3) To touch up faces and where snow is falling -- Click 'Add Vector Mask' then click brush and use regular brush. Brush over where snow not to be.

I downloaded brushes from different sites. The site with many links I found is Creative Bloq. This snow brush is from Brusheezy.

One Picture, Several views.

I've recently started playing with images and coloring in a computer program. I'm still one that enjoys the original looks to photos, but it's new to me so I'm still mesmerized with the different looks. And with that, thought it would be something to share with you.

The image I was playing with was a bouquet of stargazer lilies I had taken a while back. (They are one of my favorite flowers.) I took a few different pictures but figured this one would work best for seeing the difference with the petals in different filters and adjustments.

We'll start with the original image so you have something to compare to:

Adjust hue, contrast, & brightness:

I played with the hue, contrast, and brightness to give the flowers a purple cast. (A favorite color of mine) But I was surprised at how much I could adjust the petal color.

Now lets get to different filters.

Filter - Dark Strokes:

I think this is one of my favorite filters with these flowers. It darkens and shadows the background but keeps the color of the petals crisp with a darkness to them as well.

Filter - Distortion - Diffuse Glow:

Ah. This image reminded me of a soft edging and glow to everything. Fuzzy in a way. If only it could glow in the dark...

Filter - Film Grain:

This one caught my eye because all is the same yet there is a soft feel to the petals.

Filter - Fresco:

I think this is the next best thing to the Dark Strokes filter. It's not as harsh in the darkness yet the feel is still there. Another favorite.

Gradient Map - Copper:

And, of course, because I can. It's completely out of the ordinary but gives such a different look to the image. Not one I would normally pick, but with playing around, I had to share it.

Desaturate:

So many pictures go with the gray look, so thought I'd try it as well. It's hard to pick the petals from the background, but they are there. I do think this arrangement looks better with color though.

There are so many different things you can do to images with programs now. These are the drastic changes, some are slight differences to touch up the photos (which is more what I prefer if I use anything).

I guess it all depends on your preference and what look you are going for.

Do you have a favorite extreme here? Let me know!