In the following tutorial you will learn how to use Brushes to turn an ordinary photo into your very own personalized Valentine’s card. Talk about adding that extra touch. Let’s get started, shall we?
These are the images that we will use in this tutorial:
Cherry Blossom: 411114 © Alexi Novikov 123RF.com
Couple with Balloons: 867152 © Nikolai Okhitin 123RF.com
Fascinating China: 3053575 © Stanko Mravljak 123RF.com
Women in Wheat Field: 3882095 © Sunagatov Dmitry 123RF.com
Kids with Balloons: 7496731 © Denys Prokofyev 123RF.com
Step 1:
Following these steps to create a brush for cloudy text. Go to Window > Brushes. Select a regular and very soft brush, then adjust Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Texture and Other Dynamics.
Step 2:
Here I chose a photo that suit my theme – Love is in the air. A lovely yet sweet young couple, carrying balloons with wide sky landscape 🙂
First, duplicate the background layer. I want to extend the canvas size, so that I can put the text in the sky.
Select the background color which is closest to sky blue.
Next go to Image > Canvas Size. Choose which direction to add the canvas by adjusting the anchor and re-set the Height. Here I added 10 cm.
Step 3:
Create a new Blank Layer, name it as – Love. Select the brush setting that we created in Step 1 and choose white color. Write or paint the word “Love” in the sky.
Next duplicate the Love Layer, name Love Copy. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur = 10 pixels.
Then place the Love Copy layer below Love Layer. Set the Blend Mode to Overlay to make the clouds look more realistic.
Step 4:
Use the same brush and create some more clouds at the horizontal line. Change the Blend Mode to Soft Light to “balance” images that have extreme contrasts of light or dark areas. Next apply Gaussian Blur so that the clouds can blend into the background.
Step 5:
Next, cut out a balloon and place it on top of the cloudy text.
Erase the unwanted white border, then place it under Love Layer. This is to create the balloon is floating behind the text.
Step 6:
Create vintage retro mood for this photo. I’ve been trying few ways to create vintage photo and I found a way that works really well for creating vintage photo.
Create a new Blank Layer, feel in “bright dark blue“ color.
Set Blend Mode to Exclusion. Reduce opacity – 20%.
Step 7:
We can always use Adjustment Layer to enhance the “vintage” mood. You may follow my settings but do feel free to experience and explore other settings 🙂
That’s it. We’re done!
Below are a couple of samples that applied “Dark Blue + Exclusion + 20% opacity”.