Edit Me - Little Adventures

I haven't participated in the Edit Me Challenge for a while, so I thought I'd give it a whirl this week.  This is the photo that Amy from Little Adventures submitted ...

And here is my edit ...

Obviously I cropped it first.  Mostly because of my tendency to follow rules (ie. rule of thirds).  Yeah, it is a sickness.  Anyway, I played around with the photo a while and decided to go ahead with the Watercolor Painting technique that Ashley from Ramblings and Photos taught us a while back.  Here are the steps I have written down that I followed:

1. Open image in PSE (basic/clean edit should already be done)
2. Duplicate the background layer 3 times.  Turn off top 2 layers.
3. Click on layer 1; go to Filters -> Artistic -> Cut out
4. Set numbers to: Levels 4; Edge simplicity 4; Edge fidelity 2, click OK
5. Change blending mode to Luminosity.  Do not adjust opacity.
6. Turn on Layer 1 copy and click on it to select it.
7. Go to Filters -> Artistic -> Dry Brush
8. Set brush size to 10; brush detail to 10; texture to 3, click OK
9. Change blending mode to Screen.  Adjust opacity as needed.
10. Turn on Layer 2 copy, click to select.
11. Go to Filters -> Noise -> Median
12. Radius = 12 pixels
13. Change blending mode to Soft Light.  Adjust opacity as needed.
14. Flatten layers.
15. Duplicate background layer.
16. Run a high pass filter (Filters -> Other -> High Pass ... I have my radius set at 5 pixels, but use whatever you are comfortable with).
17. Set blending mode to Soft Light.
18. Flatten and save.

Wow!  That looks like a lot, but it really wasn't that complicated!  The only other thing that I did that isn't in my steps ... when I made changes to the layer one and made the blending mode luminosity, I lost the detail in the sky.  So I added a layer mask and painted off on the sky.  I ended up doing that on all 3 layers.

My thanks to Ashley for teaching this technique!  I don't use it often (mostly because I'm a clean edit kinda gal), but it is fun to play around once in a while.

Be sure to head over to the Edit Me blog to check out other great edits!

Tweet