Be Creative Week #37

[lisabee]

Hi everyone,

Let’s BE CREATIVE.

Thanks to everyone who took part last week, great images.

The small print for the challenge is ……
Everyone reading the forum is invited to participate.
Please join in, share your images, ideas, imagination and inspiration.

Please post your images (as many as you like) below in this thread.

If you would like to comment or have a question, please post here (http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?p=395375#post395375).

Above all, have fun!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be Creative Week #37

This week we’re going to try a ‘velvia look’, a lot of plug-ins and actions recreate this look, but I thought it might be cool to try creating one ourselves

http://www.digiretus.com/tippek/cikkiro.php?SORSZAM=76 (http://www.digiretus.com/tippek/cikkiro.php?SORSZAM=76)

and if you would like to read about it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvia)


Notes:
1. The tut is written for Photoshop, the only part you can’t do in PSE is this part referring to the levels adjustment layer,

“I chose Enhance Monochromatic Contrast from the Options menu, only affecting lightness, and set the Clip values for Shadows and Highlights to 0.1% each”.

I tried it in PSE5 and CS3, and it doesn’t appear to make a difference if you skip this part, although I did change the midtone input levels and output levels as suggested next.

2. As always you will need to adjust the opacity of your adjustment layers to suit the image you are using.

3. If you are doing this in CS3, then the brightness/contrast is not as dramatic as it used to be, so you can check ‘legacy’ to get a very intense look and then adjust as necessary.

4. Graininess is optional.

5. This isn’t the only way to create a velvia look, there are variations and many different tuts.


Please try it out, have fun, and as always I look forward to seeing your images.
:D

[lisabee]

here's mine, I omitted the graininess

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1DXtirQBHvabmGSrwh20AoWuK63vX_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1DXtirQBHvabmGSrwh20AoWuK63vX)

Lisa

[TonyW]

Back to my poppies :). The only modification I made was to throw in a lighting effect filter at the end to put a little more light on the main poppy. Just for fun I also tried a Lightroom Velvia preset I had and that's the second image (with no lighting effect). Not a lot of difference.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1ya8G638XS3BluVMKBNT6ppjtQcS_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1ya8G638XS3BluVMKBNT6ppjtQcS) http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1jCr4Txp6ooNSKVNGgIFTBLZQarOg0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1jCr4Txp6ooNSKVNGgIFTBLZQarOg0)

Lisa: I found that bit about the Levels options settings in Photoshop a bit strange as they only apply I think if you use Auto Levels and this tut doesn't so not surprised you couldn't see a difference :)

Tony

[Aussie Nan]

I thought it might be interesting to try one in Elements, and then I downloaded the action that comes with the tut and did that in CS3.

Elements
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/134tthaX3UiNvBLlHdmiUHihbV9ehr_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=134tthaX3UiNvBLlHdmiUHihbV9ehr)

Action
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1dVA3R5Pn7bBlIeB5FqsFPT2Z9zDu0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1dVA3R5Pn7bBlIeB5FqsFPT2Z9zDu0)

I prefer the Elements one even if it is a bit bland in comparison. Toni

[Blue Skies]

The velvia look sure helped this weak photo taken with a point & shoot on a stormy Dec. evening. --- "Window" in Big Bend NP, Texas. --
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1GR78myzDvD90oIQR9AqAfMUhhyD0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1GR78myzDvD90oIQR9AqAfMUhhyD0)

[Bamagirl]

I tried this on several images, and I kept coming back to the dandelion. I like what it did to the background. Thank you so much for the tutorial, Lisa.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/13CMjwVkNfxWxR0oEG40aNsnOX1E_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=13CMjwVkNfxWxR0oEG40aNsnOX1E)

[rvrbndr]

Here's my result. Changed it a bit - my first layer I changed to Color Burn @ 63%, 2nd layer = Color @ 100% and the third = Luminosity @ 100%. I left the graininess out totally and skipped the Enhance Monochromatic Contrast.
Before --------------------------------- After
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1KUo1xRQqZorAEc17st1rQDeOQTkk_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1KUo1xRQqZorAEc17st1rQDeOQTkk) http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1kGt9ZkzugI2dJQiSJZwcAvqHREB_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1kGt9ZkzugI2dJQiSJZwcAvqHREB)

[billz]

Thanks for the fine tut Lisa. I usually stay away from velvia because the colors can so easily get blown out. This technique had some nice controls in it. Fun one.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1h7aK2A0qBTbmUrWaybp5kdlouroJ90_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1h7aK2A0qBTbmUrWaybp5kdlouroJ90)

Bill

[Sepiana]

Lisa, once again an interesting technique. Thanks a lot. Lots of fun! I skipped the graininess and lowered down the opacity of the top Color Contrast layer a bit.

[qcocoq]

The timing for this was great for me because I was trying to fix this picture that I took last week. I'm amazed at the endless tutorials that you share with us Lisa. Thanks much.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/19QKNcZYM5tBpUq2St0N3ATs1qojid0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=19QKNcZYM5tBpUq2St0N3ATs1qojid0)
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1a8dmbLGoImW5bcPCEFCOTxPQtM99_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1a8dmbLGoImW5bcPCEFCOTxPQtM99)

[atticrose]

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1XaNc0jv7SoDRa6syfzh008Mn6fuj3_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1XaNc0jv7SoDRa6syfzh008Mn6fuj3])

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1o6Uinxz5dkgZSzkC77LjReP8SyRyX1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1o6Uinxz5dkgZSzkC77LjReP8SyRyX1)








Here are my before and after, I didn't do the tut exactly player around with the brightness and contrast and levels alot, I also used "soft light" on the palettes bin. Well this was the best I could do, I do like it a lot better then the boring way it did look.
Thanks for letting me join in your fun!
Kerry

[TonyW]

Couldn't beat Bill with a car pic but here's another one. Has a bit of nostalgia as a Ford Fairlane was the first car I ever owned on arriving in North America many years ago. Nothing like as nice as this one though and long since confined to the rust bucket - it was close when I got it :))

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Pd6A0tsP4sT8NV3pLju0CSI6bRZOj_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Pd6A0tsP4sT8NV3pLju0CSI6bRZOj)

Tony

[Zeria]

Lisa,
Thanks for the Velvia look-----
I used a different Velvia tutorial for this image. It calls for the use of Channel Mixer (which is available in Grants Tools).

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/14wczg5JALxuV4Ugxx4i7vJ8ZqtCsa_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=14wczg5JALxuV4Ugxx4i7vJ8ZqtCsa)

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1isOsgv97ddHT6yWcbg0aj98Rr6eT0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1isOsgv97ddHT6yWcbg0aj98Rr6eT0)

[Martha]

I like this a lot, Lisa. Thank you for the time you take to find the tutorials and comment on our images.
Here is the one I tried and it does look so much more vibrant! The Before and After are the original image and the effects of the 2 Brightness/Contrast layers.
The second photo is with only 1 Adjustment layer.
Martha
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1s8yA9U4ihFpiJ7nhaIp9wgN0ljWzk_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1s8yA9U4ihFpiJ7nhaIp9wgN0ljWzk)
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1sPhO3LWR1XoI0A8HjtjWbACliAd1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1sPhO3LWR1XoI0A8HjtjWbACliAd1)

[Sepiana]

Lisa, I can't resist! This time, I didn't reduce the opacity of the top layer, but still skipped the Film Grain filter.

[mljrbg]

Lisa, another fun one. Thanks!!

I did not change the opacity or do the film grain layer.

Mary Lou

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1BzksP6NLTaJihtCaXJ3olJhFPWNXM1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1BzksP6NLTaJihtCaXJ3olJhFPWNXM1)

[Bayla]

Like Pete I used a tutorial that called for Channel Mixer & Curves - I preferred the result:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1vLdtZLAc19FnZIx7ooS710zK8tbbE0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1vLdtZLAc19FnZIx7ooS710zK8tbbE0)

Bayla

[Deborah]

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1udMt9PLo1hedWl56pzou3fWpw1VRo_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1udMt9PLo1hedWl56pzou3fWpw1VRo)

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1J8R7xZFhchUXRVyBR0pY92DCZ2aLb0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1J8R7xZFhchUXRVyBR0pY92DCZ2aLb0)

This was a fun tutorial, Thank you
I know I couldn't compete with Tony's or Bill's Cars but here's my attempt.
I did adjust the levels a bit, and the opacity, didn't use the grain.
Deborah