Vintage fairy tale look

[Liberty1]

for childrens photos.
Anyone have any tuts?

[frank abramonte]

for childrens photos.
Anyone have any tuts?

Do you mean clip art type photos or how to photograph and/or photo retouching children?

[Liberty1]

photo retouching.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

Photo retouching is quite a big subject ... what aspect of the photo do you need to change or correct ??

Wendy

[christellf]

Can you post an photo example of what you are referring too?

[Liberty1]

I would like to because i know that would be so much easier but I don't feel like I can because it is not my work. Someone on another site does these really awesome vintage fairy tale pics from others photos. Several people have asked how she does it and she "won't tell". I actually don't blame her at all as she does this for $.
I would like to do it for myself just with my grandchildrens photos.
She did say that it is all PS,textures,layers and tweeks!
Is there a way that I can "direct you to the site"?

[frank abramonte]

Liberty1, I don't see any problem in giving us a link to the site.
Include one on your next post.

[Liberty1]

Here you go!
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&forum_id=21&thread_id=2862145

[frank abramonte]

Liberty1, they look to me like well lit, and well posed photos.
The exposures seem to be well thought out in advance of taking the photo.
Once you have a well posed and lit photo you can enhance it further with PSE.
The enhancements would be determined by what you see and what you would like to see after the enhancements.
This is all based on your imagination. You can always get instructions on how to achieve a certain result, but you must first convey the result so that we can understand what you're looking for.
You can also post a photo and ask for suggestions on its treatment, that's done quite often on this site.
I sure more input will follow from others who may see it differently.
Post back with your thoughts.

[Liberty1]

O.K..
I guess I really like the look of the children...almost fairytale book drawings but still photos with the creamy skin but vintage look as well.
I like the textures on the backgrounds.
This is why I was looking for the wings in an earlier post.
This is not necessarily the exact pic I wanted to use it on, but it would work for some playing I suppose.
Thanks!:)

[frank abramonte]

Liberty1, this is the closest I can get to what you would like to have. Perhaps if your photo was sharper and not have such a heavy color cast I could have had better results. A sharper and more saturated image would have helped.
Try setting your white balance when taking your photos. I can't help you on that, but someone will come along with additional help.
Correct exposure and focus will help in getting closer to what you want.
I've read on this site that shooting RAW is many times more faithful than Jpeg.
I don't if your camera can shoot RAW, but if it does then you will have to make all the corrections normally done by your camera. Is it worth it, I don't know.
I don't know whether there is software out there that will give you special treatments.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1rXglHbNFhhVXT3w1SKTT8U2emLB_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1rXglHbNFhhVXT3w1SKTT8U2emLB)

[Liberty1]

Thanks!
I guess it helped me to sort through it all by telling me to decide WHAT I wanted!
This still needs LOTS of work but I feel that I am at least on the right track.
I hope!
I do still need to find some wings like that "other" person is using.

[Liberty1]

O.K. um... maybe not yet. She looks too blurry. I want her crisper. Maybe not so much gausin blur. I don't have time to play anymore right now. I could sit here ALL day.

[Diana]

Hi Liberty,

I took a try at it...


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/118ogut83XvfUByaGGNWrAH1Xc1GV_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=118ogut83XvfUByaGGNWrAH1Xc1GV)

First I cropped the top of the photo off to get rid of the distracting car. The photo wasn't wide enough to add wings, so I increased the canvas and selected a strip along each side of the photo, flipped them horizontally, and slid the strips over to add on to each side, cloning over any line and to cover the obvious mirrored effect. Of course, once you add a texture, a lot of that will be hidden anyway.

I opened a duplicate of the image with File > Duplicate. Then on that duplicate, I applied a couple actions I have to try for a more vintage tone... I tried two or three different ones and I'm not sure which one I ended up keeping, or perhaps a combination of a couple, then flattened. CoffeeShop Photography has a couple free vintage actions.

Then still on the duplicate, I duplicated the flattened layer with Ctrl-J, applied Imagenomic Noiseware Professional filter, which is a noise reducer, but it also will soften skin, then I did a Levels adjustment with Ctrl-L and moved the middle slider to the left a little to lighten the skintone. I added a Layer Mask and masked out all the softening and lightening effects except for just on the child's skin. After flattening it all, I copied this adjusted image over to the original image I started with, to a layer on top of the original. I think I may have lowered the opacity of the top layer a little, then merged it with the original layer.

I then added a blank layer above, changed the blend mode to Color and used a pink foreground color to paint in rosie cheeks, lowering the opacity a little until it looked good, then merged it with the original background layer.

I added two different grungy textures in layers above the child's layer, changing the blend mode to Multiply on both. I added a layer mask to both texture layers and masked out the texture from the child... this could also be done by erasing the texture layer, instead of using a mask.

Now, the wings... I used a set of brushes I downloaded from somewhere named wings01.abr. Usually the brushes filename will have the creator's name included, but this one doesn't, so I don't know where I downloaded the set from. They look like they are made from actual butterfly wings. You could google photoshop brushes butterfly wings to try to find some. Or try some of the links from here: http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31800 [post #29]

After stamping each wing, using a pale green color, on a separate blank layer and using the Move tool to position them, I erased the part of the wing that overlayed the child's body, so they look like they are behind her. I merged the two wing layers. Then I applied an Outer Glow from Layer Styles in the Effects palette, then adjusted the Style Settings (double click on the little fx in the layer where the style was applied to get the adjustment dialog). Then merged the wings layer to the child layer.

I also duplicated the final image and applied Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and used the Omni light. Then masked it all except around the wings and top of the head, to give more glow to that area.

I think that's about it. When doing a project like this, it takes a lot of tweaking and trying out different effects, and it's hard to remember exactly which effects you discarded and which ones you kept.

So... my advice is to just play with the photo and try different things until you get something you like... plus you'll be learning along the way.

Hope this helps.

Diana

P.S... I see from the Pixentral view of the image, I should have softened the edge where I erased the wings, especially around the rock she's holding. I should have run the Blur tool at about 10% around the edges where I erased the wings.

[frank abramonte]

Thanks!
I guess it helped me to sort through it all by telling me to decide WHAT I wanted!
This still needs LOTS of work but I feel that I am at least on the right track.
I hope!
I do still need to find some wings like that "other" person is using.

I notice you stylized the background somewhat. That gives me a little better understanding of what you're looking for. I was under the impression that you wanted that clean, sharp look of the photo you linked to.
However, if you want that "creamy skin and vintage" look, you will have to improve your focus, exposure and white balance.
Do you actually want wings on the children?

[Diana]

Frank, here is the link to the "after" images that designer created with the original photos you were probably looking at:

http://nancyrsmithphotography.blogspot.com/

Diana

[Liberty1]

Diana.um..
OMG!!!!
That is SOOOOO IT!!
Thank you so much!!!
I am off to give it a try.
Wish me luck.:)

[charlotteinkennesaw]

Diana,

You are something else! What a great job you did of this photo...how do you remember each step that you took?:confused: Just amazing transformation!






Hi Liberty,

I took a try at it...


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/118ogut83XvfUByaGGNWrAH1Xc1GV_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=118ogut83XvfUByaGGNWrAH1Xc1GV)

First I cropped the top of the photo off to get rid of the distracting car. The photo wasn't wide enough to add wings, so I increased the canvas and selected a strip along each side of the photo, flipped them horizontally, and slid the strips over to add on to each side, cloning over any line and to cover the obvious mirrored effect. Of course, once you add a texture, a lot of that will be hidden anyway.

I opened a duplicate of the image with File > Duplicate. Then on that duplicate, I applied a couple actions I have to try for a more vintage tone... I tried two or three different ones and I'm not sure which one I ended up keeping, or perhaps a combination of a couple, then flattened. CoffeeShop Photography has a couple free vintage actions.

Then still on the duplicate, I duplicated the flattened layer with Ctrl-J, applied Imagenomic Noiseware Professional filter, which is a noise reducer, but it also will soften skin, then I did a Levels adjustment with Ctrl-L and moved the middle slider to the left a little to lighten the skintone. I added a Layer Mask and masked out all the softening and lightening effects except for just on the child's skin. After flattening it all, I copied this adjusted image over to the original image I started with, to a layer on top of the original. I think I may have lowered the opacity of the top layer a little, then merged it with the original layer.

I then added a blank layer above, changed the blend mode to Color and used a pink foreground color to paint in rosie cheeks, lowering the opacity a little until it looked good, then merged it with the original background layer.

I added two different grungy textures in layers above the child's layer, changing the blend mode to Multiply on both. I added a layer mask to both texture layers and masked out the texture from the child... this could also be done by erasing the texture layer, instead of using a mask.

Now, the wings... I used a set of brushes I downloaded from somewhere named wings01.abr. Usually the brushes filename will have the creator's name included, but this one doesn't, so I don't know where I downloaded the set from. They look like they are made from actual butterfly wings. You could google photoshop brushes butterfly wings to try to find some. Or try some of the links from here: http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31800 [post #29]

After stamping each wing, using a pale green color, on a separate blank layer and using the Move tool to position them, I erased the part of the wing that overlayed the child's body, so they look like they are behind her. I merged the two wing layers. Then I applied an Outer Glow from Layer Styles in the Effects palette, then adjusted the Style Settings (double click on the little fx in the layer where the style was applied to get the adjustment dialog). Then merged the wings layer to the child layer.

I also duplicated the final image and applied Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and used the Omni light. Then masked it all except around the wings and top of the head, to give more glow to that area.

I think that's about it. When doing a project like this, it takes a lot of tweaking and trying out different effects, and it's hard to remember exactly which effects you discarded and which ones you kept.

So... my advice is to just play with the photo and try different things until you get something you like... plus you'll be learning along the way.

Hope this helps.

Diana

P.S... I see from the Pixentral view of the image, I should have softened the edge where I erased the wings, especially around the rock she's holding. I should have run the Blur tool at about 10% around the edges where I erased the wings.

[frank abramonte]

Frank, here is the link to the "after" images that designer created with the original photos you were probably looking at:

http://nancyrsmithphotography.blogspot.com/

Diana

Thanks for straightening me out, the link originally given showed completely different photos.

[Liberty1]

Sorry Frank:o
I should have said that the link to her blog was in the first post!:o

[Liberty1]

I printed it out and tried it twice!:confused:
I will have to try again later.

[Diana]

Thanks, Liberty, and if you have any specific questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks, Charlotte!

Diana

[Liberty1]

I can so do this now! I have to find some wings that I like. I don't have any like yours, I have to look tomorrow.
I also have to get a couple more textures. The ones I have aren't "textured" enough.
I will post a pic tomorrow.
I have a coffeeshop vintage action but have to play some more.
Thanks again!:)

[christellf]

Here are lots of Wing brushes at this link. You should be able to find some you like.
Christell
http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/applications/psbrushes/?order=9&q=age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5+wings+brushes#orde r=9&q=age_sigma%3A24h%20age_scale%3A5%20wings%20brushe s

[Diana]

I had to play with this some more because I got an idea when I saw how the child's hands were positioned holding that rock. It made me think of Nancy Marti's globe tutorial "A Moment in Time" in PET Vol.4 #3. So I decided to put a crystal ball in her hands and put something magical in it.... here's the results:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1HqRk1Srmho8LTK3LbKBknaiQbVTXG0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1HqRk1Srmho8LTK3LbKBknaiQbVTXG0)

My husband said the top lobes of the fairy's wings should be more elongated. I had already merged the wings, so couldn't do that at this point. But if you want the wings you stamp on a blank layer shaped differently, use Image > Transform >Distort (or Skew) and drag on one of the corners of the bounding box to see how you can reshape them. I usually stamp one wing, get it sized and shaped the way I want it, press Ctrl-J to copy it to another layer, then Image > Rotate > Flip Layer Horizontal to create the other wing. You can still transform the wings separately if the wings need to be shaped differently because of the position of the person's body, but then I usually merge the wing layers before applying any layer style to them, so they both get the same effect.

Diana

[Newtome]

Thank you so much Diana for your detailed tutorial on how you created such magic.

I followed your instruction except for the noiseware. I have a stand alone version so instead I duplicated the layer and changed blend mode to screen and applied a gaussian blur to it.

I love the idea of using a pale green. I would have chosen white which wouldn't have been as good.

For the wings I used the butterfly wings at this site.
http://trisste-brushes.deviantart.com/

I used the textures from Kimi.

Elaine


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1XvH2l6tJfe9XnEPzULaSeMtJr15b_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1XvH2l6tJfe9XnEPzULaSeMtJr15b)

[Newtome]

Diana, where can I find that beautiful tiara?

[Diana]

Diana, where can I find that beautiful tiara?

It's from a set of brushes, along with some other neat stuff:

http://falln-stock.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Things-Brushes-Set-92728396

After stamping the tiara, I had to Image > Transform > Distort it to reshape it to fit her head as it was turned. I also selected and cut, then pasted a section from the right side of the tiara to make it shorter than the rest of the tiara to get the center of it line up with the center of her forehead better. There are a lot of things you can do with a brush stamp as long as you remember to stamp it on its own layer.

The sparkle on the tiara is from these brushes - Skip Star Sparkle (you'll have to register and sign in to this site, if you aren't already):
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?searchfield=skip+star+sparkle&search_exchange=16&search_category=-1&search_license=&search_rating=&search_platform=0&search_pubdate=&num=25&startnum=1&event=search&sticky=true&sort=0&rnav_dummy_tmpfield=&Submit=Search

Oh, by the way, your version of the fairy image looks GREAT! Good job.

Diana

[Liberty1]

Thank you all so much for this wonderful gift of knowledge!
I am so serious!!
I will use this to create some awesome(if I may say so myself:)) holiday gifts for the great grandparents!!
I have to give you all a name to that beautiful face that you are "playing" with.
That is 2 year old Mayla, my grand daughter.

[Diana]

She is adorable and what a beautiful name. What is your first name?

Diana

[Liberty1]

My name is Susan.
Mayla is named after my mom.
Her name is Maylene. Her parents were italian immigrants and called her Mayla.
My grand daughters name is Maylene as well but we call her Mayla too.
Her little sister is Daven Delilah and we call her Lilah.

[Liberty1]

Elaine

Textures from Kimi as in Kimi kreations?

[Newtome]

These are some great spots for textures. Kimi's Kreations has more, just search her blog for "texture".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skeletalmess/

http://www.lostandtaken.com (http://www.lostandtaken.com) > go to gallery

[Liberty1]

O.K. When you use a texture like we are doing with this pic, Do you alter the texture in any way? Like color/sat, brightness etc. before you use it on the pic?

[Diana]

I usually don't... but you could, I guess. Just put the texture layer above the photo and play with the Blend Modes... Multiply, Soft Light, and Overlay usually work the best, I've found. Then use a mask, or just erase, the part of the texture where you don't want the effect, such as the face and skin, or even clothing.

Diana

[Liberty1]

Thanks.
I usually,well always erase the texture layer because i can't remember how to use/make a layer.
Is it adding a levels layer above the texture without making any adjustments to it.
"Chain" the 2 together.
Then clicking on the level mask.
Then using a black brush to paint over the pic where I want to eliminate the texture?
Do I see the results as I am painting like I do when I use the eraser method?

[Diana]

Yes, you can use an adjustment layer to get a mask, or download a Layer Mask add-on, such as the one in Grant's Tools. Yes, you can see the effect as you paint on the mask. But for textures, erasing works just fine.

Diana

[Newtome]

In my case I may have duplicated the multiply layer to make it darker. I think you should definitely get a layer add on or use your adjustment layers. You want to retain some of the color from your texture or it may not look right.

Elaine

[Newtome]

For the vintage look Kimi has a good tutorial on her blog.

Another one is from Jessica Sprague and pretty simple. She opens a hue/saturation layer and moves the sat slider to the left (she suggests between 50 & 60, but it is up to your taste). She then opens another hue/sat layer above that and clicks on colorize then hue to the left 35 and sat to the left about 20-25. You can lower the opacity on this layer.
Elaine

[Liberty1]

I just tried to make a layer mask again and I still can't get it to work right.
I painted over with a black brush and I see my "black painted part" ON the layer mask but it did not remove any of the texture on my photo!
AAAHHH!
I am going to be getting CS4 in the next couple of months but it would be nice to actually know what I am doing with the basics of Elements.

[Newtome]

This is a quick idea of how it is done.

Start with 2 layers, your photo on bottom and texture set to multiply (or soft light or overlay) on top.

go back down to your bottom photo layer and open up a levels adjustment layer. Don't do anything with sliders just click OK. That gives you your layer mask. Now, holding down your alt key click between the levels layer and the top texture, you will see double circles, this groups the layers. Now you can paint with black on the layer mask and you should start to see the layer below. The good thing about this is if you make a mistake, just paint over with white.

You may also want to try to add a blank layer set to the color mode on top. I used the eyedropper to select a color from the texture and filled the layer with that color. Adjust the opacity to give the photo a bit of the color of the texture. I just did this to give you a rough idea of the layers.
Elaine

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1CXbL7Re3OwjEn13drEPCaQLcLmw40_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1CXbL7Re3OwjEn13drEPCaQLcLmw40)

[Newtome]

Here is a video tutorial by our very own Butch. It explains levels very well. If I were you I would get the layer mask add ons and then see if you really need CS4. I bought Handi Actions from Graffi when I first started and have never regretted it. I think it is only about $13 and some of his actions I am only now learning but there are many Photoshop features.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7723020561810181483&pr=goog-sl

Elaine

[Newtome]

I am getting carried away with your project for great grandparent. How cool would it be to use Diana's idea of a globe and put the grandparents pictures in it!

Elaine

[Liberty1]

Very Cool!
I better get started!!:)

[Diana]

Liberty, Did you ever get your layer mask to work? Does your Layer's Palette arrangement look like this? I thought maybe the layers may be out of order, or something.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/10kVeulckKeeHEq1IIvxv0sgKNgGm_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=10kVeulckKeeHEq1IIvxv0sgKNgGm)

Diana

[Liberty1]

I did. Thanks so much! I am now fighting a new issue. Calibration!!
This is what my photo looks like.
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd247/Liberty111/PICT03822copycopycrop.jpg

This is what it looks like printed out!:(

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd247/Liberty111/001-3.jpg

Any suggestions?

[ImTryin]

What operating system are you using?

What printer?

What type of paper?

[Liberty1]

PSE6
Vista
Had them printed at Sams Club and at Walmart!
I know, I know, not the best processing places but I wanted to see how they would print!

[Diana]

The colors look the same, but it appears they printed it more saturated.

Diana

[Liberty1]

I wonder if I told them that if they could adjust it for future prints or if their machine is just set that way.
I just ordered a couple from Mpix.
I really want to find a local place that prints great pics. I hate having to wait for them.
We had a cord camera fairly close to us but they closed!:(
Depending on how mpix pics look, I still may purchase spyder2express.