Cabin Fever Turns Rosy

The snow has been falling off and on since forever. O.K. Maybe it was only Thursday? Chuck ran the snowblower a couple of times. There’s a rumor the sun may come out tomorrow - but I ain’t bettin’ my bottom dollar! (Sorry Annie!) To fend off cabin fever, I have been playing in Photoshop. The whole Texture thing has continued to fascinate me. Today I chose a sky photo I took in the summertime. I converted it to black and white. Then I used it to make a piece of background paper for digital scrapbooking projects.


If you’re interested in the details, here’s what I did using Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Mac:

Created a new document 11” x 8.5” landscape.
Layer > Duplicate.
Working on the new layer, I chose a foreground color and used Paint Bucket to “pour” the color onto the layer.
I opened a photo of the sky.
Converted the sky photo to black and white using Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White.
Dragged the new black and white sky photo onto the solid pink layer.
I experimented with the Blending Modes. I chose Overlay.
With the sky layer highlighted I went to Filters > Artistic > Paint Daubs.
I chose Brush Size 20, Sharpness 15, Brush Type Sparkle.
Pretty cool.
You can adjust the opacity on the color layer or the sky layer to further tweak the look.

As long as I keep the original PSD file saved in layers, I can change the color as the spirit moves me. And keep generating new variations.
So, choose Image > Duplicate.
Add COPY to the end of the file name.
You now have two layered versions of the Pink Sky open.
Flatten the COPY by choosing Layer > Flatten Image.
Now save that COPY as a JPEG.
I usually create a new folder, naming it the same as the PSD file.
Then I keep the PSD, the JPEG and the RTF all in the same folder.
This takes up valuable room on my computer, which is why I move it to an external hard drive.

Remember to save your files as you go along.
Remember to work from COPIES of your original photos.
Have fun!