Recently I had my first photo stroll with some really great people: South Atlanta Flickr.  The group’s admin, Julie Harnage, and a few others continued after I had to leave. But I managed to walk away with a really cool photo that I processed.  I just wish I had taken the image.  Still, it begged to be brought into Photoshop and processed.

I wish I had stayed as she captured this shot:

I love this subject.  For some reason it speaks to me.  I tried to explain to my wife that lately when I shoot, I do not necessarily see the image as displayed through my camera, but I see the foundation I am using to create a final piece.  An example of what I mean is this photo, Amelia’s Flower, taken during my recent trip to Amelia Island.  When I took the shot, I actually pictured the processed version, not necessarily what I was looking at through the camera.  For those who have the same thought and creative process, but want a little more on how to handle the images in Photoshop, here is a tutorial for you.

My standard Photoshop disclaimer: I know that I may not do things the right way or the way that you are used to doing them.  The great thing with Photoshop is that there are always many different paths that lead to the same destination.  All that I ask is that you read through the tutorial, try to grasp the steps, and then make your decision.

For this image, I used a combination of textures and actions.  The actions used were actually broken down a bit to pull out certain aspects of them that I wanted.  To begin, I started with the “Editorial” action, available through Action Central.  There are portions of the action that I removed to fit what I wanted.  I stripped out everything that action did, and left three layers which contained certain color adjustments.  Those adjustments were as follows:

• Layer 1: #FFFF7F; Blending mode: Exclusion; Opacity: 50%
• Layer 2: #FFE5CC; Blending mode: Overlay: Opacity: 50%
• Layer 3: #7F7F7F; Blending mode: Soft Light; Opacity: 50%

I do not believe that the order of the layers matter, however, layer 3 was above layer 2, and layer 2 was above layer 1, if you want to be exact.  You should end up with a somewhat washed effect as follows:

To give the image a little more contrast, I created an adjustment layer above the image layer.  I left the brightness level at 0 but changed the contrast up +20.  Next, above the adjustment layer, let’s create another.  In the layer’s palette, click on the Layer Adjustment icon and select “Solid Color”.  I used a value of #EC2700 for the color and then changed the blending mode to Screen.  I dropped the opacity down to 10%.  We are bringing back a bit of the earth tones, as follows:

Since the sky is washed out, I think it would help the mood drastically to add some clouds.  Also, the blue of the clouds would offer some color balance to the image.  I have a stock photography gallery saved on an external hard drive, containing images that I have used over the years.  Lately, I have come to rely on SXC for my stock as they are a great free resource.  The stock photo I used for the sky actually came from a resource that I once paid for but no longer subscribe to.  The image is below:

Bring this image in and place it above the two most recent color adjustment layers, but under the first 3 layers that we started with.  I like to make it a habit to name all of the layers so that I can easily go back in and tweak anything I want to change without having to figure out what I originally did.  Name this layer “Sky” and change the blending mode to Multiply.  You will more than likely have to do some trimming around the building and trees from the overlap.  Once you are done, drop the opacity of the “Sky” layer down to 34%.  You should have something similar to this:

A minor adjustment is the window of the building.  In my opinion, it is a little too light, but I like the reflect of the sky coming through.  Using the Polygon Lasso tool, make a selection of the Sky layer around the window.  Press Control + J to promote the selection into the new layer.  This new layer should already have a blending mode of Multiply but to make sure it is a little more on the dark side, raise the Opacity from 34% to 45%.  A small change, but I believe it helps with the overall mood:

Now, let’s add some texture.  If you have not heard of BittBox, then you are missing out.  Back in 2007, BittBox offered up some really snazzy paper textures which is what I used for this image.  If you are looking on the BittBox site, the exact texture I used was the second one listed.  Flickr users can download it here.

Bring in the paper texture above all of the layers except the initial 3 layers that we started off with.  Name the layer “Texture”. If you typically use a lot of textures or stock resources, I would recommend using the source in the layer name.  For this example, I named the layer “BittBox Texture”.  This helps me remember the source for credit purposes if and when the image is ever posted online.

Next, convert the texture to black & white Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Control + Shift + J). Change the blending mode to “Hard Light” and drop the opacity down to about 85%.  For me, I wanted to use the textures as somewhat of a vignette effect and allow the building itself to come through a little more.  In the layer’s palette, with the texture layer selected, add a layer mask.  Select the radial gradient tool and make sure black is the foreground color and white is the background color.  As a quick tip, you can always quickly make black the foreground color by pressing “d” on the keyboard, which also makes the background color white.  You can press “x” to do the reverse.  Drag from the center to the top right of the photo to create your mask.  What this does is mask off the center area allowing the building to come through, and allow the texture to remain intact.  You could use the eraser tool, however, with a layer mask the texture remains unedited in case you need to go back.

Your image should look something like the following:

I still want to see a bit more contrast to the image.  Select the image layer, and in the layer’s palette, drag the layer to the new layer icon to duplicate it.  Change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “Soft Light”.  Create another layer mask on this layer, except this time we want white as the foreground color and black as the background color.  Using the radial gradient tool, create another mask.  This will allow the center of the image to show through and offer a little more vignette effect.

Side Note: There are times when I have created a new layer of black above the other layers, changed the blending mode, and erased everything except the edges to create a vignette.  While this might work in some cases, I often find that I do not care for the color results.  It doesn’t seem as realistic as it could be.  So I often use copies of the image itself to create the vignette.  Just a personal preference.

You should now have an image similar to the following:

With the sky and additional changes, it would be nice to offer some subtle lighting effects to the image as well.  Rather than use white or some faux sun rays, duplicate the image layer into a new layer (Name this layer “Highlights”) and change the blending mode to “Screen”.  I reduced the opacity to about 81%.  From there, you can trim away portions of the image to allow the light to reflect on certain areas.  Admittedly, I am no expert in lighting.  However, this is how I would imagine the light at the scene:

When you trim away portions of the building, leave the highlighted areas where you believe the light would hit.  Using the arrows above as a guideline, this is the result:

Because of the nature of photomanipulations, much of them, if not all, can be trial and error.  You add layers, effects, objects, and you take them away if they do not work.  With this image, it was basically me creating as I went along with not a very clear idea of what I wanted.  Sure, I knew I wanted an earth toned and textured image, but the details and specifics of how to get there were not laid out in front of me.  With that said, I usually find myself going back and making subtle changes.  This image was not created in the exact steps that you have followed, because I was able to eliminate all of the trial and error steps that were in between.  I also tend to close the image when I believe I am done with it and open it up later to see if I still feel it is done.  When I did that with this image, I found that it needed a little more color adjustment.

Above all of the layers, create a new layer and fill it with #FFF1AE (Or you can use a color adjustment layer if you chose).  I changed the blending mode to “Multiply” and then lowered the opacity down to 76%.

The final result:

For another edited version, using the edited color version created in this tutorial as a foundation, see below:

I used a black and white version of the above image, set on top of textured paper I found on SXC.  I am sure Julie would appreciate some feedback on her lovely work as well.

Again, props to Julie for getting such a fine capture to begin with.  I am a firm believer that post-processing is at its best when you have a great photo to start off with. You can view more of Julie’s work at the following spots:

• Julieharnage.com
• Flickr
• MySpace