Amaryllis in December

Amaryllis, from the genus Hippeastrum of the family Amaryllidaceae, are the glorious lily-like flowers that grow indoors during the long months of winter. They grow so rapidly and the blooms are so huge and colorful that they help us pass the time until we can actually get out into the garden and dig in the dirt. Below, instructions on making a composite of amaryllis blooms in Photoshop.

"Apple Blossom" amaryllis blooming in my kitchen

Setup for photographing amaryllis, setting the plant on the floor, using black poster board as a background with a lamp on top of a dresser for the light source. Take pictures from different angles for this composite.

After taking your photos, import two of the best into Photoshop. 

The image above, will be the flower that appears smaller, behind another brighter image. Double-click on the "Background" layer in order to unlock it.

Make a new layer and pull it below the original layer.

Go to Image/Canvas size, or Alt+Ctrl+C, and enter width and height sizes double what is already there.

Select the empty bottom layer and fill with black. Alt+Backspace will fill it with the foreground color in your toolbar

Background filled with black

Now work on the second photo. 

Unlock, add a new layer, and drag the new layer below the original layer. 

Delete the background for the flower layer using your favorite method.

Place the images beside each other. Drag the deleted-background image onto the black-background image.

You should have two image layers above a black background.

Go to CTRL+T on the selected top layer to transform it to the size you want. Hold down the Shift key while you transform in order to keep the proportions constant.

While on this top layer, apply the Lighten blend mode in the layers palette

Now select the middle layer, with your background image

CTRL+T transform this image to the size you want. You may want to adjust sizes and positions, including rotating images slightly, until you have the placement you want. Crop to the final size.

Final image of composite Amaryllis blossoms

Flower Edge Effects in Photoshop

Playing with layer order, blending modes and opacities, and edge effects in Photoshop can turn your flower photos into works of art.

Blending modes such as Multiply, Screen and Lighten in differing opacities have been used to achieve the effects on the following pictures. Edges are enhanced using Filter/Artistic/Poster Edges and Filter/Blur/Smart Blur.

The pink-orange rose image, above, was duplicated, stretched and enlarged to form the background.  A duplicate of the original smaller size was dragged to the top of the Layers Palette, and the Poster Edges and Smart Blur edges were applied.  Then Blending Modes in the Layers Palette were added to nearly every layer, and opacity of each layer was adjusted.

A sea of translucent daffodils. Poster Edges were applied to several layers and Smart Blur edges to the top layer.

Ballerina roses are enhanced using Poster Edges, then stretched into more layers, with added inverted Smart Blur edges on the top layer.

 To get this sort of effect, follow the instructions outlined below:

Open a picture in Photoshop. Unlock the layer by clicking on the "Background" in the layers palette. Rename "original" in New Layer Properties box

Duplicate the original layer CTRL+J. Use the Blending Mode drop down in the Layers Palette and choose Multiply. 

Adjust the Opacity to 60% in the Layers Palette.

Duplicate this layer CTRL+J. Go to Filter/Artistic/Poster Edges.

I used these settings: Edge Thickness=1, Edge Intensity=1, Posterization=2. Click OK to apply.

Set the Blending Mode of this layer to Screen and the opacity to 60%.

Go to Free Transform CTRL+T. This will set a bounding box around your picture. You may want to zoom out to give yourself more room. Now use the corners to stretch this layer much larger than the original layer. You can move the layer around by using the Move Arrow in your Tools Palette until you have the layer where you want it. Now hit Enter to apply the Free Transform.

Set the blending mode to Lighten and the opacity to 100%.

Duplicate the last layer CTRL+J. Set the Blending Mode to Screen and the opacity to 45%.

Duplicate the last layer CTRL+J. Keep the same settings.

Duplicate the last layer CTRL+J. Go toFilter/Blur/Smart Blur.
I used these settings: Radius=3, Threshold=25, Quality=High, Mode=Edge Only

Invert this layer by going to Image/Adjustment/Invert

Your picture should look something like this. If you want more or less edges, go to CTRL+L Levels and slide the slider left or right for the effect you want.

Change the Blend Mode of this top layer to Multiply with an opacity of about 20-25%. You can add another layer on the bottom and fill it with black (ALT+Backspace) if it adds to the effect.

You can adjust layers, blending modes and layer opacities to get exactly the effect you want.

For more information on blending modes and what they do, go to:
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/layer-blend-modes/intro/

Impressionist Flower Effects in Photoshop

Photographs of flowers lend themselves to filter effects in Photoshop. The following three photos have had several filters and blending modes added to them to lend impressionistic effects that do not detract from the original color and light, and in fact enhance them.

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Purple iris take on an unearthly glow

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Above, Flower Carpet roses transmute into a sea of luminous coral

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Two-color photos like the lilac on the lawn, above, lend themselves to this sort of effect. To achieve it, try the filters and blend modes as outlined below:

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1) Open a photo in Photoshop. CTRL+J to duplicate the background layer.
I have renamed the layers here to help define what happens in each layer.

2) For the first background layer, go to Filter/Artistic/Palette Knife.  

I used these settings: Stroke=32; Stroke Detail=2; Softness=2

3) Your effect should be something like this.  Now duplicate CTRL+J the Palette Knife layer.

4)  Go to Filter/Artistic/Dry Brush. 

I used these settings: Brush Size=3; Brush Detail=8' Texture=1

5) Now duplicate the Background layer CTRL+J and drag the layer to the top of the layer stack

.

6) Go to Filter/Artistic/Poster Edges with these settings:
Edge Thickneess=2; Edge Intensity=1; Posterization=1.
Adjust the opacity of this layer between 30 - 50%. 

7) Duplicate the Poster Edges layer and apply the same settings.

8) Now apply Blending modes to each layer:

Palette Knife layer=Lighten

Dry Brush layer=Screen

Poster Edges=Multiply (adjust opacity)

Poster Edges copy=Multiply (adjust opacity)

9) Turn off the Background layer if desired, and keep adjusting the top two Poster Edges layers opacity until you have the effect you want.

10) The final Hostas photo with impressionist effects, above.

Organizing Your Photos Using Picasa

Picasa is a gem of a program, all the more so since it is a free download offered by Google. Not only does it find all the images on your computer and organize them by date and  folder (or however you want to organize), it provides EXIF data for each photo, a histogram, allows you to tag and caption photos and perform more useful and increasingly sophisticated edits.

To download Picasa, go to http://www.picasa.com  and click the Download Picasa link.

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As soon as you install the program, it will begin to search your hard drive for images and load them into an image library.

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You will see the folders in which your images are stored on the left, and the images themselves appear in a library.

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Click on one of the photos. It will appear from a filmstrip-like row of photos at the top. On the left are tabs of edits, such as Commonly Needed Fixes, Lighting and Color Fixes, and three tabs of Image Processing filters that can be applied to change the look of your photos. Along the lower right hand corner are icons  including People, Places (Google Maps), Tags, and Properties - EXIF, or Exchangeable Image File Format data, which tells you where the picture is stored on your computer, the camera that took the picture and when, exposure, white balance used by the camera, etc.

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For example, the photo above can be cropped using automatic or manual controls.

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In this photo, Picasa allows you to compare a before and after photo with the edits you have done. Note the histogram in the lower left hand corner.

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The above photo is being tagged to categorize it. The tagging icon is found on the lower-right hand pane of Picasa. Simply type in categories you want to use, and they will be available for other photos as well.

I will be posting more about Picasa and what it can do in future blogs. Give it a try!