•11:53 PM
Hello again! I'm here with another post with flowers (it's Spring, what can I say?) This will be part of a loose series of blogs on how I get my photographs to look vintage, and some of the different ways I go about achieving this look.
For this blog - I'm going to show you what I've been up to in the way of textured and stylized photographic art, and then put you on the right track if you are interested in doing these yourself! This is not a step-by-step tutorial, but a general blueprint to make your own :-)
(click on any of these images to see in detail)
(click on any of these images to see in detail)
First off, you'll need to get a clear photo any flower with high contrast, or force a high contrast in Photoshop. Get lots of contrast and adjust your colors.
Now comes the fun part! You will need a highly textured photo or old paper, rust, wood, sand, concrete, dirt, or anything else that you find interesting. Maybe a combination - that works best for me a lot of the time. You can either take the photo yourself, or download one from one of these great sources:
The next step is extremely simple - copy this new textured imaged into a layer on top of your original image (flowers in this case) then play around with the blend modes for this texture layer until you find one you like. Multiply or Overlay work best for me. If the color is off, then you can use adjustments such as hue, saturation, etc. to make the layer look more natural.
If there is too much "stuff" or texture over important parts of your subject (ex - the flower itself), create a layer mask and gently clear away parts of the textured image with a low opacity brush so the subject comes through. I like to leave a bit of texture showing to make the image seem more natural. A vignette is a nice touch with this style to really give you that vintage look!
All of the textured jpegs used to create these images were downloaded from one or more of the above websites. These three are my favorites, and they are worth subscribing to for future projects! Have fun with your creativity, and let it take you where it will - you'll probably be amazed where you end up!
Rich Leighton - May 21, 2009
All images are property of Leighton Photography & Imaging and cannot be used or copied
without express permission by either Richard or Galina Leighton.
All rights reserved. Leighton Photography & Imaging ©2006-2009
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