Water colour effect

[McMum]

Pentax k10D, 100mm lens

First I like to say hello to everyone. I am a new member and this is my first post. I love photography (but i am just a beginner) and enjoy editing as well.
This is a bit of a washed out texture effect. I am experimenting a lot with textures and get some interesting results at times.

[dlaf]

Beautiful results! Can you post your workflow so we might attempt the process?

[McMum]

Of course i can do that.
Sharpen the picture so you get some nice edges.
I first applied 2 white layers using soft light (to lighten the background mainly) erasing each layer where i do not want a lot of white. mostly along the edges.
Then a couple of white layers,the fill set down to 60% and erasing each layer parts of the white to let the flower come through. . A bit here and there.
I use the texturizer (Canvas) and reduce the opacity to 45%. I then put a cloudy texture on top of it. It was fairly dark and i used vivid light.
That is sort of it.
The eraser brush has to be set very low to 15% opacity, and it depends on the picture which part should be more dominant.
I also cloned the main blue flower, made it smaller and placed it next to the big one, lowering the opacity, so it is less dominant.
I hope that is sort of understandable. I can, if anybody wants it, post a more step by step instrunction.

[dlaf]

That's great, McMum! I also like the way it eliminated the unneeded background. I have plenty of solo flower shots I can try this with. Thanks!

Debbie

[Nathan S]

I like your first photo, very clear and your editing is wonderfull as well. I like the look you gave it,the artistic touch is always nice.

[xxpinballxx]

First off Welcome to the site....hope you get as much out of it as I have!
Second, great work!
I love the gradient effect it has and the dreamy effectgiven off by the white background and texture used.
I love the post work process and think thats more of my passion than the actual photography so seeing things like this really inspire me to do more work.
Thanks for posting and again, enjoy the site!

[charmayne]

Very nice, I like the dreamy feel and the clever way you have gotten rid of the unwanted background. Thank you for sharing, I will give this a try.

[amelia1661]

Hi, I would like you to explain step by step how to do this beautiful watercolor effect thank you for your help
regards
amelia

[McMum]

i can do that. Will do it in the next few days...

[McMum]

ok, here i took a picture which is pretty awfull, i experimented with my lens.


Here it is after i edited it.


here is the workflow
Both pictures are on my flickr and can be downloaded.


Ctrl<>J copies the background

New Layer, Fill with white, Opacity 43%

Eraser brush, 14%, fairly large and soft. Erase the flower in the middle and a bit on the edge of the flower as well


Copy the white layer (layer 2)

This will put more haze onto it

Copy layer two, and again eraser brush, 14% soft and large brush
Go around the outside of the yellow flower and a bit of the right flower, leaving the edge intact.
Now
Shift<>Cntrl<>Alt<>E, will combine all layers without destroying all the other layers.


Filter/ Texture/ Texturizer, Chose Canvas. Scaling 60, Relief 4

Ctrl<>J , Copies the layer

Use the burn tool to darken around the edge of the flower a bit, as it is a bit to soft.
Mid tones, exposure 12%. Bring the opacity of the layer down a bit. I used 56%

Use the dodge tool, very large around 30%, Range midtones.

Ctrl<>J, copies layer….

Use the sponge tool on Saturate, soft brush and go over some of the patels to bring them out a bit, since it is a soft pic to begin with.
I also went a bit over the soft green of the leaves.

Now, the whole picture looks a bit boring and to soft
Move layer 1 to the top, and set blending mode to overlay.
You can play with the opacity to your liking.
I put mine to 73%.

Well, it looks pretty good actually.
This was just a fast job, as to give you an idea how to tackle it.
instead of the texture filter in photoshop, you can use a texture of your own as well, but that is another story i guess alltogether.

This was a soft picture to begin with. If you have a darker picture, you just have to play with the opacity and blending modes of the white layers.
Below is the picture of Photoshop with all its layers