Dancing Flower Technique in Photoshop
Lesson 18 from: Creating Painterly PhotographsKathleen Clemons
Dancing Flower Technique in Photoshop
Lesson 18 from: Creating Painterly PhotographsKathleen Clemons
Lesson Info
18. Dancing Flower Technique in Photoshop
Lessons
Class Introduction
03:27 2What is the Painterly Look?
04:12 3Overview of Techniques to Create Painterly Photographs
11:19 4Selective Focus & Extension Tubes
14:22 5The Magic of Lensbaby
36:33 6Tips for Beginners Using Lensbaby
12:31 7Using the Lensbaby Velvet 56
27:37 8Shooting Through Natural Materials
07:22Shooting Through Non-Natural Materials
16:58 10Painterly Backgrounds
06:44 11In Camera Multiple & Double Exposure
13:25 12Exploring Creative Blur Through Subject Movement
06:39 13Exploring Creative Blur Through Intentional Camera Movement
12:59 14More Painterly Look Options
06:25 15How to Create Painterly iPhone Photos
29:44 16Vertical/Horizontal Panning in Photoshop
10:07 17Multiple & Double Exposure in Photoshop
08:48 18Dancing Flower Technique in Photoshop
06:12 19Creating Painterly Image Effects with Software
25:41 20Applying Textures in Photoshop
25:19 21Painterly Photographs Critique
30:49Lesson Info
Dancing Flower Technique in Photoshop
Let's take this multiple exposure in Photoshop up one more level, by doing what I call the dancing flower technique. This is a magnolia and it looks a little bit like it's dancing on its own, but lets open it up. Let's start with a new layer. Okay, this ones already got what I had done to it so let's get rid of those, 'cause I wanna show you step by step with this. I've been seeing a lot of this type of effect on the internet and it was killing me to know how people did it. Do you ever have that? That's like, oh, how'd they do it? And they didn't share, so I started playing around in Photoshop a little bit. You make a new layer and then go back to that around the 30%. And then, take those transform controls and instead of just twisting you try stretching them out a little bit. And stretch this part out a little bit. And then, you go in and make a layer mask and erase that off the part where you don't want that dancing effect. Yeah, no wonder, my opacity's only at 30%. I'm like why isn'...
t it erasing? There. So, you go in and play. I don't want any effect right here in the core part of the flower. You can see that now I've got multiple petals in the back and I can take some of those out at different opacities. I can pull down and make them a little less obvious. Then I can just do it again like we did before, Control J. Maybe this time I wanna pull them out this way, or maybe twist those petals a little bit, like that. And then, I can go in again, clean my stem up. If it's too much, I can pull some of them back. But, I've been playing with this effect a lot and I'm really liking it. I love the feeling of dance that it creates. We'll go from this with all these dancing petals to just a simple single flower. Let me show you some examples of other flowers that I've done with this technique. I went from this to this. Here's the original and I did the same thing, just stretching the pebbles out and twisting them and playing with my layer mask at different opacities. Keeping some petals so it's not as obvious, getting rid of others, and then I put a texture on the background. And that's, I think a really different image than that. It's really not complicated and it's really your personal taste about how much you like, how much movement you want to create, how many extra petals, and that's why I call it the dancing flower technique. Here's the original of a magnolia that I shot, and then I added some more petals and a texture. So, from this, to this, with a really simple technique. It doesn't take a lot of time. So then, I started thinking about this and thinking about other ways that I could play with this. There I go asking myself again what would happen if? I started thinking what if I cloned some of these petals at a low opacity instead. Hmm. So let's find out. Let's open this up, and a new layer of course, and I'll grab my clone tool. Some people don't know that you can change the opacity of the clone tool, when I figured that out it was mind blowing for me (laughs), 'cause I was cloning at 100%. And to find out that I didn't have to was pretty big. Let's go down to about 30% again and we're gonna need to get a decent sized brush. More than that, this. Let's go to 800. So I can come over here and I can grab this set of petals, and I can create more at a low opacity. You can put some down here. You can even change the direction of what you're cloning. So it can be very subtle. You can make a layer mask and take some of that out. I think it's a very similar effect to what we just did, just want this, but quicker and a little bit easier. We went from just the plain flower to the dancing flower just with the clone tool. Just a simpler way of doing it, less involved, less layers, less time consuming. I just started with this technique this is the only one that I've done with it so far, but I like it. Here's the finished shot, when I really took the time to play with it. So, from that, to that. And I added a texture, and that's all I did, was clone petals at a low opacity.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
user-7773bc
Wow. I really loved this class. I took her other class, "The Art of Flower Photography" as well. She is very thorough, explains concepts clearly and is professional, yet kind. I have been doing photography for decades, but flower photography is a little bit of a different animal. I have found it to be extraordinarily challenging - which is also invigorating! At the same time, using Kathleen's principles, I feel like I now have basic rules and tools under my belt which I did not have before. This is a little humbling as I have been doing photography for so long and was surprised there were a few basic concepts I didn't "get the memo" on. haha. This class will save me heaps of trial and error time. I will be much better able to zero in on what I really need to work on. I actually recommend taking both her Creative Live courses. Yes, there is a bit of overlap - but that little bit of repetition is actually helpful. They are not the same class. Oh, and one more "perk"...you get to view some of the most stunning flower photography ever created. Masterful. Thank you, Kathleen.
Donna Macri Stevens
As I've been watching this class, I have literally been sitting at my computer and saying aloud, "Wow....WOW!" This is an absolutely amazing class!!! I began watching it while it streamed, but had to buy it. Kathleen is an amazing instructor, and she is SO generous with her tips and techniques. I love that she supplemented her instruction with on-site videos, in class photo manipulation and so much more. If you love flower photography or want amazing tips on how to make your photos more painterly, CLICK BUY NOW! I'm just blown away! This is a GREAT, GREAT class!
TypicalCheryl
Kathleen's images have a very artistic and painterly character, so she is a great presenter for this subject. In this class she openly shares many of her methods of shooting to create in-camera artistic images (even with your phone) as well as post-processing techniques. She presents this material with her open, calm, strong and passionate manner that gives you an "artistic license" to experiment and discover "What happens if?" I have admired her work for a long time and am so excited that she shares the secrets of creating her enchanting images here. If you are interested in capturing images that go beyond what you see to incorporate how you feel about a subject, you will love this class!