Gang, creating photo manipulation of wedding images is getting more and more popular. And for a good reason too. Wedding photos make great polygon for Photoshop exhibitions and I made one too :)

So, if you are interested to learn about wedding photo manipulation, here is a little tutorial!

Ingredients:

1. Here’s my choice for today’s Wedding Photo Manipulation.

• For this tutorial you will have to use your own image of the bride, but, just for learning purposes you could use any image
• Trees (download here)
• Sky with clouds (download here)
• Moon (wikipedia download from Luc Viatour)
• Mr. Alphons I, Mr. Alphons II
• Photoshop brushes Hearts

Once got our ingredients ready, together with a cup coffee, let’s dive into it.

1. Since I had the image in RAW format, I tweaked it during the import

- in Lightroom I used Color Creative CP2 preset.

If you don’t use Lightroom, here are the color preferences for RAW in Photoshop:

2. Now apply same color preferences for the two background images

3. Open the image with the trees. This will be the main background.

4. Place an image with the clouds above the background image and use the “Hard Light” layer option, with 57% Opacity.

5. And now, let’s clean it up a bit.

1. Add layer mask on the image with the clouds.
2. Draw a rectangle in the “mask area”.
3. Fill the rectangle with a gradient: from black to none (empty). The grass is hidden and the clouds will fit well in the scene.

6. Let’s copy the main background image (with the trees) using “Multiply” layer option, Opacity is at 68%

7. Lighten the grass in the front of the scene, because we want to emphasize the front. Add a layer mask, and again: draw a rectangle and fill it with a gradient: from black to none (empty)

8. Open the image with the bride and using the Quick Mask option “color” erase the background. Simply turn off Quick Mask when you are done and invert the selection area then erase it.

9. Now add a bride in the scene, just drag and drop. Place it under the tree and using Burn Tool darken the areas that will be in the shadow.

10. Using the Burn Tool darken the grass – create the shadow behind the bride, drawing shadow on the main background image.

11. Now, let’s add the moon. Open the moon file and using Elliptical Marquee Tool and “Shift” key draw a circled selection. Invert the selection and cut out the moon.

12. Color the moon with blue using Hue/Saturation.
First, set the foreground color.
Open Image – Adjustment – Hue/Saturation and check the Colorize option. Click OK, it’s done. The moon is blue.

13. Now create a layer set and change the set option into “Color Dodge”. Drag and drop the moon image into that layer set.

14. Now, copy the background with the trees as many times as you want to achieve the night feeling in the scene. I copied it four times. Merge all 5 layers (background images with the trees).

15. Now use the Dodge Tool, and lighten the image below the moon creating the moonlight effect.

Set up the Dodge Tool as shown.

16. Create a new layer in the layer set with “Color Dodge” style. Add some Hearts brushes (various sizes) and apply Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur. Create another layer and repeat the same, but use less Gaussian Blur in order to create 3D effect. (How to instal and use Hearts Photoshop brushes – design an unique wedding invitation – video tutorial MP4)

17. Also use simple brush, with 0% Hardness and approx 30 px size.

18. I added a sleeping cat too. The process is the same as for the bride.

19. Another cat (same my Mr. Alphons) is added behind the tree trunk. Of, course, he is not behind the tree but dark bark was good to hide his body…

And here is out final result! Voila!

My cousin loved it, I hope you like it too!

In case you liked the Hearts Photoshop brushes touch, these are available in my Photoshop brushes store with commercial license so you can create commercial projects with them.

That’s all folks! Talk soon!
Silvia

P.S.

Our 250 color postcards give-away contest is still on [ends on 26 January 2012]! So, hurry up and enroll, nothing to do really just leave a comment… read more –>

This is third post of my Do It Yourself Christmas saga: first was Do It Yourself Christmas Wreath, then second Do It Yourself Christmas Photo Card and this, third, one is – Do It Yourself Christmas Labels (Photoshop brushes set).

So, dear visitors, friends, ladies and gentleman!

Graphic designers, web designers, scrapbookers, artists, photographers, videographers,  Photoshop professionals and enthusiasts!

Today, I proudly present you nice and FREE for “commercial use” tool for your:

* graphic design projects,

* Christmas party invitations,

* Christmas gift labels,

* web design projects,

* photo books,

* rubber stamps,

* wallpapers,

* paper designs,

…whatever YOUR idea is – this one will make it happen:

Christmas Labels Photoshop brushes set

There are 4 label designs, but every label is made of 4 different shapes (for easier coloring) and they all come in three sizes.

[ PREVIEW CHRISTMAS LABELS PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES ]

But! This is not all! I, also, prepared a short video tutorial too, on how to use Christmas Labels Photoshop brushes. This tutorial will help you speed up the process of creation of Christmas graphics!

DOWNLOAD Christmas Labels Photoshop brushes /0,95Mb zipped/

And here’s a little example of a graphic made with Christmas Labels Photoshop brushes

Also, if you are a GBG Gold or Platinum member or if you decide that you want to become one, I prepared another free download for you!

Simple Christmas Trees Photoshop brushes [for Platinum GBG members only]:

Simple Christmas Trees Photoshop brushes set, video presentation

And a little something for Gold and Platinum GBG members:

Cute Labels Photoshop brushes

Cute Labels Photoshop brushes set, video presentation

OK. Gang, I hope you like new free downloads, videos and stuff and I just can’t help it, here is a little advice for all of you who won’t settle for less than 800+ Photoshop brushes:

Check the legendary, the ultimate, the one and only 800+ Photoshop brushes MEGA SET, not just because of the loads of brushes, but also because of the bonuses and a 50% OFF coupon code for all Photoshop brushes I ever made or will do, forever and ever  ->

Love you all!
xoxoxo

Christmas time is coming and I know many of you, just like me, enjoy creating your own decorations at home, in the company of your friends and family. It’s more fun and these decorations have much bigger value than the ones bought in the mall.

So, today, I came up with this idea of creating a wreath. And, as a basis for it, I used styrofoam.  I made it with the stuff I had at home and I hope you will like it enough to try and do something like this yourself, following this DIY tutorial.

1. Printing images

Print some of your photos, use images of your friends, family, or pets (as I did in this occasion) …  in 2×2 inches size. Of course, I could not resist but to decorate my images with Photoshop brushes:  Christmas II Photoshop Brushes (20+20+20) + 20 PNGs, and I used them as photo masks (there are few brushes in a set which can be used as photo masks too. Also I used one of the free Photoshop brushes from GreenBulbGang.Com – Grunge Stars)

And, well, I printed them out …

2. Preparation

Prepare the following: styrofoam, fabric, colorful fabric ribbons, wire, pine cones, gold color, glue gun.

3. Cutting the styrofoam (Part I)

Before cutting a circle, of course, we need to mark the styrofoam, I draw two circles using a pen, pick and a rope. No, that’s not my hand :) My hubby helped me.

4. Cutting the styrofoam (Part II)

That’s it. Now I had to cut it out. First I cut the smaller one. I know there is a styrofoam cutter, but I do not have it. So I used a simple knife. It was really messy. But I manage it.

5. Voila, that was the hardest part!

The hardest part is done! You can always buy something like this in a store. But I didn’t. Because this is DIY Christmas wreath :)

6. Dressing up

I dressed-up this wreath-to-be in a dark green cloth decorated with gold stars, moons and other drawings… I glued the cloth to the styrofoam with a glue gun. Yes, that’s me gluing the cloth :)

7. Dressing-up – completed

And, here’s the result:

8. Wiring and decorating

Now, I cut some wire and simply clasped it around the wreath-to-be. The upper part was twisted in a spiral so that we can insert the images. I didn’t have thicker wire. If I had a thicker wire I’d just pin it in the styrofoam. Also, I prepared pine cones and sprayed them with gold color.

9. Pine cones

Finally I glued the pine cones with a glue gun.

10. Inserting the photos

OK. That’s it. Now is time for printed images! Cut them, and glue them over the spiral wire. If you just attach them into spiral, they will fall off.

11. The final touch

I felt this wreath was missing something, so I added red and gold ribbons all around it.

12. OK. One more final touch

I added some bows around wires too!

13. And … voila!

Finito! bsilvia Christmas Wreath (2011/2012 edition) is ready! :))

I hope you will like it and maybe even try to do it yourself.  Should you have any questions, let me know I will be more than happy to help.

Here is what Mr. SpaceCat thought of it:

Mr. Alphons was not impressed either

But, the old queen, Poofah, she wanted to eat the pine cones ?!?!?

Love you all, have fun and may the peace be with you.
Silvia

Commercial:
CYBER WEEK SALE! GET 1600+ High-Quality Photoshop brushes for peanuts. This week only.

Download Damask Illustrator Brushes&Illustrator Christmas Card and short Illustrator Video Tutorial

Well, this is one of the multipurpose posts. Very useful. Here is what you get this time:

1. Using pattern brushes in Illustrator [tutorial]

2. Download Damask Pattern brushes (6) for Adobe Illustrator CS3 and newer versions

3. Last but not the least. Hereby, I would like to invite you to vote for Tammy Czigan in the “A Thousand Forests” Wacom contest. Tammy made this great project with one of my Photoshop brushes and I truly believe she deserves a vote.

4. Free Download: Illustrator Christmas Card, 6×8 inches @300dpi, zipped (1,5Mb)

* AI file (Adobe Illustrator CS 3 and newer versions)
* EPS file
* CDR file (CorelDraw 8.0 and newer versions)
* JPG file

Creating Pattern Brush in Adobe Illustrator is much more simple than you might think and this is what we will be talking about in this blog post (which also includes Free Download, of course)  :)

Now, I made a video tutorial on this This is a short video tutorial on making pattern brushes in Adobe Illustrator (CS3).

These brushes can be used to create, for instance, frames, especially square and rectangle frames. They are free, even for your commercial projects but it would be great, awesome and very, very nice of you if you backlink to my blog (let alone the purchase from my shop) :)

Resizing:

In Pattern Brush Option Size go to  Scale:  (from 1% to 100%).

Coloring:

Coloring is not difficult too.  In Pattern Brush Option -> Colorization chose Method: Tint.

Tomorrow I will make a video on re-sizing and coloring pattern brushes in Adobe Illustrator.

[ Download Damask Pattern brushes (6) for Adobe Illustrator CS3 ]

In this short video tutorial I used:

Damask Vector Set (22)

Set is delivered in following formats:

1. .ai (all CS versions from 8.0)
2. .eps format
3. .cdr (Corel 8.0 up to newer versions)
4. .png (so you can easily use them in any photo editing software)
5. .svg (SVG, or scalable vector graphics files can be read and modified by a large range of tools)

Commercial license included!

[ Preview Damask Vector Set ] [ BUY ]

Have a nice day,
Silvia