| » Forum Index » Image doctor » Topic: christmas lights |
|
Posted on 19/11/07 3:58:26 PM |
|
garlington
* Posts: 1 Reply |
christmas lights
can anyone suggest how I can cover the trees of the forest with Christmas lights! I am new to this so simple suggestions would be preferable. Also, could I put snow on the ground? This is for my Christmas card this year so time is of the essence. Many thanks  |
Posted on 19/11/07 5:13:57 PM |
|
katew
Virtual Virtuoso Posts: 681 Reply  |
Re: christmas lights
Hi Garlington I can't help you on the lights, I'm afraid, but I'm sure someone here will be able to. However, for the snow, Gordon (GKB) did a short tutorial a while back. You can find it here: http://www.howtocheatinphotoshop.com/cgi-bin/simpleforum_pro.cgi?fid=10&topic_id=1192191756&highlight=GKB Welcome to the forum! |
Posted on 19/11/07 7:23:07 PM |
|
GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 3973 Reply  |
Re: christmas lights
Hi Garlington, As Katew has mentioned my tutorial I thought that I had better add a couple of comments about this particular image. In order for this technique to work you need some bright green foliage which you will then turn to ‘snow’. Your image is very dark and this technique won’t work with the image as it stands. To test it out I duplicated the layer and ran Image>Adjust>Shadow/Highlight over it a couple of times at the default setting to bring the greens out. You may want to play with the settings to see if you can improve on the default. Don’t overdo this as I noticed that the highlights around the opening in the wall behind the kids were a little ‘blown’. Then I applied the ‘Channel Mixer’ to get the ‘snow’ as per the tutorial. Unfortunately on the image size as posted (1.4Mb) all this resulted in a fair bit of pixilation but it does look as though you will get an acceptable image out of it if you have a larger file size to use. The kids were washed out but a layer mask will see to that (don’t forget you need to work on a duplicate layer as you will need the original layer underneath). From there it just requires a bit of experimenting until you are happy. As for the Christmas lights I would probably just dab some small dots of two or three different ‘Christmassy’ colours along the branches. Duplicate this layer and add a little Gaussian Blur. You might want to duplicate the blurred layer again. See how you feel. You could also add an inner and/or outer glow layer style if you wish. A few dabs of tree light colour (using a VERY soft brush set to 'Colour' mode at a VERY low transparency) on the snow in the foreground should add to the scene. Again don't overdo this bit but do use a slightly larger brush than you used for the actual lights. Hope this all helps to get you going. Good luck. Gordon |
Posted on 19/11/07 8:13:25 PM |
|
Progenic
** Posts: 104 Reply  |
Re: christmas lights
Hi Garlington and welcome ;-) If gordons technique doesnt work out too well on this very dark image, then maybe just overlaying a snow layer straight over the top will do the job you want. I have just tried this (very quickly mind) and it works very well on the grass at the bottom, i just erased most of the snow from the upper part of the image. Not sure about the tree lights (but as suggested maybe just dab some christmas colours around at random) I'll upload you a preview if i get chance a bit later, and believe me if i can do it then anybody can as i have only been using photoshop a couple of weeks. good luck with it Johnny |
Posted on 19/11/07 8:55:20 PM |
|
Progenic
** Posts: 104 Reply |
Re: christmas lights
Hi garlington this is a very quick try out with a simple snow field in the layer underneath (with a layer mask) and simply brushed through onto your card, a few dabs on the branches and some very simple tree lights. It took about 5 minutes, but with a bit more patience and probably a bit more skill than me im sure you could achieve something much better. I simply googled 'snow field' and pasted that into your image, its that simple ! hope you figure it out Johnny  |
Posted on 19/11/07 9:23:42 PM |
|
maiden
Golden Gif Gagster Posts: 471 Reply  |
Re: christmas lights
If you look back through the Friday Challenges we did this one about decoration a Christmas Tree. A good method to use is draw some paths to simulate the electrical wire of the Christmas Trees then create a custom brush which alternates colours randomly set to wide spacing and then stroke the path with this brush copy this layer and add blur and set to Screen to add glow. 
of course the light's here don't scale according to the tree as it was rushed as an example of what can be achieved quickly - just with the pen tool and a custom brush. |
Posted on 19/11/07 9:40:04 PM |
|
Progenic
** Posts: 104 Reply |
Re: christmas lights
maiden i like it 
i dont know how to set a custom brush up though, but im going to try and work it out. still havnt gotten round to trying the pen tool out yet, it all seems a bit complicated but im working on it. |
Posted on 19/11/07 10:06:32 PM |
|
maiden
Golden Gif Gagster Posts: 471 Reply |
Re: christmas lights
Pen Tool: simply draw some curved lines to follow the braches of the tree when you want to end the line simply press Esc then start a new line further on. Custom Brush: In the Brush Shape Tips tab (the first one when you open the custom shape tool dialogue box) set the Spacing to about 300% or so. In the Shapes Dynamics tab set the Size Jitter to about 8-10% or what looks good to you. This varies the size of each light. In the Scattering tab I used Scatter of 135% to give some variety to the placement of each light on the line. In the Color Dynamics tab I set Hue Jitter to 100% after first ensuring that the foreground color was set to blue and the background set to red to represent both ends of the spectrum. I also set the Foreground/Background Jitter to 100% - of course play around to find what looks good to you. Stroking the Path: Once you have your custom brush create a new layer above the photo layer and ensuring your paths are visible simply press Enter and the lines will instantly be stroked with the custom brush. Duplicate the layer and add a blur set the layer to screen To the first bulb layer (unblurred) add a little bevel and emboss to create a bulb shape. |
Posted on 19/11/07 10:59:40 PM |
|
Progenic
** Posts: 104 Reply |
Re: christmas lights
thanks maiden your brill 
i especially like the newly learnt phrase 'stroking the path' you could be forgiven for thinking you were talking about something else altogether, or am i just tired 
seriously thanks for that Johnny |
Posted on 20/11/07 01:36:21 AM |
|
Atomicfog
Virtual Visualizer Posts: 238 Reply  |
Re: christmas lights
Night Version: 
First I created light by taking a few red colors and brushing them into a bulb shape. Then I brushed a smaller white bulb shape into the middle like with real Christmas lights. After this I blurred it a little, and then turned down the saturation so that it was a realistic hue. Then I duplicated the light, and blurred the light. Once you merge both layers you should have red christmas light with a halo of light around it. After that, you resize the light to a realistic size, and then spread it around the trees. Make sure to move them to realistic positions using the transform tool, and make sure farther away lights are smaller. You can then duplicate the red light, and change the hue saturation to green, and spread those lights throughout the seen. Then use the snow tutorial posted above, and that will help you get some snow. I added a slight blue to it with curves in order to make it seem a bit colder. Anyhow, you should come up with something like what I made, and if you have any questions just ask me. I kind of rushed this since I have to be somewhere, but I hope it helps. |