As I've said a zillion times in this blog...
I LOVE SNOW!
Unfortunately, we haven't had much this
mild winter and the falling snow in the above photo
is FAKE!
Here is the original photo:
In fact, none of my portraits this winter
have had falling snow...
So I spent all afternoon trying to figure out
how to add it in Photoshop Elements 9.
I wanted to share this method
to save you the same frustration of figuring it out.
Pull your photo into Elements.
Click on the button in the lower left corner
of the layers pallet marked by the pink arrow.
This creates a blank layer that is
now in your layers pallet marked by
the blue arrow.
Since the layer is clear, you won't see it
over your photo.
Click on the paint brush in your tools pallet as seen by
the pink arrow below.
By the blue arrow, click on the paint chip
and change it to white.
Click on the pull-down menu pointed
out by the yellow arrow below
and click on "natural brushes".
A selection of brush styles will
appear as seen by the pink arrow.
These brushes look like little splatters
and they will create your snow.
I experimented and like #24 best.
But you can try several to find what works
best for you. I think a combination would
make for terrific snow.
After you click on #24,
move the cursor over a spot on your photo
to size your snow. Use the right or left
bracket keys that look like this: { }
to enlarge or decrease the "snow"size to your liking.
I like big fluffy flakes like we have here in Michigan.
Now you are going to STAMP rather
than paint your snow on your photo.
I started with the hat below so you can see the snow.
I just clicked once with brush #24
to create a splatter of snow, then moved
the cursor and clicked again.
Move the brush and stamp all over
your photo creating snow...but
just CLICK...don't drag the cursor or
paint with this brush!
Fill the entire photo with
beautiful falling snow.
Don't worry about covering the face...
we'll fix that later.
Once the photo is covered in snow like below,
lower the opacity circled in yellow
in the upper right corner of the layers pallet
to 75%.
To remove some snow from the face,
click on the eraser tool pointed out by the pink arrow below.
Lower the opacity of the eraser to something
like 38% by the blue arrow.
Using the right bracket key...looks like this: }
enlarge your eraser to cover the face.
Click once or twice.
If you have removed too much snow,
click on control-Z to retrieve it.
Zoom in on the eyes and
shrink your eraser using the left bracket key {
to fit the eye and erase all snow off the
colored part of the eyes alone.
Here are the before and after photos:
You can play around with the
snowflake size and amount.
Even easier...I have created some
falling snow overlays that you can
quickly and easily add to your winter photos
to create this same effect.
These are free to everybody and
can be used without credit.
But DO NOT SELL THEM!
You can barely see them below
because they are saved in Ping
so the background remains transparent.
Larger Snow Flake Horizontal
Larger Snowflake Vertical
Smaller Snowflake Horizontal
Smaller Snowflake Vertical
Adjust the layer opacity to about 75%...
and erase at about 38% opacity over main features in your photo.
I used one of the overlays in the photos below.
Here is the larger flakes overlay:
Here's what the smaller flake overlay looks like:
Here's the original photo:
For more photo ideas, check out:
I had lots of fun with this and
hope you do, too!!
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