*

[ziploc]

冬季*不再想念秋季 (Winter * No Longer Missing Autumn)

First time trying out creating the winter effect...

Heavily post processed. The photo was taken in Singapore infront of a lake beside a green grass slope. Appologise for any tonal & color inaccuracy, my notebook lcd is not calibrated.

 

[squall]

Commenting purely on the winter effect...assuming that it is not a real hailstorm!

If this is your first attempt, it is a very good effort.
Some subtle techniques you might want to consider adding on.

1. In real life, there will be no snow under the umbrella, thus the snow we see cutting across the umbrella is actually in front of the girl. So the snow would not be in the same focal plane as the girl's face and would be more blurred. So, assuming your winter effect layer is separate from your background layer, you can easily blur the snow at certain areas without affecting your background. Thus, selective application of further blurring can lead to a really good subtle 3-D effect that further drives the illusion.

2. Another thing we can do, EVEN when we capture real snow is to adjust the tonal density of the flakes and VARY the tonal density so some flakes will seem more obvious than others. This technique is borrowed from movie making and it also further drives the 3D cinematic look.

Personally I have been trying to nail down a consistent technique for adding believable rain to a scene but I am not happy with any results so far.

my humble 2 cents,
Squall

 

[ziploc]

Thanks for the tips squall, really appreciate it. :thumbsup:

Will try it out later.

 

[ziploc]

Ok, 2nd attempt. Using 2 layers for the snowfall, one layer with the finer snow behind the model and the other layer with larger flakes infront of her.

 

[TroyP]

Ok, 2nd attempt. Using 2 layers for the snowfall, one layer with the finer snow behind the model and the other layer with larger flakes infront of her.

Less is more :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[pegasus7777777]

2nd attempt looks better......maybe 1 suggestion is also to lose the "drips" on the umbrella on the left side...snow isn't like that....snow become water is transparent one....
Now it looks like some kind of white liquid spread all over her umbrella...

 

[TroyP]

I don't agree all that much about the flakes.
The photographer is not under the umbrella, so of course you would still see flakes between the umbrella and the camera.
What I would suggest though, is to thin out the number of flakes within the umbrella area, as they would not be as dense as the other areas.
It may also be worth noting that it doesn't even appear that she's below the umbrella in the first place

 

[limwhow]

Ziploc, a good thread and in my opinion, a good job you have done for your second attempt.
You have certainly given me the impetus to explore this technique.
Thank you for sharing!

 

[ziploc]

2nd attempt looks better......maybe 1 suggestion is also to lose the "drips" on the umbrella on the left side...snow isn't like that....snow become water is transparent one....
Now it looks like some kind of white liquid spread all over her umbrella...

I don't agree all that much about the flakes.
The photographer is not under the umbrella, so of course you would still see flakes between the umbrella and the camera.
What I would suggest though, is to thin out the number of flakes within the umbrella area, as they would not be as dense as the other areas.
It may also be worth noting that it doesn't even appear that she's below the umbrella in the first place

Hmm... I think TroyP is right since under the umbrella we see only the flakes infront of the model and any other flakes behind are blocked. I had already masked out the finer flakes at the layer behind her, but perhaps need more layers to make it look more realistic. Also, I notice from real snowfall pic that some flakes tend to be in slightly different direction, will try to do that when adding more layers. :think:

Ok will try again later. Btw here is a real snowfall pic that I took last year up on a mountain in South America. Think it's a good idea for me to use it as a reference. Cheers.

 

[ziploc]

Ziploc, a good thread and in my opinion, a good job you have done for your second attempt.
You have certainly given me the impetus to explore this technique.
Thank you for sharing!

You're welcome and no worries, we are here to share.

Since this thread is mainly about discussion on PS/PP, I had moved it to Digital Darkroom instead.

 

[ovaltinemilo]

2nd attempt is better...I feel for these add-on pp, a subtle approach would always be better...subtle yet viewers can see the snow flakes..too much/too obvious could backfire..

 

[happyranchu]

hi zipoc, interested to know how do you pp in the snow flakes :dunno:

 

[ziploc]

Ok... thanks for all the input, 3rd attempt.

Changes:
- the background "finer" snow flakes are made more slanted (lighter snow tend to be more affected by wind), and is made more subtle.
- add more layers to create different sizes and direction of the snow flakes.
- add a layer to have "darker tone" flakes, the flakes are made few and subtle.
- mask away some of the frontal flakes from the layer infront of the model and the umbrella, to give it slightly more depth.

Hopefully now it looks more like snow then rain. ;p

Btw, in case you wonder, the model is our lovely miyake. :heart:

 

[ziploc]

hi zipoc, interested to know how do you pp in the snow flakes

Hi happyranchu,

No problem, here is the workflow (split into a few stages due to image limit per post):

Stage 1

1. Open up the pic to edit and create a background copy layer. (Yes the flower is missing from her hand - it was added later )
   
   
   
   (Feel free to experiment with this pic and post your results here if you like.)
2. Create a channel mixer layer (Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Channel Mixer).
   
   
3. Change the adjustment layer mode to "lighten", and click "monochrome" on the channel mixer (see pic below).
4. Adjust the color bars till the background is monochrome while maintaining reasonably good skin tone. (You can experiment with the bars to see the different effects.)
   
   

Here is what you get so far:

 

[ziploc]

Stage 2

1. Use the lasso tool to roughly select around the model, and then apply a suitable feather (Select->Modify->Feather). In a larger pic around 6MP I would feather about 250, but I used only 50 for this small sample. Inverse the selection by pressing ctrl-shift-i.
2. Ligthen the selected area to create to snow like feeling by using "Image->Adjustments->Hue/Saturation...", and adjust the "Lightness" to about 80. Press ctrl-d to deselect.
   
   
3. You can skip this step, but since there are still some background objects that look dark, I selected those as well, feathered, and lighten them further.
   
   

 

[ziploc]

Stage 3 - Now it's time to add in the snow flakes.

1. Create a new channel by clicking the "Create New Channel" button under the "Channels" pane. A dark screen representing the new channel appears.
   
   
2. Make sure that the foregound color is white and the background color is black. Add "snow" by using "Filter->Pixelate->Pointillize...". Adjust the "Cell Size" for the size of the "snow".
   
   
3. Create the "snow flakes" by clicking "Image->Adjustments->Threshold...". The density of the "flakes" can be controlled by adjusting the threshold. In this case I set it to around 47.
   
   
4. Hold ctrl and click the "Alpha1" channel. This will create the selection for the "snow flakes".
5. Click the "Layer" pane and create a new layer. Press shift-F5 to bring up the "Fill" dialog, and fill the "flakes" with white.
   
   
6. Press ctrl-d to deselect.
7. Lastly, add motion blur to the "flakes" by clicking "Filter->Blur->Motion Blur...". Adjust the "Angle" and "Distance" as desired.
   
   
8. Add more "snow flakes" layers and apply layer masks as needed.

That's all. Have fun!

 

[ovaltinemilo]

Definitely appreciate your effort in writing out in detail.:thumbsup:

 

[Kongo]

Thanks for the explanation too..
I always wanted to brush up my pp skill..

 

[ziploc]

Definitely appreciate your effort in writing out in detail.:thumbsup:

You're welcome.

Thanks for the explanation too..
I always wanted to brush up my pp skill..

I'm also learning as well. And your portraitures look great already without pp. :thumbsup:

 

[happyranchu]

Hi happyranchu,

No problem, here is the workflow (split into a few stages due to image limit per post):

ziploc, thanks for sharing the workflow.