Date: 25th February 2010

Spoke too soon!

All notions of Spring were completely drowned in snow yesterday as about 3 inches of the stuff fell over night. Even more has followed today which has pleased some people but enraged anyone who has to commute to work. Luckily I can count myself out of that group! Not a great photo, but thought I should get something showing snow up on here. And yes of course it has been photoshopped! For those who are remotely interested in the technical aspects of creating this effect here is a super condensed crash course…

1. Use Polygonal Lasso Tool to draw around the subject (in this case the handsome Goldfinch)
2. Add a slight feather of a few pixels
3. Select ‘inverse’
4. Use Hue and Saturation to remove all colour
5. Create a new layer on which we apply a black radial gradient (with reverse applied so it’s light at the centre)
6. In the layer options dropdown select ‘Multiply’ and set Opacity to about 40%
7. Well done, you’ve made a not so good image into a fairly interesting image!

Posted in: Scotland, Travel Blog