Creative Effects Challenge No. 29 - Rainbow Effect
Jun 18, 2016 2:54:59 GMT
Sydney and tourerjim like this
Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2016 2:54:59 GMT
I am posting this a little early, as we are out all day on Saturday and I did not want to leave it until late Saturday night.
This week I want to share with you a really easy way of creating a rainbow to insert into your photos. I always used to think that this was really difficult to do, which was mainly due to a tutorial I had tried many years ago and the end result really did not turn out that well. So I have always stayed away from this, until recently when I came across a tutorial in the Digital Photo magazine from the UK. There they showed a really easy method. So here in my owns word is how I created this:
Step 1
I started by finding a suitable photo and opened this in PSE13. Then I created a new blank file, this is where the rainbow will be created on. So, click Ctrl+N and in the pop up box give it the name "Rainbow" and set the units to pixels. For width and height use 2000, ensure Color Mode is set to RGB Color and Background Contents is set to white, then click ok.
Step 2
Now add an empty layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon or got to Layer-New-Layer. The rainbow is created with the Gradient Tool, so click G on your keyboard and the tool will appear. Click on the little arrow to bring up the different gradients. In the Gradient drop down select Special Effects and the last gradient should be Russell's Rainbow. Click this and then make sure you have selected the Linear type gradient and that the Reverse box is unticked.
Step 3
Now it's time to draw your rainbow onto the empty layer. Start about a quarter down from the top, hold down shift while dragging your mouse down until about three quarters down. Holding down shift will ensure that your gradient remains vertical. A straight rainbow however is no use to anybody, so let's make it round by going to Filter-Distort-Polar Coordinates. Choose the Rectangular To Polar option in the pop up box and click ok - voila a round rainbow.
Step 4
Time to put the rainbow onto your chosen photo. Click Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+C, which will select and copy your rainbow. In the photobin open your chosen photo and click Ctrl+V, which will paste the rainbow onto your photo. The resultant rainbow will likely be way too small for your photo, so lets make it bigger by hitting Ctrl+T on your keyboard and drag the corners or sides in the bounding box until you are happy with the size and then drag it into place before confirming the change and clicking the green tick or pressing return on your keyboard.
Step 5
Now you need to blend you rainbow with your photo. First let's blur it a little by selecting Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur and set the value to around 30px. Change the blend mode from Normal to Overlay and lower the Opacity to around 60%. Time to fine tune it by painting out the parts of the rainbow you don't need, so go to Layer-Layer Mask-Reveal All, select the Brush tool by clicking B on your keyboard, select a nice large soft round brush, set your foreground colour to black (hit D on your keyboard to make that happen) and paint over the parts of the rainbow you want to remove.
Step 6
The next step is optional, but to make the rainbow a little more natural looking we need to lighten the inside of it, as a rainbow is usually darker on the edges then inside. For this another blank layer is required, you know the drill, go to the New Layer Icon and you have a new layer. Set your foreground colour to white (hit X on your keyboard for this) and with a large soft round brush loosely paint white around the inside of your rainbow. Next set the blend mode to Soft Light and if you need to remove some of that lightness go and create a Reveal All Layer Mask as in Step 5 above, selecting black for your foreground and paint the light bits out.
And there you have it, a beautiful rainbow which is easy to create!
I hope you have fun with this and show us your rainbows!
This week I want to share with you a really easy way of creating a rainbow to insert into your photos. I always used to think that this was really difficult to do, which was mainly due to a tutorial I had tried many years ago and the end result really did not turn out that well. So I have always stayed away from this, until recently when I came across a tutorial in the Digital Photo magazine from the UK. There they showed a really easy method. So here in my owns word is how I created this:
Step 1
I started by finding a suitable photo and opened this in PSE13. Then I created a new blank file, this is where the rainbow will be created on. So, click Ctrl+N and in the pop up box give it the name "Rainbow" and set the units to pixels. For width and height use 2000, ensure Color Mode is set to RGB Color and Background Contents is set to white, then click ok.
Step 2
Now add an empty layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon or got to Layer-New-Layer. The rainbow is created with the Gradient Tool, so click G on your keyboard and the tool will appear. Click on the little arrow to bring up the different gradients. In the Gradient drop down select Special Effects and the last gradient should be Russell's Rainbow. Click this and then make sure you have selected the Linear type gradient and that the Reverse box is unticked.
Step 3
Now it's time to draw your rainbow onto the empty layer. Start about a quarter down from the top, hold down shift while dragging your mouse down until about three quarters down. Holding down shift will ensure that your gradient remains vertical. A straight rainbow however is no use to anybody, so let's make it round by going to Filter-Distort-Polar Coordinates. Choose the Rectangular To Polar option in the pop up box and click ok - voila a round rainbow.
Step 4
Time to put the rainbow onto your chosen photo. Click Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+C, which will select and copy your rainbow. In the photobin open your chosen photo and click Ctrl+V, which will paste the rainbow onto your photo. The resultant rainbow will likely be way too small for your photo, so lets make it bigger by hitting Ctrl+T on your keyboard and drag the corners or sides in the bounding box until you are happy with the size and then drag it into place before confirming the change and clicking the green tick or pressing return on your keyboard.
Step 5
Now you need to blend you rainbow with your photo. First let's blur it a little by selecting Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur and set the value to around 30px. Change the blend mode from Normal to Overlay and lower the Opacity to around 60%. Time to fine tune it by painting out the parts of the rainbow you don't need, so go to Layer-Layer Mask-Reveal All, select the Brush tool by clicking B on your keyboard, select a nice large soft round brush, set your foreground colour to black (hit D on your keyboard to make that happen) and paint over the parts of the rainbow you want to remove.
Step 6
The next step is optional, but to make the rainbow a little more natural looking we need to lighten the inside of it, as a rainbow is usually darker on the edges then inside. For this another blank layer is required, you know the drill, go to the New Layer Icon and you have a new layer. Set your foreground colour to white (hit X on your keyboard for this) and with a large soft round brush loosely paint white around the inside of your rainbow. Next set the blend mode to Soft Light and if you need to remove some of that lightness go and create a Reveal All Layer Mask as in Step 5 above, selecting black for your foreground and paint the light bits out.
And there you have it, a beautiful rainbow which is easy to create!
I hope you have fun with this and show us your rainbows!
