Urban Dream
In this tutorial I'm going to show you a neat technique you can use to give your photos a somewhat dreamy/blurry effect.
The method is really simple and can be very powerfun when used properly.
Now, for the first step, open the photo you want to work with.
I found mine at http://www.sxc.hu , an excellent site for free stock photos.
This particular photo was taken by Henning Buchholz.
Duplicate the photo layer by going to Layer->Duplicate Layer... and name it whatever you want.
You can also duplicate it by simply dragging the layer down to the new layer button at the layers palette.
Now, with the new layer selected (the one on the top) go to Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur... and use something around 3px as radius.
You might want to use something else, but you should get something like this:
Set the blurred layers opacity to 60%
Select the Eraser Tool (E) and apply these settings:
And carefully erase small areas of the blurry layer.
Here's how my erasing turned out:
Here you can see what parts I erased:
(I made the bottom layer invisible)
And here's the final result:
How I made the text:
- Duplicated the text layer once
- Used Gaussian Blur... on the new layer (same settings as before)
- Changed the orginal text layers opacity to 40%
You may also want to play around with the blurred photos blend modes.
That's allways fun :)
(overlay)
Want to get in touch? Got some feedback for me? or a couple of requests? Follow me at twitter: