{"id":52018,"date":"2024-02-06T14:55:40","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T22:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=52018"},"modified":"2024-02-13T22:45:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T06:45:13","slug":"tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-223","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2024\/02\/tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-223\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scraplifting Mother Bear<\/strong><\/p>\n

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PDF Version : https:\/\/bit.ly\/3UEo7aA<\/a><\/p>\n

Faithful reader Karen<\/strong><\/span> is in need of some creative distraction and has been combing through the Gallery<\/strong><\/a><\/span> looking for inspiration. She asked me if I could help her emulate an effect she saw on one of the layouts posted by Julie<\/strong><\/span>, aka Mother Bear<\/strong><\/span>. Now, Julie<\/strong><\/span> is a veteran of the digital scrapbooking game, prolific is her middle name and I’m sure she has a million tricks up her sleeve. But believe me, if I can scraplift her, anybody can. Let’s look at the layout Karen<\/strong><\/span> likes.<\/p>\n

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This beautiful layout was created using a non-GingerScraps<\/strong><\/span> designer’s product. The aspect of it Karen<\/strong><\/span> loves is the blended photo along the right side of the layout. I could definitely just do a rapid-fire tutorial on how to make a photo look like that, but I thought maybe I’d go all the way and scraplift the whole layout.<\/p>\n

I found a template in my stash, from Jumpstart Designs<\/a><\/span>‘ Synchronicity<\/strong> collection (retired), that I could easily adapt to my purpose. I’ll show you how.<\/p>\n

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The masked area of the template needed to be on the right side, so I Rotated<\/strong> the entire template 90\u00b0 to the right. The framed photo spot was a bit big, so I resized it then made a Copy<\/strong> slightly larger and tilted a smidge. Some of the embellishments needed to be moved around, but here’s the basic recipe.<\/p>\n

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The mask wasn’t quite right, even with its new orientation. So I tried a combo of things until I was happy.<\/p>\n

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Julie<\/strong><\/span>‘s layouts always have an ethereal look, many of them with blended photos and solid, neutral papers in the background. I dropped a pretty cream-coloured paper with a hint of texture to it into the background then Clipped<\/strong> my main photo to the masked area. It’s a start!<\/p>\n

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To achieve the blended look the next step was to change the Blend Mode<\/strong> (snicker) of the PHOTO<\/span> layer to Screen<\/strong>. Screen<\/strong> is one of the Modes<\/strong> that lightens an image. Elements<\/strong> has very kindly grouped those in the drop-down menu.<\/p>\n

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I know you’re going to feel cheated, but there’s only one more step to get that big photo blended perfectly. And that’s to decrease the Opacity<\/strong> on the MASK<\/span> layer to about 40%<\/strong>. This step is very subjective and you may find 40%<\/strong> is too light for you. If you watch your canvas as you adjust the Opacity<\/strong>, you can fine-tune your image to your satisfaction.<\/p>\n

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Now to emulate the look of the second photo. I suspect Julie<\/strong><\/span> uses Photoshop<\/strong> filter Actions<\/strong> for this part. Looking at her Gallery<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, many of her photos have a similar and distinctive look to them… sharply detailed but faded. There are lots of free Actions<\/strong> available if you know where to look. I don’t want any of you to go out and buy a bunch of things you might only use once, so finding a way to recreate the look using just Elements<\/strong> software will always be my goal. Make a Copy<\/strong> of the photo, please! Right-click<\/strong> on the layer then choose Duplicate Layer<\/strong> from the menu. [Keyboard shortcut: CTRL\/CMD>J<\/strong>]<\/p>\n

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If you didn’t use the keyboard shortcut, this cue will appear. Elements<\/strong> wants to know where to put the Copy<\/strong>. Just click OK<\/strong> and it’ll settle down right on top of the original.<\/p>\n

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Working on the Copy<\/strong>, change the Blend Mode<\/strong> to Screen<\/strong>. (This is also a really easy way to adjust those photos that are a bit too dark to be good.)<\/p>\n

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See how this change looks? (If you’re simply adjusting for an under-exposed photo, you’d adjust the Opacity<\/strong> of this Copy<\/strong> until it looks *normal*.)<\/p>\n

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… which is what I did here.<\/p>\n

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Because I never Save<\/strong> OVER<\/span> any of my originals, I’m happy to Merge Layers<\/strong> here to make handling the altered photo easier. Right-click>Merge Layers<\/strong> [or CTRL\/CMD>E<\/strong>] If you’d rather Link<\/strong> the layers instead, click on the icon at the left side of the layer looking like a piece of chain instead.<\/p>\n

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To get the sharp definition click Enhance>Shake Reduction<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Elements<\/strong> will choose an area of the image to focus its effort on, shown below by the marching-ants box. You can adjust the Sensitivity<\/strong> of the tool if you choose; I kept the defaults.<\/p>\n

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The change is subtle; I could see it easiest in her eyelashes and around her fingers. To further boost the sharpness, I clicked Enhance>Haze Removal<\/strong>. [CTRL\/CMD>SHIFT>Z<\/strong>]<\/p>\n

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The defaults pretty much undo what I’ve done to the photo so far… but all is not lost.<\/p>\n

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I fixed it by moving the sliders around.<\/p>\n

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For this layout, composition-wise, the photos should be looking at each other, or toward the centre of the layout, so I’m just going to Image>Rotate>Flip Horizontal<\/strong> and fit it into the framed photo spots. The rest of the scraplift is simply placing embellishments in the right places.<\/p>\n

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How do you think I did?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

[Photos from Bong Baby House Photos]<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scraplifting Mother Bear PDF Version : https:\/\/bit.ly\/3UEo7aA Faithful reader Karen is in need of some creative distraction and has been combing through the Gallery looking for inspiration. She asked me if I could help her emulate an effect she saw on one of the layouts posted by Julie, aka Mother Bear. Now, Julie is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[229,102,284,92,62],"tags":[373],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 01:32:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52138,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52018\/revisions\/52138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}