Image Effect - Xmas

[Danny]

Hi All,

Does anyone know of anyone who can take an image a landscape/cityscape etc and then make it look christmassy?

For example, darken the image - add snow effects and maybe even a santa and sleigh in the sky somewhere in the distance.

Thanks,

Danny

[the_pm]

There are probably some premade brushes in Photoshop, Illustrator or Fireworks that will allow you to pain snow into a picture. Darkening a landscape and adding a Santa should be fairly standard procedures (a little light adjustment and a little transparency, cut and paste).

Eye Candy - Nature edition - http://www.alienskin.com/ec5n/ec5n_examples.html - has a snow filter in it. This works with both Fireworks and Photoshop (I've never used it, but I have it handy). Just for kicks, give me a look at the picture, and let's see how the filter handles it - I'll see what I can do!

[Danny]

Paul,

I have sent you a PM.

Danny

[the_pm]

Well, here's the snow. Not bad, I think. Making it dark was much tougher. I'll leave this to another's ingenuity or patience.

[Danny]

Wow - its safe to say im impressed!

Considering how long that took you i may well invest in that plug in. How easy did you find it?

Danny

[the_pm]

Pretty easy. All I did was select the ground area and use a preset to cover the ground with snow. Then I selected the entire image and used the same setting. This gave the whole image a nice, snowy feeling, and the ground got an extra coat :)

It took me longer to decide how I wanted to tackle it than it took to actually get it done. The darkened picture was just the result of the burn tool (standard in Fireworks and Photoshop) - that one didn't come out all that well, but the snow part is good, I think.

I used Fireworks, my editor of choice.

[Danny]

Thanks Paul - you've been a great help!

All i need to do now is sort out an image with santa or something similar hehe.

Cheers!

[the_pm]

How's this? The original picture was a bit cartoony, which never goes well with a photo, but enough effects (snow), resizing and blending, and it's passible, I think.

[Danny]

Paul,

Thats exactly what im looking for - but to be a true christmas image i think it needs to be a night picture?

Danny

[the_pm]

Well yeah - that would be better...

[Danny]

Thanks for all your help Paul, im going to have a play with the image and the filters and see what I can come up with.

Probably have a root round some tutorial sites.

Thanks again!

[the_pm]

The problem is that you're using a photograph to create a non-photographic scene, in which you have a clearly visible santa on a sleigh, yet it's night time, yet you can still make out everything that's taking place.

I've attached a "realistic" look at how a night scene with Santa might look. I don't think this is exactly what you had in mind though...

[Danny]

Paul,

If somehow I could add lighting to the sleigh - and some realistic lighting on the ship and crane I think it might just work.

Danny

[the_pm]

You read my mind, actually :)

Again, not the best work possible, but it's the right direction.

[Danny]

Wow thats looking really neat - what are you using to create the light?

Danny

[the_pm]

I just created a big circle and then played with its opacity along a gradient. So the outer edge of the circle is completely transparent, and the inner part is 70% or so. It naturally highlights everything around it :)

[Danny]

Paul,

Great idea!

Im going to play with that effect until it looks like it does in my head.

Cheers!