How's it going everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics back with another video tutorial
for Adobe Photoshop.
Today I'm going to show you a few tweaks you can apply to an image to transform a sunny
Summer scene into a cold and snowy winter blizzard.
The process starts with some colour adjustments to remove the warm hues, then we'll add a
white overlay to certain parts of the image to represent frost or snow.
I'll then show you some easy steps to add realistic snow to your photographs.
The image I'm working with in this tutorial is this outdoors photo from Unsplash.com.
The first portion of this tutorial works best with landscape images that contain lots of
detailed elements like grass and trees, but the snow overlay we'll be adding later works
great with photos that already have snow on the ground.
The original size is this image is 6000px, so for the sake of this tutorial I'm going
to scale it down to 3000px.
The size of the document just might affect the values of any filters we add later.
So begin by adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
In the properties panel, change the dropdown menu to each colour channel in turn and move
the saturation slider to remove the warmth from the image.
It's usually the Yellow and Green channels that require the most adjustment.
In this example, the guy's coat is affected when adjusting the Cyan channel, so that's
one I'll leave alone to retain that colour information.
Select the Background layer, then go to Select > Color Range.
Alter the settings to Sampled Colors with the Localized Color Clusters option checked,
then change the Selection Preview to Grayscale and make sure the Range is at 100%.
Click around the image to sample parts of the grassy foreground area to try and find
a good selection that balances between containing a good portion of white, without blowing out
the image too much.
Once you've found a selection that looks Ok, you can tweak the Fuzziness slider to alter
the contrast.
Add a new layer while the selection is active, then use the CMD+Backspace shortcut to fill
the area with white.
Press CMD+D or go to Select > Deselect.
If the effect doesn't look quite right, Step Backwards and try again with the different
sample area in the Color Range menu, otherwise, change the opacity to around 80% to take the
edge off this white overlay.
The white overlay gives a nice snowy or frosty appearance on the ground, but it might be
applied to other areas where it isn't required.
Add a Layer Mask, then use a Soft Brush to paint away any unwanted areas, like the sky.
You can press the X key to switch the foreground and background colours around in order to
restore the mask as you paint.
Drag the Background layer onto the new icon, or use the CMD+J shortcut to make a duplicate.
Drag this duplicate to the top of the layer stack and change its blending mode to Soft
Light.
Reduce the opacity to 30% to bring back some contrast to the image.
Add a Sold Color Adjustment Layer and choose a bright cyan colour.
Change the blending mode to Soft Light and reduce the opacity to 10% to give the image
a cold blue colour cast.
To finish off the effect with a blizzard, add a new layer and fill it with white using
the CMD+Backspace shortcut.
Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and configure to settings to the max 400% with the Gaussian
and Monochromatic options checked.
Head back to Filter > Blue > Gaussian Blur and choose 1px to soften the noise effect.
Then go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.
Choose a random diagonal direction for your snow to fall and set the Distance to 5px.
To transform this noise overlay into snow, go to Image > Adjustments > Levels.
Move the Shadows slider on the left all the way over to the right.
Keep an eye on the preview to determine how dense or sparse you want your snowflakes,
depending how severe your snow storm is going to be.
Press CMD+T to Tranform, then drag the corner handle while holding both the Shift and Alt
keys to scale up the snow layer slightly.
Scaling up raster artwork does result in fuzzy pixels, but in this case, it's actually what
we want to enhance the appearance of snow.
Change the blending mode to Screen to see the snowflakes overlaid onto your photograph.
Add another new layer and follow the same steps of filling the layer with white, adding
a Noise filter, followed by a 1px Gaussian blue and a Motion Blur.
In the Motion Blur settings, tweak the angle slightly to randomise the direction of the
snowflakes.
Adjust the Levels for this layer, moving that shadows slider a little further to make this
snowflakes layer a little more sparse, then scale it up a little larger than the other
layer.
Change the blending mode to Screen to see this additional snow layer helps add more
depth to the effect.
Add a third noise layer with the Gaussian and Motion Blur settings.
This time adjust the levels and scale the layer even more.
The three layers of snowflakes help add some realism to the effect with a mixture of larger
flakes that are closer to the camera and smaller snowflakes in the distance.
Adding the snow overlay is a great way to complement a photograph that already features
a snowy scene, but using those initial adjustments can help you completely change the weather
within a picture that might have otherwise been taken on a nice sunny day.
So if you enjoyed this tutorial or learnt anything new, a thumbs up would be really
appreciated to help spread the word.
Stick around by subscribing to the Spoon Graphics Youtube channel, and feel free to download
my huge bundle of design resources over at my Spoon Graphics website.
Thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one!