how to achieve this look

[ericflash]

Can anyone tell me how I can achieve this look. When the site loads it has a flower image with a blue sky background. The look i'm talking about it the shine and glow of the flowers and the hightened colors. I can also see some Gaussian blurs but there is much more other touches to get this look. All of the images throught the site have a very vibrant color adjustement.
Can anyone explain this process. Thanks

[RUSHVision]

How about providing a link to the site you are talking about?

[ericflash]

Sorry it's morning here and my brain is stupid.
http://www.moskito.de/flash/index.html

[RUSHVision]

It doesn't look like he's just applying a gaussian blur to the entire image. They do have something of a blurred appearance in general, so yes he probably did blur the main image a little bit to get it to blend with the other treatments he's applying, but it looks to me like this was achieved largely by applying outer and inner glow layer styles to selected portions of the image. I think this is most obvious in the images that come up when you hit the 'facts & figures' link.

The flower on the home page seems to be the exception in that it has a more 'painterly' appearance. It looks like it was created in Photoshop while the others appear to be doctored photos for the most part, combining the Photoshopped backgrounds with some animation in Flash. Using the 'facts & figures' image as an example, you would select parts of the image such as the chairs and the inner parts of the windows and copy them onto separate layers. You would then apply what looks like both an inner and outer glow layer styles. It doesn't even look like he strayed too far away from the default color settings in most cases. Then copy the layer containing the original image and apply a slight gaussian blur.

Try it out on a photograph to see if you can match the look. Use an image that has as many simple shapes as possible, at least for the parts of it that you want to stand out and apply the effects to. Remember also that some of the elements were added afterwards in Flash. For instance, the light coming from the lamp on the floor to the right adds a great deal to the overall effect, but it won't be evident until you put it together in Flash. It looks like the clouds were added in Flash as well. You can see that in most cases he cropped out whatever background was there originally. As for getting the vibrant colors, it's mostly just a matter of increasing the saturation (Ctrl+U). You could also adjust the Levels (Ctrl+L) a little bit.

Play around with some photos and see what you can come up with. If you are interested in replicating the overall look of the site rather than just that flower image, I would actually recommend not looking at the flower image for the most part. While he managed to pull it in line with the rest of the images, it was made using entirely different methods than those used throughout the rest of the site. I could be wrong, but that one was painted and the rest are just doctored photos. Creating that that flower would take time, patience, practice, and a bit of creativity. Everything else anyone reasonably versed in Photoshop could do quite quickly.

[ericflash]

Thanks for the detailed mail. I really appreciate your thoughts.
When you say

But that one was painted and the rest are just doctored photos.

What do you mean by painted?

I guess I better get cracking with my patience because the flower image is the one that I am trying to pull off.
Thanks again. If anyone else has any suggestions on this please join in.
Thanks again.

[Black_phoenix]

Hi at a guess RUSHV... was refering that the image may be drawn in photoshop or another graphics program or as he says you can get a photo and draw over it to alter it

i would say is either a photo that has been drawn over and altered slightly or it a very well done illustration.

difficult to tell sometimes

bp

[RUSHVision]

Here is a flower I did in Photoshop using the flower image you linked to as a reference along with some creative interpretation. I created two different paths using the Pen Tool, one for the outline of the flower and one for the stem. These were turned into selections and then I did my painting inside them on various layers. Along the way I applied a few filters and made use of the Smudge and Blur Tools. The key is really just to keep playing around with it until it looks like you want it to. Use plenty of layers to separate elements and make it easy to make changes.

[ctranter]

duplicate the layer then ajust the levels -> bring the sliders together towards the middle to get it a bit more contrasty (sorry dont know actually what that does in a technical sense but hey) then apply a guassian blur and set as a screen layer over the top.

See if that does it.

[ctranter]

here's on i did in literally 5 seconds

original


after


you might want to try seting the layer as 'lighten' or just mess about to see if you get a gdecent result.

Hope this helps...

[ericflash]

Cool thanks guys for the help.
RUSHVision can you explain this to me.

These were turned into selections and then I did my painting inside them on various layers.

I'm pretty good with photoshop but i'm crap with the technical terms.
Can you post the psd file so I can have a look at the structure. What you did looks so so close to what they did.
Thanks again to all.

[RUSHVision]

In reference to your question about converting paths to selections, take a look at the screenshot below. If you use the button indicated in the red bar at the bottom you will get the quick version and your path will automatically be converted without offering you any more options. If you use the menu (accessed by hitting that little round button with the arrow on it in the upper right corner) and choose 'Make Selection', then you will get a dialogue that will allow you to specify the feather amount and whether you want to add or subtract from a current selection.



Here are some notes on layer structure and image composition relating to how I created the flower. Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.



Here is the .PSD file. Let me know once you have it so I can take it off my server.

[ericflash]

wow what can I say thanks so much for doing this. I have been going through your psd and its great to see it this way. It really helps. Thanks also for spending the time explaining your process. Most people don't spend this much time. Thanks again, it's really appreciated.

[RUSHVision]

Glad I could help. I always appreciate a chance to play around with PS7's sweet new brush engine.