260
M
AGAZINE DEADLINES BEING WHAT THEY ARE,
people always want pictures of snow for their
Christmas editions – but they need them in September. Every
Photoshop artist should know how to add snow to a scene to
give it that festive flavor; we’ll see how to turn the rather dull
photograph (top) into a yuletide experience. We’re even going to
throw in a few icicles for good measure.
1
To get started, draw the snow shape on a new layer. Use a
hard-edged brush where the snow sits on the windowsill,
and switch to a large, soft brush to paint the area where it
drifts up the side of the wall. Paint in pale gray, not white.
7
To add a sprinkling of snow to the walls, choose a large,
soft brush and set its mode to Dissolve. With white paint,
and the brush set to a very low opacity, it’s easy to apply this
speckled effect with just a few strokes.
4
Make a new layer, and paint the icicles using a midtone
gray and a small, hard-edged brush. Try to make them
look as drippy and natural as possible, and don’t add too many
of them!
Snow and icicles
Up until Photoshop CS5, you could find the Plastic Wrap filter in Filter >
Artistic > Plastic Wrap. Now this section is hidden, although you can still
find it if you choose Filter Gallery from the menu.
To make Plastic Wrap appear in the main menu, go to Preferences >
Plug Ins and check Show All Filter Gallery Groups and Names.
9
Shiny surfaces
SHORTCUTS
MAC WIN BOTH
261
2
Add shading using Dodge and Burn, then add the
texture. Begin with a little Gaussian Noise and then, to
soften the effect, lock the transparency of the snow layer and
use Gaussian Blur to smooth it slightly.
8
The snow we just drew looked rather harsh, so once
again we can use Gaussian Blur to soften it. Don’t check
the Lock Transparency box this time, though, as we want to
blur those edges slightly.
5
We’re going to treat the icicles with Plastic Wrap (what
else?), so first we need to add some shading using Dodge
and Burn. This can be done in a fairly random way; there’s no
need to simulate accurate shadow placement.
3
There are several ways of adding color: in this instance,
it’s probably easiest to use Color Balance to up the blue
and cyan content slightly. Don’t make it too strong – we only
want a hint of the color effect.
9
As a final step, add some color to the walls for a wintry
feel. To get a good contrast inside the window, make a
new layer from the window and increase the contrast, adding
a yellowish hue for that warm interior glow.
6
Apply the Plastic Wrap filter as before, erase the tops of
the icicles so they merge into the snow. Add a little color,
and change the layer mode to Hard Light for transparency,
then duplicate to make the shadow behind it.
HOT TIP
It’s easy to get
carried away with
too much Dodging
and Burning, too
strong a color and
too much snow
overall. The key to
making this effect
work is subtlety;
always try to use
the minimum
possible to get the
effect you want,
and the result will
be that much more
convincing.
How to Cheat in Photoshop CC
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