How to get those dreamy shots

[Vixen]

OK...so I looked at a couple of PS tutorials on youtube and read a couple of other tutorials and as usual I didn't get quite what I was after, so i combined ideas from all of them

My starting shot. I thought this might work a little better than the ladybird



So what I did was.....

Adjusted exposure, highlights etc as I normally would
Tweaked the colour in Nik ColorEfex
Pulled up the detail of the centre of the flower in Nik Viveza

Then I created both a circular & octagonal bokeh brush and applied that all over
Then added blur
Then masked out the flower and other bits that I wanted to remain sharp and free of bokeh

Quite pleased with myself as layers and layer masks have so far confused me but I found it easy today
The result is still not quite there but getting there

 

[cwgrizz]

Glad you're getting it figured out. I really wouldn't know where to start except reading, watching, reading, watching... Ha!

 

[aroy]

In one of the bird photography articles I read here is what the author does regularly
. Isolate the subject in one layer - there is nothing else, no background no colours.
. Similarly isolate the rest of the scene in another layer. Or if want a different background find a suitable one. The author I am referring to would use a totally different . background if the existing one has a lot of distractions, or he simply wants a better one.
. Use your imagination and skill, to get the exact effect you want, on the back ground.
. Process your main subject for best effect.
. Merge the two layers.

Now if you processed the BG to be dreamy it will be so. If you simply wanted to change the background you have it (say change a bird in snow to one in tropical forest)

Otherwise if you do not want to go through the hassle of post processing, use a F1.2 lens and the back ground will automatically get dreamy.

 

[T-Man]

I guess I don't understand what all features of a given image characterize a "dreamy look." I've always thought if you have nice "creamy" bokeh, shallow DOF, sharp details on a portion of the subject blending into soft focus on the remainder of the image, combined with the use of a "glow" filter (hence, my suggestion to use NIK's "glamour glow") on the subject... these things combined provided that look, or at least how I defined the "look." I will be watching this thread to try to learn something new. I don't use PS at all; just LR and the NIK suite, so I have a lot to learn about the use of layers and other tools in PS.

 

[wud]

I like the approach to these macro shots As far as the woman you linked to, it's also a lot about the colors. Being close to each other. Which also shows in your last post.


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[egosbar]

blending modes are good , also you can try textures that produces some great results using adobe paper texture pro , its free

i dont own a macro lens yet but will be getting the 105 nikon sometime later this year

 

[egosbar]

bottom one is the original without too much done to it , and just used paper texture pro i think a couple of textures and the top one come out , bit of luck to get what your happy with but its free and fun , just got to mask back the subject or it will have textures , and play around with the blend modes

 

[Vixen]

I like the approach to these macro shots As far as the woman you linked to, it's also a lot about the colors. Being close to each other. Which also shows in your last post.


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I think Mai that it is greatly to do with the original shot. I don't do many flower shots and of course it's now autumn here so flowers are a bit scarce for me to be finding some to try.

I've discovered that my Tamzooka gives a nicer bokeh in many cases than my macro lens and of course more definition on subject (as deeper DOF), so may have to explore this more. I need to find locations that catch the late sun. Unfortunately we don't have the meadows of wildflowers that Europe has (where a lot of the photogs doing this sort of work are shooting).

 

[wud]

I think Mai that it is greatly to do with the original shot. I don't do many flower shots and of course it's now autumn here so flowers are a bit scarce for me to be finding some to try.

I've discovered that my Tamzooka gives a nicer bokeh in many cases than my macro lens and of course more definition on subject (as deeper DOF), so may have to explore this more. I need to find locations that catch the late sun. Unfortunately we don't have the meadows of wildflowers that Europe has (where a lot of the photogs doing this sort of work are shooting).

You could buy some flowers in a flowers shop, if they have anything wild-ish, and place them one by one outside. If you want more for practice.


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[Vixen]

You could buy some flowers in a flowers shop, if they have anything wild-ish, and place them one by one outside. If you want more for practice.


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I guess I could I will have to start thinking about collecting a few flowers, within the law (all native species protected so you can't pick them). Maybe I should see what weeds I can find

 

[Horoscope Fish]

I guess I could I will have to start thinking about collecting a few flowers, within the law (all native species protected so you can't pick them). Maybe I should see what weeds I can find

Surely there must be *something* you can blame your man for that would result in you getting flowers.
....

 

[wornish]

Here are some nice flowers.

I used Alien Skin Exposure 7 to add the Bokeh.

Before

After

 

[wud]

I guess I could I will have to start thinking about collecting a few flowers, within the law (all native species protected so you can't pick them). Maybe I should see what weeds I can find

Thats neat. Protected flowers

 

[Vixen]

Thats neat. Protected flowers

Anything native, birds, flowers, plants......all protected species.

 

[Vixen]

Surely there must be *something* you can blame your man for that would result in you getting flowers.
....

Nah....he's too good Neither of us are romantically inclined

 

[Crispix396]

I think she (the fb page) runs some pretty heavy filters on hers. several of the images look like they have some sort of painting effect applied. Besides that, her images have much more LIGHT in them, the backgrounds are very lit up, and lots of distant bokeh. Your photo was a little dark. That being said, if you lighten it a little (just the midrange), duplicate the layer, run it as screen (in the past i usually used roughly 3 layers, 1 original, 1 slightly blurred screen at 20% and 1 blurred Overlay at 80%) I also see on hers it looks she used a radial blur very softly. I played with your image using these and got this. If i had the high res, or if the background had more light, could have got a much more dramatic effect.

 

[Crispix396]

and really its just an "open file, duplicate layer, duplicate layer (so you have 3), select #2, blur a tiny bit (to get rid of any hard edges or lines) repeat blur on layer 3, set 3 to overlay, set 2 to screen, fine tune to desired setting."