I have written a lot
about light over the past year and could
probably write about it another dozen times.
The truth is without light, you do not have
photos. Understanding, battling,
capturing, manipulating light is a never-
ending learning process for the
photographer. Every couple of days one
of my roommates will say, "dude, check out
the way the light hits in this shot" and it
will always be something new that I grab a
camera and go try out. Play and study
are the same thing with a camera to me.
This month, I thought
we could play with some fake light in
Elements. Come check out what you can
do with the neon glow filter.
Neon Glow
Neon glow is one of
those crazy little artistic filter options
that come with Elements and is fun to
play around with on a boring afternoon.
Here is my starting photo:
Not a bad shot, but
you don't really get the sleeping-in-the-sunlight effect that I wanted.
Duplicate the photo and head up to the top
bar. Select filter--artistic--neon
glow and set it around 4 for size and 14 for
brightness. This will give you this:
Now take a soft
eraser and erase anywhere that you do not
want the light to hit. This is a
subtle technique, but remember you can
always erase more.
Now switch over to
overlay and set whatever opacity works best
for you. This one is at 80%.
And a layout with
it:
Afternoon Nap by James Davidson.
Supplies:
All digital items from Vintage Hawaiian by the ScrapStreet team, Font:
Jazzy Journal.
Dudes and dudettes,
this article completes my year on staff with
ScrapStreet and I had a blast. I
really appreciate all the notes, questions,
and compliments emailed in by the readers.
It was a great ride. Since I have a
new gig at work, this is my last regular
column for the magazine. I am moving
to roving reporter, so you haven't seen the
last of me. Remember to keep those
cameras snappin'. Peace.
