Practical Photography - UK (2020-02)

76 PracticalPhotograPhy

I to oksomesnowywinter

la ndscapesbutI wishit had

actuallybeensnowingat the

ti me.Is therean easywayto addfake

snowfallin Photoshop?

Henry Tomkin,Chester

Timsays:afreshdumpofsnowcan

tr ansforma drabwintersceneintoan

enchantingwonderlandandgiveyou

someuniqueandmagicalimages.

Snowis greatforportraitstoo,thehighly

reflectivesurfaceproducingbright,

evenlightingwithvirtuallyno shadows.

ifit ’s actuallysnowingwhenyou’reout

shootingyoumaybe ableto capturethe

fa lling flakes in your shots, especially if

it’ssnowingheavilyandtheflakesare

la rge.By choosinga slowershutter

speedof, say1/30sec,theflakesmay

bl urslightly,injectinga senseof

movementandatmosphereintothe

scene.combi nethiswitha wide

apertureandtheflakesclosestto

the camerawillbe blurred,creating

a fe elingof depth.Don’tforgetthat

you’llneedto workfroma tripodif using

exposuresslowerthanaround1/125sec

oryoucouldintroducecamerashake.

ifthere’ssnowon thegroundbutit’s

not actuallysnowingor onlysnowing

li ghtly,it’spossibleto adda fallingflake

effectin post-processing.it ’s considerably

quicker and easier than you might think

togetan authentic-lookingresult,

especiallyif youuseourfreesnowfall

overlaylayerin Photoshop.thesteps

below talk you through how it’s done.

1

Drop in a snow layer

Open the snowfall overlay image

on th e disc/download, press Ctrl+Aand

Ct rl+C, then open your snowy scene.

Press Ctrl+V to paste, then resize the

sn ow l ayer by pressing Ctrl+T and dragging

th e corners to fill the frame. Hit Enter.

2

Change the blend

Go to Window>Layers to bring

up the Layers palette, then changethe

bl ending mode from Normal to Screenin

th e drop-down list. Then use the Eraser

Tool to remove any flakes that are outof

pl ace or don’t look realistic.

3

Add a hint of blur

To give the impression of falling

snow, go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur,

choose a Distance of around 15 and an

Angle of your choice. A winter morning

might be best at an 80° angle, with

a dramatic snow storm best at 30°.

How can

I add falling

snow to

a wintry

scene?

BEFORE

aFtER

Above We’ve supplied a snowfall layer,

found on your disc or download, to

overlay a wintry effect.