Happy New Year, everyone! I thought we’d kick off the year with some fun effects to bring flat photos to
life. Not only will we add some falling leaves to a flat autumn scene but we’ll also add convincing depth-
of-field, lighting, and some color-grading effects, all using nondestructive methods. When combined,
these techniques result in more dramatic images and can save an otherwise boring photo.ADDING NONDESTRUCTIVE DEPTH-
OF-FIELD & LIGHTING EFFECTS
STEP ONE: Start by opening the photo to which you want
to add the effect. This Adobe Stock image is a good
example of an image that can look great using this effect.
Whether shot on a DSLR or a smartphone, this effect can
add some new life to almost any photo.
If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked
version of this image to follow along, click this link, log in
with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button.
Double-click the image in the Libraries panel (Window>
Libraries) to open it in Photoshop. To make it easier to
work with the image, increase the resolution of the practice
file. (We normally don’t recommend enlarging images, but
this is only for practice purposes.) Go to Image>ImageSize, turn on the
Re sample check-
box, select Pre-
serve Details 2.0
from the Resample
drop-down menu,
set the Width to
2,000 pixels, and
click OK.STEP TWO: Next, you’ll need some leaves. I found a great
set of autumn leaves also on Adobe Stock, but you can
just as easily pick up a few leaves outside, place themCOREY BARKER
PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS
©Adobe Stock/Stanislav