How I got the 'dreamy' look on these photos
Me and my cousin went for a quick walk to the bridge close to our house because the sky was fairly clear in a while. Got some wonderful shots with the sunset and I posted these photos right here.
I also got good feedback from these as they told me the vibes were dreamy. The color of the sunset and having the silhouetted subject were already beautiful but the dreamy glow I put on these also played a huge part in that. Today, I'll share the technique I used to get that with Photoshop. This is inspired by Lucan Coutts. He has some of the most beautiful, magical, dreamy shots. Go check out his Instagram.
I did some quick edits with the colors and contrast over at Lightroom first. I tried to make the colors pop and make the silhouette stand out as much as possible without ruining the image. And then the fun starts in Photoshop.
Step 1
Open the edited image in Photoshop and duplicate the layer.
Step 2
While the duplicated layer is selected, go to the top and Image > Apply Image. Make sure your dialog box looks like the screenshot below and just click OK.
Step 3
It's going to look pretty crushed now but it's okay. Go to the duplicated layer's blending mode options in the layers palette and put it on 'screen.' You will see some of the glow coming up.
Step 4
Go to the top and Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Now for the value, it's pretty much up to you. You can preview the changes while you go up and down. A good number to start with is putting in the number of MP in your camera as told by Lucan in his video with Chris Hau. For my photo, I went more than that 'cause I just felt like 24 wasn't enough. Click OK.
Step 5
After that, you should see the glow happening and have those dreamy vibes. Now you must've seen some of the glow bleeding through the silhouette of the subject and I wanted it much cleaner in the subject area. I created a layer mask and brushed over the subject so the glow wouldn't affect it. The silhouette's deeper, cleaner blacks make it stand out more from the glow and photo.
Step 6
Save the photo! All done. If you are into having white borders, you can read this article I've written and scroll down to 'Photoshop' so you can learn how you can do it in the software itself. Watch the quick screen record below so you'll see the steps better.
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I got to know about this technique and Lucan Coutts after Chris Hau posted a video with him. Lucan himself explained this technique along with other Lightroom tricks he does. Here's the link to that video.
I hope you guys learned from this and have fun putting that technique to use. I just thought sharing this technique can really benefit you all. If you have any questions, let me know!
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