Christmas at SeaWorld Orlando

These “floating” trees were in the pond area at SeaWorld Orlando in October and they looked really strange. I decided to spruce them up a bit and give them that holiday feel – these must have been the first decorations they put up. I have said it before and I will say it again – whenever I cannot figure out something interesting to do with an image, OnOne’s (see website link on sidebar) Perfect Effects usually has the answer. In this case two effects were stacked: Nicely Toasted preset from the Vintage group – set to Hard Light at 74% opacity and Warm Vintage also from the Vintage Group with a few changes to Brightness (-45), Contrast (-40), and Darken Blend Mode with Strength 58. A Composite Channel Curve was set (In157/Out 138). My free Snow1 Overlay was added along with my free Merry Christmas PNG Overlay using an Outer Glow layer style set to a bluish color (Blend Mode Normal, Opacity 39%, Spread 8%, and Size 215 px) – use this trick to to make your text and overlays stand out if on a busy background. Added text layer for my name, and added French Kiss Glorious Grunge Edging Only with the grunge erased from the middle.  All of these overlays used a Solid Color Adjustment Layer set to a soft cream color sampled from the roof of the building. (Layer -> New Fill Color -> Solid Color and check Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask for each overlay). The text layer used the same color. A Curves Adjustment Layer was added and the mask filled with black – with a 30% opacity white soft brush, the areas I wanted affected were painted back in the mask. That was it. Hope you can use a few of these tricks to make some nice cards…..Digital Lady Syd

Digital Lady Syd Related Blogs:
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