A free set of very basic star brushes was downloaded by KeReN-R on DeviantArt and 4 brushes were used to paint in a lot of the snow (Sample Brushes 4 – see next paragraph on how to adjust this brush, 6, 8, and 19). At this point I was just trying out different plug-ins and this is what I ended up using. Then the Adaptive Wide Angle Filter, Topaz Glow, and Lucis Pro were all used to get a really sharp and correct image. First Topaz Clarity was used to sharpen the image overall. The original image was taken on a sunny day in August so it has definitely been winterized. Johns Tower Entrance to apartments at Windsor Castle turned out to be lots of fun to convert to a spooky winter image. I feel like this plant looks like it is in a “winter wonderland” and not a sunny Florida garden. The last step was a Levels Adjustment Layer to adjust the contrast. Next a text layer with some icicles hanging from the letters were added on layers above using the free Frostbo Ice Brush 01 for the icicles. But any small sized Mixer brush (45 pixels) will probably work – in the Options Bar set the mixer combination field to Dry and turn on the Load the Brush After Each Stroke with the color set to the snow color and just paint in the snow. A basic Mixer brush was used on a New Layer to add dabs of white paint for snow – I used Fay Sirkis’s Pet Pastel Underpainting Highlight Photoshop brush (I can’t seem to locate a resource with her brushes right now). This is how the lower leaves show snow building up on the leaves. On a New Layer more snow was painted in using the smaller sized Particle Snow brush again. This softened the background a lot but color could still be introduced – in PS the layer opacity was set to 76%. The filter’s Color Brush was used to paint in the red buds and using a lower opacity, the green leaves were painted in. ![]() In the filter, the Local Adjustments brush section was used to bring back the color in the image where I wanted it. A stamped layer was placed on top (CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E) and Topaz (for website link see sidebar at my Tidbits Blog) Black & White Effects was opened. Also layer masks can be added to remove flakes where unwanted. ![]() The layer opacity can be controlled for each snow layer to give the effect wanted. Add a New Layer and make the brush smaller (500 pixels) to build up more dense snow around the plant branches. Once some random flakes are added to the image, Corey suggested adding a subtle Motion Blur to the flakes (Angle 75 and Distance 11) which makes the flakes look more realistic without doing anything else. ![]() Corey uses this brush not for just snow but anywhere that particles are needed like fire sparks and rain effects. ![]() This brush was then saved as both a brush and Tool Preset – size is 1000 pixels. Then changes are made in the Brush Panel to the Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Transparency, and Brush Tip sections. Corey gives very clear steps to creating this brush that uses PS Noise Filter, PS Gaussian Blur, a Levels Adjustment, and Gradient Tool to make the basic brush. In a short Corey Barker video called Corey’s Universal Particle Brush video, a fabulous brush was created to add the falling snow in exactly the places it needs to be. The image above is of a pretty red budded plant (unable to find the name in my resources) that was growing at the Harry P. This week I will show a couple ways I use to create a more natural snow and piling up effect in my images. For some reason I have been sort of fixated on how to create a nice wintry feel in an image without getting fake falling and unnatural looking snow.
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