That Lovely Glow Effect
Many have asked about how I get certain photos to look fuzzy or warm and mashed potato-y. And perhaps it's time that I come clean and admit that it has nothing to do with the camera or how I take pictures.
It's all about cheating in Photoshop.
Jon originally taught me this technique, and although I only use it on a small percentage of my photos, it's a great way to add dimension to what would otherwise be an ordinary picture.
This techinique is all about taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary!
Here's a photograph of me at age three, and I'm so irritatingly sweet that you just want to slap me, don't you?
before
1. Open your photograph in Photoshop.
2. Color correct your photo layer however you like to color correct, perhaps a bit of contrast or color balance or selective color, whatever.
3. Duplicate the photo layer.
4. Use the filter "Gaussian Blur" on the duplicated layer. For a photo of this size, set the radius to 5 pixels. For much larger photos, you can go much higher with radius size.
5. Set the duplicated, blurred layer to "multiply" either through the pull-down at the top of the layers palette or by double-clicking the layer and setting the General Blending, Blend Mode.
6. The result will be a little dark and you can play around with curves or lightness or whatever technique you want to use to lighten the photo.
7. Extraordinary!
after
One hour after this photo was taken I swallowed that gold chain around my neck. Thus began my ongoing, illustrious relationship with constipation.
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FM Living
joh3n said:
The most important question: did it taste good?
01.31.03 - 03:14 PM / 1Alyssa said:
Once while trying to reach the unreachable booger, I wedged a Q-Tip up my nose. To this day--17 years later--my mother still keeps the Q-Tip container out of my reach.
For those not familiar/comfortable with Photoshop, I have an action that does all that for you, just email me (click on my name above) and Iíll send it to you.
Thanks for the hours of uncontrollable laugher, Dooce.
01.31.03 - 03:21 PM / 2Alyssa said:
And for the laughter, too.
01.31.03 - 03:24 PM / 3uh-oh said:
now i wonder how long it will take before this effect becomes extremely played out on everyone else's blog.
01.31.03 - 03:37 PM / 4Heather #2 said:
How completely thoughtful and giving and sharing of you. You're such a fucking sweetie!
01.31.03 - 03:54 PM / 5ed f said:
i'm so glad i didn't write in to ask about that trick, but yes, i have admired it religiously. you have a way with photos, young grasshopper. nice to see you back in ackshun. cheers cheers. thank god it's friday, one thing cool about The City of Lost Angels: Tequila 'n' Taco Bars. yum yum....
01.31.03 - 03:56 PM / 6Alex said:
Aha! Another layer and gaussian blur --the mystery is solved!
Hmm...the only thing I accidentally swallowed as a kid was a mouthful of FILTHY Lake Michigan water. It was the same week all the beaches in Chicagao were closed because the lake was too contaminated.
Because of that incident, I now know what "evil" tastes like....
01.31.03 - 04:01 PM / 7Terry said:
Aha! And there is where the toilet paper/poop stuff comes from. It was ingrained at a young age.
01.31.03 - 04:37 PM / 8Scott said:
When I was little I used to stick peanuts up my nose and my mother would have to get me in a headlock and pry them out with a toothpick. One time she couldn't get one or two out and I had to go to the emergency room. Thankfully I remember little of this.
01.31.03 - 04:38 PM / 9jing jing said:
Thank you, Dooce! Now, can you tell us how your mom managed to find an outfit to perfectly match the potrait backdrop or is that the magic of Photoshop too? Either way you are a little ray of Mormon sunshine!
01.31.03 - 04:51 PM / 10Desiree said:
Well thank God for explaining that - I thought I was either have serious eye troubles (and am cancelling that eye doctor appointment as I write this) and/or drinking too heavily at work (so I guess no one is on to me!).
EdF: the only tacos worthy in LA are Tito's.
01.31.03 - 05:01 PM / 11peggy said:
Dang! Anybody who says this isn't the web's best site about pooping and/or not pooping - human and canine - has, well, shit for brains.
01.31.03 - 05:04 PM / 12rosebaby said:
no but seriously. after all this poop talk you have me counting my daily efforts. now i know for a fact i poop more than you people.
i swallowed a really cool amber bead i found on the sidewalk in kindergarten. never really occured to me to go digging for it. my parents are probably thankful for that.
01.31.03 - 05:14 PM / 13shotwise said:
The secret is out, and the day is mine! Thank you for the run-down, Dooce. And thank you too, Herr Gaussian!
01.31.03 - 05:18 PM / 14the propagandist said:
i do that EVERY time i get arrested too.
can't let The Man touch my sparklies.
01.31.03 - 05:42 PM / 15kindle said:
Ah, the secret is out. I had been wondering about that for some time. It's a great trick.
01.31.03 - 06:08 PM / 16john said:
When I was 6 I got the brilliant idea to drink a drink from the windshield washer squirter on my parent's car. Got my friend to push the button while I licked it up. Must have been cars back then didn't need a key in the ignition to do that, at least I think they do now. Somehow my mom found out that I did this I pulled me out of center field right in the middle of a T-Ball game to take me to the hospital for the joy of a stomach pump. Didn't swallow any of that again...
01.31.03 - 06:22 PM / 17the mighty jimbo said:
thank god! now i can sleep at night.
01.31.03 - 06:48 PM / 18the mighty jimbo said:
and you might want to think twice about swallowing things that leave you constipated. just a suggestion.
then again, if that blockage is what's pushing all these stories out of your brain, by all means, stay away from the metamucil.
01.31.03 - 06:52 PM / 19the posterboy said:
Wow, thanks. I was wondering how you did it. And it wasn't even hard. You're the best! :)
01.31.03 - 07:03 PM / 20anna jr. said:
dude, you are THREE in that picture? what are you like 4 feet tall already?
sheesh.
the fact that you ate your necklace reminds me of a story.....
01.31.03 - 07:07 PM / 21Billy said:
I did that Gaussian effect thingy one time and ended up in 1963. You gotta be real careful when you push these damn buttons.
01.31.03 - 07:19 PM / 22anna jr. said:
i mean, you are so TALL!
also wondering how the necklace came out....sorry, i can't help it.
01.31.03 - 07:25 PM / 23Bill said:
I always love to pump up the color saturation, it makes everything look rich and realer than real.
01.31.03 - 08:25 PM / 24April said:
Why the hell did I never think of Multiply?! Damn it. I'm turning in my Photoshop Master card.
01.31.03 - 08:26 PM / 25Tracy said:
Brilliant. Photoshop truly is the application of gods.
I stuck a button up my nose once. Thought my grandmother would find it amusing. She didn't.
01.31.03 - 08:31 PM / 26Irk said:
Comments about poop and the post wasn't even about poop! I've discovered that when you switch to a mostly-liquid diet, your body really takes note when solid food is introduced.
Thanks for sharing that trick, Dooce. As much as I like Photoshop, all those buttons and dials and blinky lights scare me a bit.
I've never swallowed anything or stuck anything up my nose, but my mom used to scrape the wax out of my ears out with a bobby pin.
01.31.03 - 08:38 PM / 27melanie said:
a.) that's an awfully ... mature hairstyle for a three-year-old.
2.) i stuck a screw up my nose once. ouchies.
01.31.03 - 08:54 PM / 28Jenny said:
Nice bangs.
I had bangs for 18 years. I FINALLY started to grow them out about a year ago and they're past my chin. Any parent who lets their daughters endure the pain of straight across, curtain-like, half of the head covering bangs past age five is NOT doing a very good job.
01.31.03 - 09:19 PM / 29Minnie said:
When I was around 3, I inserted a peanut in my ear to see if it'd fit. It did. That was also the day I was introduced to that monstrosity called the otoscope.
That's a super cute pic of you, btw.
01.31.03 - 10:03 PM / 30