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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Heather talks about public tantrums (from kids) on today's Momversation.
- RIP Louis Mortimer Armstrong: http://bit.ly/1R4tv6
- Hugs and kisses to you, too! RT: @Monkey_Tree: @dooce he probably committed suicide because he was tired of LISTENING TO YOU WHINE.
- Our fish just died. And I'm sitting here crying. And it wasn't even my fault!
1. joh3n said:
The most important question: did it taste good?
2. Alyssa 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.
3. Alyssa said:
And for the laughter, too.
4. uh-oh said:
now i wonder how long it will take before this effect becomes extremely played out on everyone else's blog.
5. Heather #2 said:
How completely thoughtful and giving and sharing of you. You're such a fucking sweetie!
6. ed 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....
7. Alex 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....
8. Terry said:
Aha! And there is where the toilet paper/poop stuff comes from. It was ingrained at a young age.
9. Scott 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.
10. jing 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!
11. Desiree 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.
12. peggy 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.
13. rosebaby 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.
14. shotwise said:
The secret is out, and the day is mine! Thank you for the run-down, Dooce. And thank you too, Herr Gaussian!
15. the propagandist said:
i do that EVERY time i get arrested too.
can't let The Man touch my sparklies.
16. kindle said:
Ah, the secret is out. I had been wondering about that for some time. It's a great trick.
17. john 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...
18. the mighty jimbo said:
thank god! now i can sleep at night.
19. the 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.
20. the posterboy said:
Wow, thanks. I was wondering how you did it. And it wasn't even hard. You're the best! :)
21. anna 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.....
22. Billy 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.
23. anna jr. said:
i mean, you are so TALL!
also wondering how the necklace came out....sorry, i can't help it.
24. Bill said:
I always love to pump up the color saturation, it makes everything look rich and realer than real.
25. April said:
Why the hell did I never think of Multiply?! Damn it. I'm turning in my Photoshop Master card.
26. Tracy 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.
27. Irk 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.
28. melanie said:
a.) that's an awfully ... mature hairstyle for a three-year-old.
2.) i stuck a screw up my nose once. ouchies.
29. Jenny 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.
30. Minnie 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.
31. Ryan said:
at the ripe old age of seven, i proved it was possible to inhale tictacs. three of them are still embedded somewhere in my lungs. i think they're the orange flavour...
32. nessa said:
when i was five, i stuck those little green seeds from those 'helicopters' (or 'whirlygigs' if you prefer)that fall off trees. the logic being, of course, that i would push them out to look like boogers. however, i mangaged to push one way up into my nasal cavity, causing a massive nose bleed and a very unpleasant trip to the ER. my dad bought me a candy bar for "being such a trooper." mmm. butterfingers.
33. stacy said:
a diffusion filter will give a similar effect, or if you don't want to spend the money, you can get a blank filter and dab a tiny bit of vasoline around it.
34. bushra said:
i swallowed a pound coin as a kid, and then my gold tooth when i was 19. haven't seen them since.
35. sourbob said:
I was more a "sticking things up the nose" kinda kid myself. Still at least one nickel in there, I'd bet.
Thanks for the photoshop tip, though.
36. moose said:
Thanks for the tip.
1. a tiny red high-heeled shoe from a Barbie not my own
2. a bur on my mitten
3. a bee on my pbj sandwich.
Never saw any of'em again.
I once knew a little boy who stuffed blue playdough up his nose. Getting it out was gross.
What is it with these urges to fill crevices?
37. moose said:
I made it sound maybe like I stuffed all those up my nose. I swallowed them. None on purpose. Am I forgiven yet?
38. Jason said:
What happened to the font?
39. rebecca said:
oh cool.. i did that a few days ago in paint shop... good tutorial =D
40. James said:
I think the effect is identical to soft focus - achieved in a similar fashion to a technique I found in the Photoshop Wow Book once. Which is why all your photos look like stills from a French Seventies soft-porn film. But with dogs and children. Oh Lord.
41. sheila said:
Ah....childhood. I ate the acrylic pompom off a red hat (age 5?). Sad day for my parents when I started to pass it....
Some might cute dimples you're sporting.
42. Garth Milo said:
Cool Site. Love your pictures.
43. SuSu said:
Hey dooce... Is it rude to ask what kinda windfall of cash you came into with your "gobs of gigs" campaign? I think you should keep the paypal account open and we should all contribute a dollar evertime we wet ourselves laughing :)
44. K8Lin said:
i ate my mother's wedding ring as a baby; it never returned.
45. Richard said:
Thank you. For showing us the light! :)
46. ms lauren said:
what if i told you i pulled my braces off on the carpet, then swallowed the brackets to keep from being found out?
would you still love me? even if i got caught?
47. Jie said:
yes, Photoshop works wonders. my camera sucks but thanks to Photoshop, now my pictures look half-decent.
48. shy said:
so i'll admitt that i am embarrassed that i didn't know this... i thought it was some 'lighting filter' thing. thanks, dooce! i'm about to do the same with the photo of my adopted shitzu.
49. Frankenstein said:
I always just did the gaussian blur bit and then set the fade to 50%.
Though your method is a bit more sophisticated.
50. allisonic said:
Awwwwwwwwwww!