Update - Check out another tutorial I did at my designer site that is similar to this tutorial but gets different results, Photoshop Tutorial - Beautiful Professional Looking Photos in 5 Steps

This is a formula that I use often to strip the photos that I take of the “home video feel”. I currently only have a 2 mega pixel digital camera and with the 6 steps in this photoshop tutorial I am able to pull a very cool look out of the photos I take even with such a low grade camera.

Step One

I first picked a picture that I felt like using and drop it into photoshop.

The first thing I do is unlock the background layer by double clicking on it then I rename it “source”.

Step Two

The next step is to duplicate the source image twice and rename those layers as well. If you are new to photoshop an easy way to duplicate layers is to click on the layer and drag it to the new layer icon at the bottom of the layer pallete.

After duplicating the “source” layer twice rename the middle layer “softlight” and the top layer “hardlight”.

Step Three

Now disable the “hardlight” layer and focus on the layer styles drop down.

The layer styles drop down is where everything happens for this simple formula. Click the drop down and select soft light. You will see an immediate change to image once the “softlight” layer style has been changed.

Step Four

Now make the “hardlight” layer visible again by clicking where the eye used to be. Once the “hardlight” layer is visible the changes you previously made will seem to disappear. Don’t worry, they didn’t, they are just being hidden at the moment by the “hardlight” layer.

Step Five

Make sure the “hardlight” layer is selected and go back to the layer style drop down and this time select hard light. Just like in step three you should see an immediate change in your photo.

Step Six

This last step is really up to you. Sometimes the hard light layer style is a bit extreme so I tone it down by reducing it’s opacity. The reduction amount is always different from photo to photo, on this particular one 69% worked nicely for me.

The Final Result

So here is my final result.

Here is a before and after comparison.

I think the results of this simple formula are really cool and allow anyone to enhance the look of their photos no matter what quality of camera they may have. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and it provided some help to you creative endeavors.

/* ——- joey ——- */