Summary
(School Project) Utilizing techniques in Photoshop in order to recreate the Instagram Filter Brennan for a class project.
Process: First I increased the contrast of my photo to +100 using the Brightness/Contrast settings under Adjustments in the Image menu. Next, I added a dramatic effect by adjusting the Levels, which can also found under Adjustments in the Image menu. With the Level’s panel open, I moved the Input Level’s middle slider slightly to the right (~0.85), darkened the shadows. In order to add the warm yellow tint, I added a new fill layer (Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color), choosing a light, warm beige hue (#eddd9e). I then changed the blend mode on the new layer from Normal to Multiply and reduced the Opacity to 59%. To add the faded effect, I opened the Curves window, which is found under Adjustments in the Image menu, and moved the left point up along the y-axis (Output) to 45. Next I saved and closed the image, then reopened it in Camera Raw to add a vignette frame (or you can merge the layers and open the Camera Raw filter). To add the vignette, I selected the Effects menu on the right hand side of the editor, made sure that Highlight Priority was selected in the Style drop down menu, and moved the Amount slider to the left (~18). I saved the image and then decreased the saturation by slighting moving the saturation slider to the left (~-8) (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation). Finally I added a final though by increasing the brightness and contrast of the photo using the Brightness/Contrast window, which located under Adjustments in the Image menu. I increased the brightness to +13 and the contrast to +14. Following these edits, I created a square and positioned it over the center of the photo, with the squirrel residing on the right third vertical line. I then cropped the sides of the photo and delted the pixels outside of the crop. I then expanded the crop, as well as the square, and moved the rectangle layer below the image layer in order to create a black border around the photo. I then created another layer on top of the image layer and drew a rounded rectangle around the edges of the image with a thick stroke and no fill, creating rounded corners on the image. I then created one last layer and painted over top of the corner edges of the image that were not covered by the rounded rectangle in order to blend them in with the black border created by the rounded rectangle and the background rectangle.
