Digital Art for your spring photography

Hello Sunshine!

It officially springs! I don’t know if it is just me or if anyone else had this problem – but this year it felt like spring was coming for a very long period, then it was there for two days and now it is already at its end. When did this happen? I’m very happy and lucky that I captured some of my most favorite spring moments and today I want to get creative with those pictures. I want to show you

Four creative ideas to decorate your spring photos!

Before we can start all you need to do is taking spring-themed pictures. I took the pictures with my phone (I have an iPhone 11 which has a very good camera). You can just take a photo of beautiful blossoms when you run past it or you grab your camera and go outside to hunt beautiful spots. I recommend parks or an affluent neighborhood.

The first picture is a tree with pink blossoms.

Honestly, I don’t know what kind of tree this is but when I passed it I couldn’t resist taking a picture (although some old ladies were watching strangely).
What I did first was to intensify the colors. I made the blue sky a bit bluer and the blossoms pinker. When I took the picture I made sure that I had one branch in focus and the rest could be blurry.

To add this little Instagram frame I searched for a template. I found a photoshop file from Designed by s.salvador / Freepik which was ideal. To make it even more like an Instagram screenshot I added a small white frame around the picture. When you open the photoshop file you can also change the text and insert your Instagram name such as I did.

The rest of the photo is outside the screenshot. Make sure your Instagram screen is layered on top of the original picture. To push it in the background I used the Gaussian Blur with a radius of 4. Make sure you use a copy of the original photo for the blur and cut out the part that is visible in the Instagram screen.

The second picture is another blossom tree with white blossoms.

Again before I started adding art I corrected the colors. I’m not sure if I like this picture because it is kind of messy and overloaded, but if you have a tree with fewer branches you might get a better result with this effect. I call it the „pixie-dust“.
As in the first picture I tried to get a picture where only one branch is in focus. Unfortunately, I was not as successful as I wanted. So I chose the one in the center of the picture to work with. I first started o create a new layer and use a pen size 8 px. I painted curls around the branch going upwards. You can vary with the distance between each swirl to get irreverent effects. The wider you move them apart the bigger it should be.

Then I created new layers and followed the first line with a pen in 2px, 4px, and 5px. In the end, I merged them together and gave them an opacity of 80%. I added a new layer, chose a 7 px pen, and zoomed in to paint tiny flowers along the line. Try to vary in size and form of the flowers.

The last part a be annoying if your swirl is as closely spaced as mine. You have the erase the parts that are hidden behind the tree or branch. To do so you need a small eraser and erase the „down-curl“.

This picture was very spontaneous on a dog walk for sunset.

It was so pretty that I tried to get a great photo without having too much overexposure. So I used my hand to cover the sun. Spoiler: this mandala took me the longest of all effects!

Let’s start simple: first, you add a layer and use a pen with approx. 5 px and line the horizon. Then you use the photoshop guidelines and make one horizontal guide for your horizon and one vertical in the middle of your sun. Use this as your center of your mandala.

Second I added circles in different sizes around that center to get the different „layers“ of the mandala. And then it’s time to get creative. You can fill in the parts between each layer however you like. You can find great inspirations on Pinterest!

Tip for the clever ones: you don’t have to paint in the whole circle – just the parts that are above the horizon-guide-line! If you have your hand in the picture like I did. You now have to erase the mandala above your hand. And that’s it.

The last photo is the easiest and most minimalist picture of all.

You can’t really see the digital part at a first glance. But let’s start with the first step: color correcting. The green gets greener and the yellow more yellow. When you take the picture make sure your flower is absolutely in focus. You should see every detail of each petal.

Import it to photoshop, create a new layer, and use a pen with 5 px. Now you zoom in outline the petals. Paint directly at the end of the petals with no space in between. This is the quickest and easiest line art you can ever do!

And those are my four favorite spring ideas for decorating your photography! I really enjoyed painting all these pictures. Especially now, when you are not allowed to go outside as much as you want, it is great to get the spring on your photos.

Thank you for reading this post and feel free to check out my Instagram profile! See you next time ❤