Create a frozen effect with textures & photo veils [Photo Recipe]

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, Ring-ting-tingling too, 

Come on, it's lovely weather, For a sleigh ride together with you.

Outside the snow is falling, And friends are calling, "Yoo hoo"...


You can just imagine the shouts of joy this Christmas morning, as we opened the curtains and saw that it was snowing outside! In the afternoon we took a long walk outside: It was wonderful to hear the snow under our feet, to breath the cold air, and just enjoy the white landscape around us.

I had my camera with me - I was looking for a motive for next years Christmas Cards. As I spotted these red heart-formed leaves covered with snow, I knew I had found it: With a few layers of textures and photo veils, I would create a hazy, frozen feeling to the image. 

You see below a step by step-tutorial on how I proceeded with the editing - I ended up using 7 layers of textures and photo veils.

Photo Recipe:
1. In order to highlight the red leaves, making them to stand out a bit more, I used the lasso tool in Photoshop: I masked the red leaves in the middle of the photo by drawing a circle with the lasso tool around them, and adjusted the brightness up to 29 and the contrast up to 7, inside the circle. I did set the feather for the mask up to 70%
2. Thereafter I started to add layers of textures and photo veils:

• Aloha texture from Kalani Collection, blending mode Soft Light, opacity 30%
• Twinkle photo veil from Simplicity Collection, blending mode Lighten, opacity 15%
• Serendipity photo veil from Simplicity Collection, blending mode Soft Light, opacity 16%
• Chamomile photo veil from Simplicity Collection, blending mode Linear Light, opacity 4%
• Keiki texture from Kalani Collection, blending mode Soft Light, opacity 11%
• Ice photo veil from Simplicity Collection, blending mode Soft Light, opacity 100%
• Wailele texture from Kalani Collection, blending mode Soft Light 16%

--> I used the brush tool with each layer, to erase the texture and photo veil effects from the area around and on top of the red leaves.

... I'm sending you a fresh and snowy greeting, hoping to have inspired your creativity - Textures and photo veils are lovely to work with, creating just the amount of effect that suits to your photos and personality.

With Happy Holiday greetings,

Nina