Create a Light Matte Effect with Photo Veils [Photo Recipe]

There is just something about perfume and eau de toilette bottles ... I have always been enchanted by the form and the way the light reflects through the glass, showing the color of the perfume, and leaving a pretty shadow on the table.

As we were traveling home after Christmas Holidays with my family a few years ago, we had some time before boarding at Helsinki Airport. As we walked about in the Duty Free shops, I fell for a delicate, light and feminine scent - that is, Coco Chanel's Mademoiselle. I bought a Mademoiselle Fresh Hair Mist to start with, and as you may guess - Mademoiselle is still my favorite scent. 

This Christmas my dear husband did surprise me with my first perfume ever ... A tiny, yet so pretty, bottle of my favorite scent! I wasn't expecting such a luxurious present at all! 

I wanted to capture this beautiful perfume bottle and the feeling of Christmas - so I placed the perfume bottle in front of the Christmas candle decorations and the perfume packages.

The photo is taken in low light, so I used a tripod, with Nikkor 18-55 mm lens and the following settings: 

ISO 800,  1/6 sec at f 5,6.

My aim in editing the photo was to achieve a dreamy feeling, focusing on the perfume bottle - letting the background be a bit blurred and out of focus. 

I wanted to add a bit of a luxurious and calm mood, with creating a light matte effect using a photo veil.

Photo recipe

This is how I proceeded with the editing:

1. I opened the image in Lightroom and adjusted the white balance, decreasing the warmth a bit. 

2. With a brush function, I sharpened the perfume bottle a bit, increasing slightly both the clarity, highlights and whites. 

I tweaked the shadows as well, opening them just a bit.

3. Thereafter I opened the image in Photoshop, and added a photo veil called Snow Lily, from the Botanical Collection. Using blending mode Screen, with opacity 10%, I created a light matte effect - with calm and a bit exquisite mood.
With the brush function with opacity 80%, I removed quite a bit of the matte effect from the perfume bottle, making it stand out eye-catching, with increased clarity and sharpness.


There are different ways of creating a matte effect - Using a photo veil of your choice, with blending mode Screen, is an easy way of creating just the amount of matte effect, you find pleasant and fitting to your image.

...Wishing you creative moments with photography and editing,

Nina