A lesson from Chris Fenison

I often scour the internet in search of stunning photography and great wallpaper. Chris Fenison's work has graced my screen many times. I wrote him to ask him how he achieved a certain effect in one of his photos and to compliment him on his work. He replied almost immediately and shared his wisdom. I gave it a try and here's what I came up with. Very cool what playing around with some layers can do. If it isn't obvious enough, the edited version is on top with the original photo underneath. Quite a difference. Not as cool as Chris' photo but very cool nonetheless. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing his technique but here it is in his own words:

" [In] Photoshop duplicate background layer, change blending mode to multiply, gaussian blur it (radius of 10 or so), duplicate that layer and change blending mode to screen, duplicate the background layer again, run unsharp mask (pretty heavy, like too much), change blending mode to overlay or soft light, move layer to top, play around with the opacity of the top three layers.

Confusing huh? Really the trick is to master the blending modes and apply filters to duplicated/blended layers. Start with overlay and soft light blending modes and go from there."

Thanks to Chris and all those who willingly share their talents. Photography is tons of fun. Photoshop makes it even better.