This tutorial was written in Feb 2003 and  © by Lady Oz.  You may make a copy of this tutorial or print it out for your own personal use ONLY.  If you would like to LINK to my tutorials to share them with others please let me know.  What you create from my tutorials belong to you to do with as you wish....I hold no claim to them other than my tutorial rights.


How to make these beautiful chromed flowers....which either give a satin or metallic look, depending on the photo used....or which layer blends you use.  

I have had several people asking if I was going to do a tutorial on my chromed flower technique, that I discovered whilst playing around in PSP.... so I thought 'why not'?  This is a mini tutorial as only a few steps are needed but I do warn you that....most people given an inch...will take a mile...these can be very addictive. *s*  Please feel free to experiment and add your own thing to the finished product...this tute is only to give you ideas and directions. *s*
 


What you will need.

  • PSP 7      Download a trial (I use version 7 but it can easily be achieved in 5 or 6)

  • A photo of a flower or maybe several of them...I found that I had to test many out before finding something suitable...not all flowers produced the effects that I achieved in this tutorial.

How to create your masterpiece! *s*

Open the image that you wish to work from.  To be able to work with many of the tools in PSP, your image needs to be one with 16, Million Colours  (24 bit).  If you are having any problems being able to use any of the tools, check this out first.

  • Choose Colours > Increase Colour Depth >16 million colours 24 bit),  OR

  • Press <Shift> + <Ctrl> + <0>

As I have several photos to display I have made them into thumbnails for faster loading.

The Basic steps for each photo is the same...

  1. Open your choice of photo into your PSP workspace.

  2. On your layer palette right click on Background and promote to a layer.

  3. We will not be working on layer 1 in this tute but you may want to later....*g*

  4. Duplicate Layer 1...rename it to Layer 2.

  5. Now on Layer 2....Apply a Gaussian Blur of 1.0 

  6. Click on Effects...Artistic Effects....Chrome.......Details 8...Brightness 41..... original colour.  OK.

  7. Then it is just a matter of changing the layer blend and opacity on layer 2 for each photo.

  8. Merge the two layers or in some cases you may even want to try three layers, as I have done on my rose picture....in which case you duplicate layer one twice to give us the three layers. You can change the names of the layers if you wish so that you have Layer 1...Layer 2 and Layer 3.  Got that? *g*

Basically experiment as you go along...you will see big differences in the images by increasing the Gaussian blur or changing the blends....sometimes you will get a soft satin look and at other times it will look harsher and more metallic looking. I found that to keep the soft satin look, I could not go above the 1.0 Gaussian Blur.  Try adding filters to one or more of the layers and at the same time, drag the opacity lever backwards and forwards to see the different effects.  Now it goes without saying that all these effects can be used on more than flowers....Go for it!!  *s*

You are quite welcome to save my original photos to your hard drive to use if you so wish. These are photos 1, 2 and 3...please do not take the other three photos.

  

Photo 1.

My apricot roses in my front garden.

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...luminance...Opacity 80

Merge flatten

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Normal...Opacity 100

Merge flatten

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Luminance...Opacity 100

Layer3...Normal...Opacity 24....

I then applied the Harry's Rave Grads

Mystic Mountain 1.1 filter to this layer

Merge flatten

 

Photo 2.

A section of a photo that I took of my pink hibiscus tree in my front garden.

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...luminance...Opacity 60

Merge flatten

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...luminance...Opacity 90

Merge flatten

 

Photo 3 

      

A section of a photo that I took of my red hibiscus tree in my back garden.  

  

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...luminance...Opacity 89

Merge flatten

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Difference...Opacity 72

Merge flatten

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Multiply...Opacity 90

Merge flatten

 

Photo 4.

This one of the Poinsettia is one that my friend, Vera sent me from Holland.

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Luminance...Opacity 100

Layer3...Multiply...Opacity 47

Merge flatten

 

Photo 5.

This photo was taken by Liz of Pixelating Graphics

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Hard light...Opacity 100

Merge flatten

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Hard light...Opacity 100

Layer 3...Hard light...Opacity 42

I applied the Crescent Moon...Spooky Fade filter to this layer too.

Merge flatten

 

Photo 6.

This photo was also taken by Liz of Pixelating Graphics

 

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Luminance...Opacity60

To layer 2 I applied the Filter Factory Gallery B Accelerating Daisies filter.

Merge flatten

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Luminance...Opacity 32

I applied the Filter Factory Gallery B Accelerating Daisies filter.,

then went to Effects...Artistic Effects and Hot Wax.

Merge flatten

 

Photo 7.

This one of the Christmas Cactus was taken and sent to me by Doug Ord...a friend in England..

Layer 1....Normal...Opacity 100

Layer 2...Luminance...Opacity 100

Layer3...Multiply...Opacity 47

Merge flatten

 

I look forward to seeing what you come up with and I hope that you enjoyed this quick and easy tute....well at least it is if you don't get addicted to it.  Thanks for doing it. *s*

     

 

 

Have Fun! and  Email if you have any problems!

 

 

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Tutorial by Mary Newton aka Lady Oz aka Lady Newtonia © 2003