My Buttercream Vintage tutorial got many good comments in the communities and also on my blog so i decided to make a new tutorial for you! I was looking for a possibility to combine creamy tones with crisp contrast because what i didn’t like about Buttercream Vintage in the last days have been the weak shadows. After some trial and error, i finaly achived an answear for that problem and the outcome is a processing with crisp contrasts, creamy tones and a slightly red finish – Cherry Haze!

You can download the photoshop action for the germand and english photoshop in this post but i really recommend to read the tutorial too because it’s necessary for understanding how the layers are working and how you can adjust them to your picture. I also created a video for all the people who prefer watching videos over reading ;)

 

The adjustments for the german Photoshop-Version have been made by 17°. On the 17° tumblr-page you can find high-class pictures so you really shouldn’t miss that!

This is the Sooc picture

Step 1:

Open the picture you want to edit in Photoshop

Step 2:

Create a new adjustment layer “Levels” by clicking on Layer – New adjustment layer – Levels. Don’t do anything in this layer now! It will help you to adjust your picture to the Cherry Haze-look at the end of your processing!

Step 3:

Create a new adjustment layer “Brightness/Contrast” by clicking on Layer – New adjustment layer – Brightness/Contrast. Don’t do anything in this layer now! It will help you to adjust your picture to the Cherry Haze-look at the end of your processing!

Step 4:

Select both adjustment layers by holding STRG and clicking on the layers. Now press “STRG+g” to create a group with these layer. Call the group “Adjustments” to make it easy to find the group for later adjustments.

Step 5:

Make a duplicate of your Background layer by rightclicking on it and selecting “Duplicate layer”. Drag this duplicate on the top of all layers and set the Layer-Mode to “Screen”. This is the first step to increase the contrast. The image will be brighter now with blown highlights.

Step 6:

Make a duplicate of your Background layer again by rightclicking on it and selecting “Duplicate layer”. Drag this duplicate on the top of all layers and set the Layer-Mode to “Soft light”. This will also increase the contrast and will give you stronger shadows.

Step 7:

Create a new adjustment layer “Black & White” by clicking on Layer – New adjustment layer – Black & White. Set the layer mode to “Hard Light” and the fill to 70%. This is also a step to increase the contrasts. The result should a picture with strong – maybe too strong contrast but this is exactly what we want to get for now! You can look at the picture below to see how it should look like. If yours is different, just play with the fill of the layer.

Step 8:

Now we do a last step for the conrtasts! Create a new adjustment layer “Curves” by clicking on Layer – New adjustment layer – Curves. Draw a curve like you see in the picture below or use the following values:

Output: 59       Input: 87

Step 9:

Create a new adjustment layer “Curves” by clicking on Layer – New adjustment layer – Curves. Switch to the red channel and draw a curve like you see in the picture below or use the following values:

Output: 144       Input: 132

Step 10:

Stay in this adjustment layer and switch to the green channel. Drag the point in the upper richt corner down to the following values:

Output: 242       Input: 255

Now drag the point in the lower left corner up to the follwing values:

Output: 12       Input: 0

Step 11:

Stay in this adjustment layer and switch to the blue channel. Drag the point in the upper richt corner down to the following values:

Output: 225       Input: 255

Now drag the point in the lower left corner up to the follwing values:

Output: 20       Input: 0

Step 12:

Create a new adjustment layer “Hue/Saturation” by clicking on Layer – New adjustment layer – Hue/Saturation. Set the saturation slider to -28 to put some saturation out of your picture and avoid an oversaturated photo.

Step 13:

Create a new fill layer by clicking on Layer – New Fill Layer – Solid Color. Use the Hex-Value #F2EABF. Set the layer mode to “Color Burn” and the fill to 17%. With this step you’re putting a slightly vanilla-tone into your picture. Feel free to try other color-tones here too! Everything is allowed ;)

Step 14:

Create a new fill layer by clicking on Layer – New Fill Layer – Solid Color. Use the Hex-Value #2B353A. Set the layer mode to “Exclusion” and the fill to 60%. With this step you’re adjusting the contrast and give the picture the final color tone. It also creates the creamy look. Feel free to change the fill or color tone to your likes! A lower fill gives more contrast to your picture, more fill creates a lower contrast and more “creamieness”. You should also try a darker blue here, it also fits ver often!

Now you finished all steps to achive the Cherry Haze-look. You should go back to the layers in the group “Adjustments” now and adjust them to your picutre. For the picture in this tutorial i gained the brightness. As an alternative for these adjustment layers, you can also use the Curves- and Exposure adjustment layers. If your results contrats are too heavy, adjust the fill of the layer “Black &White”. You should also try to play with the values in the layer “Curves 2″. If you play around with them, you can create cool effects. If your result is too red, simply generate an adjustment layer “Color Balance” and drag the sliders to Cyan/Blue.