How to Have a Fall Photoshoot for Your Pup in SoCal

I love living in California, but man do I miss seeing the leaves change color! I’ve lived on the East Coast my whole life and one of those homes was in the woods where the leaves would change colors, from vibrant reds to sunny oranges. I also love taking photos of my dog, Oliver, whenever possible. Last year, I had the idea to take fall themed pictures of him, but how would I do that when everything in LA still looks so green, fresh and new? In this blog post, I’ll be giving you some of my tips and tricks! I originally picked up these tricks from Photoshop Tutorials on Youtube, but I’ve changed some steps. I’ll be sure to point out those differences. This mini tutorial uses Adobe Photoshop.  For starters, Photoshop Tutorials shows how to edit in fall leaves, but I find it’s easier and more realistic to have the “real thing”.  I started off by buying two $6 fall leaf garlands from Michaels (that’s real enough, right? Us Cali girls gotta make do)! I then went ahead and cut all the leaves off. This was cheaper than just buying a bunch of fake fall leaves. Now that I had my big pile of fall leaves, it was time to put Oliver’s cutest bandana on him and take him to the park! Disclaimer: I had Oliver off leash for the photos, but he is very well trained and his training included being off leash. Never risk having your dog run away for the sake of pictures. You can always Photoshop out a leash later.

Oliver and I walked around the park until we found what I believed was a good spot for photos. I then made him sit and I spread the leaves all around him. Occasionally, I’d throw them at him to create a “falling autumn leaves” effect. I now had my “before” photos! Here are a few examples: 

As you can see, they are very green (not good for fall), but also very dark. So before we get to any fall editing, we are just going to fix the brightness, contrast, and exposure of the image. Photoshop Tutorials on Youtube adjusts levels, but I’m more familiar with the former and find it’s easier to understand since many photo editing apps these days include these adjustments. First, go to Image –> Adjustments –> Brightness/Contrast and drag the sliders until you find something that looks nice. After that, go to Image –> Adjustments –> Exposure and again play with the sliders until you find a final look you’re happy with. Below are my settings and how the image looks so far. 

Now it’s time for the fun part – the fall editing! This first step is optional. It’s something Photoshop Tutorials did, and I really liked it! It’s essentially creating a fake “sun”. Since I have that bright spot at the top left of the picture, I am going to follow this step. We are going to do this by creating a Lens Flare. Create a new layer above the image, bucket fill it black, and then go to Filter –> Render –> Lens Flare. This will open a new preview window. Make sure you set the Lens Type to 105mm Prime and adjust the brightness as you see fit. You also want to drag the lens flare to wherever you want to see it in the picture. Remember how I said my “sun” would come from top left? That’s where I dragged my lens flare. 

Once you hit “OK”, go to that layer and select “Screen” from the layer types (the layer mode will originally say “Normal” in said drop down menu). Now that our sun is established, we are going to move onto the fall colors! For this, you’ll want to use the channel mixer in Photoshop. You can do this by selecting the button I’ve outlined in the red box under layers and then selecting “Channel Mixer”. Once your channel mixer is up, you’ll automatically be under “reds”. Raise the green channel all the way up to 200% and lower the red and blue channels slightly. Be sure to change your layer mode to “Lighten” on the channel mixer layer! Otherwise, you won’t truly see what it looks like. Move the channels around until you have what you think looks best. Below is what I left my settings at.

This is how my image looks so far:

It’s looking a bit too purple, so let’s fix that! From the same icon where you selected “Channel Mixer”, select “Selective Color”. Once you have this up, in the “Colors” dropdown menu, select “neutrals”. You can then add a little bit of yellow and subtract a little bit of Cyan. Play around with it until you’re happy with the final colors. Here’s how my image is looking so far with my selective sliders:

Now it’s time for the last step! If you’re happy with your image so far, you can stop here. This last step is optional. This is another trick I learned from Photoshop Tutorials that I love applying to any image now! 

Create a new layer on top of all of your layers. Instead of creating it like you would a normal layer, go to that same icon you got the channel mixer and selective color from and select “solid color” and make it black. This will add a clipping mask to the layer as well. Change the layer mode to “Soft Light”. Select the mask (the mask is the white box next to the black color on the layer). Once selected, it should look like this in your layers. 

Now select a soft brush. You’ll know it’s soft because the hardness will be set at 0. Make sure your brush color is set to black, otherwise you will see no effect. Draw a big blob on top of your subject – in this case, Oliver. This will essentially create a soft vignette around your photo. Once you’ve drawn the blob, it should look like this on the layer. 

Now you’re all done! Here is my final image:

Play around with it and have fun! You can use this Photoshop tutorial on pictures of yourself, friends or objects as well. This helps my inner fall girl come through in warm SoCal. What are your favorite fall photoshoots to take? Comment below!