In this project we use Photoshop Elements 2 but it is very easy to follow in all versions of Photoshop
Castle Coch is a picturesque and romantic folly just outside Cardiff and although pleased with the original image I felt that it could be further enhanced by a painterly effect. There are many types of filters we could use but in this project we are going to use a simple but very effective blur and blend mode technique to begin transforming the image whilst keeping control of the effect with Levels. Adding texture and a fancy border would also further enhance the overall effect of our image. We will be using layers throughout the project, which will enable us to make changes and adjustments to the image at any stage – even after saving in layers
Open your start image and duplicate the background layer by dragging it over the create a new layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur and set the radius to around 10.5. On the layers palette choose Darken from the blend mode drop-down menu.
Hit Ctrl + L to call up the levels palette and move both the light and dark sliders until they reach the beginning of the histogram mound. Further adjustments can be made to the effect by moving the center slider – moving it to the right increases the effect while moving it to the left will reduce the effect.
To continue working in layers we need to add a new empty layer above our effects layer by clicking on the create a new layer icon. Hold down the Alt keyand from the layer menu choose merge visible, this will merge all the layers into the new empty layer.
To add texture to our image go to Filter > texture > Texturize and from the texture drop-down menu select sandstone. The scaling is reduced to 86% and relief is set at 3. This will ensure that the texture is not too overpowering when our image is viewed at print size.
Colours can be enhanced using layer adjustments found on the bottom of the layers palette. Choose Hue/Saturation and increase the Saturation to + 8. From the edit menu select blue and increase the saturation to + 13, Green was boosted to + 31. The benefit of using layer adjustments is that we can change the settings at any time just by clicking on the layer.
To add a border add a new empty layer by clicking on the create a new layer icon. Make sure white is the foreground colour in the tool box and select the paintbrush from the options bar. A Spatter brush was chosen from the brush palette – increase the size as necessary. We can paint around the outside of our new layer to give a fancy border effect.
The finished image.
More Tutorials: 
