Alright, so yesterday I was messing around with some image stuff, trying to get that “amy christine dumas” look. You know, that painterly, kinda dreamy vibe? Here’s how it went down.
First off, I started by grabbing a bunch of images that I thought had a similar feel – lots of soft lighting, interesting textures, and a slightly muted color palette. Pinterest was my best friend here. I just kept scrolling and saving anything that caught my eye.
Next, I hopped into Photoshop. I figured I’d start with a photo I took recently – a shot of my friend Sarah in the park. Decent light, nice background, but nothing special on its own.
I duplicated the layer right away, just in case I messed things up. Then, I went to Filter > Filter Gallery. This is where the fun begins. I played around with the “Dry Brush” filter first. Messed with the brush size and detail settings until it started to look less like a photo and more like…well, like something someone painted quickly.
But that wasn’t enough. It still looked too digital. So, I added another layer, filled it with a neutral gray, and then went to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Cranked the noise up a bit, set the blend mode to “Overlay,” and adjusted the opacity. This gave it a subtle texture, like canvas.
Okay, now for the colors. The original photo was a bit too vibrant. I added a “Curves” adjustment layer and gently pulled down the highlights and lifted the shadows. This flattened the contrast and gave it that softer look I was going for.
After that, I used a “Color Lookup” adjustment layer. I tried a bunch of different LUTs (Lookup Tables) until I found one that warmed up the colors a little bit and pushed them towards a more vintage feel. I think it was something called “*,” or something like that.
Still not quite there. The edges were too sharp. I duplicated the base layer again, put it on top of everything else, and then applied a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Just a slight blur, like 2 or 3 pixels. Then, I set the blend mode to “Soft Light” and reduced the opacity. This gave it a subtle glow and blurred the details just enough.
Finally, I added a vignette. Just a simple one using the “Radial Filter” tool. Darkened the edges a bit to draw the eye towards Sarah’s face.
After all that tweaking, it looked a lot closer to the Amy Christine Dumas style. Not perfect, but definitely an improvement. I saved it as a JPEG and posted it on Instagram. Got a few likes, which is always nice.
Honestly, it was a bit of a trial-and-error process. I spent a good hour just fiddling with different filters and settings. But that’s the fun of it, right? Just playing around until you get something you like.
Things I’d try differently next time:
- Use a Wacom tablet for more control over the brush strokes.
- Experiment with different blend modes on the noise layer.
- Spend more time refining the color palette.
Anyway, that was my attempt at the “amy christine dumas” look. Not sure if I nailed it, but I learned a few things along the way. And that’s what matters, right?
