Looking for advice on photo editing / giving a photo an illustrative look

rachelquinn

New Member
Hi, I'm working on a wedding invitation / Christmas card for my sister. She's having a 1920s / Gatsby themed wedding.
She found these old-style christmas cards on Pinterest that she loves. We took a photo in their wedding venue of herself and her boyfriend in 1920s style outfits. I'd like to edit the photo to give it the old illustrative look of the christmas cards she likes. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to approach this? Do you think I'd need to illustrate it from scratch or can i just edit the photo?
We're thinking I'll need to make it appear like a nighttime image and maybe add a few stars to the background and snow on the steps.
We went through loads of photoshop filters earlier and some are ok but not quite right for the style of her inspiration images. if anyone has any tips or suggestions it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 

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I think you could achieve a passable result using Ps filters but I doubt that you'll be able to get a really authentic look that way unless anyone knows better?
I think it may look like what it is. A photograph with filters applied to it.

I can't really think of a quick and easy way to create that look as essentially they are illustrations and have a slightly stylised look to them.

Maybe an easier route would be to use the image as a base and then work over it in layers to add some hand rendered line work and shading but a lot depends on your abilities.
The other way would be to just draw it in that style.
 
Thanks for your thoughts! That's what I was thinking too - I'll need to illustrate it. I was just hoping there may be a quicker route! We went through loads of photoshop filters and some are ok, not great. I'm going to get a few printed so we can see what it's like when printed as it can look so different on a screen.

Do you think Lightroom is my best bet for achieving a night time look and then photoshop for faking stars and snow?
 
To be honest, I'm not really sure as I don't use Lightroom as I tend to work in vectors but there are plenty that do on here and I'm sure someone could advise you better.

I think it's a great idea though to make something in that Art Deco style and it'd be great if you manage to pull it off.

At least you have a good starting point with the picture.

I'm just wondering if there may be a stock background you could use for the background to save some time?
 
I'm not that familiar with Lightroom either but I think it's meant to be easier than Photoshop for edits like day to night.

A stock background is a great idea! So maybe if I cut out the figures and overlay them over a night-time background. Since the finished image won't look too realistic (I hope) I think changing the background could work ok!

Thank you for the tips :)
 
OK, while I couldn't do much without paying (I'm not going to do that), I had a quick play around with with https://www.befunky.com/create/photo-to-art/ and your photo up top. To be honest I reckon you could get fairly close to the desired affect by combining some of the paid filters (might still need a bit of photoshop after though), although I will suggest cutting out the people from the background first and to be fair, $7 for one month, is probably worth a quick gamble in all honesty.

In all honesty, I think I could get close if I spent long enough playing with layers and filters in photoshop too but it would be a lot of trial and error.
 
Thank you very much :) I'll definitely try that out! I'm happy to pay for some filters. I went through all of the photoshop filters in detail last night and some are ok, just not great. Do you know any good additional photoshop filters or presets? Or lightroom presets?
 
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