Today we’ve pieced together a little tutorial featuring images captured by @villy_pics! You can find these images as well as several others available over at the Mextures Collective. Read on for some formula building fun!

FORMULA CODE: HYTZYSM

I didn’t really know where to start with this image. The original is so absolutely stunning that you can almost feel the sharpness of the morning cold along with a sense of anticipation for the warmth the sun is ushering in. I added the 1976 light leak to slightly emphasize the golden glow of the sunlight. I used the Autumn Skies overlay to do more of the same while also bring in some contrast to the blue sky. The Brooklyn and Deject overlays pushed those slight reds, oranges, and yellows a little farther towards the path to “golden glow” while Mustard from X-film provided some overall light to the image. Adjustments are my favorite. I love them. And yes, of course I’d marry them. I always start with a film preset (if I decide to use one) and in this case chose F-Velvia I enjoyed the overall coloration and toning it created. Also, because “velvia” sounds like “velvet” which makes me thing of Red Velvet Cake which makes me simultaneously happy and sad (because calories). From there I always toy with each individual polishing tool to ensure that I have created the exact look and feel I had been aiming for.

FORMULA CODE: MMBGWCV

The bokeh in this shot from Ev is simply delicious. As soon as I saw this one I knew I wanted to create a formula that would add fade while also making those pinks and greens pop. While I usually attempt to add a layer of X-film toward the end of my formula creation process, this time I jumped straight to the Crisp overlay. It got my fade-train rolling and gave me the greens I wanted. Fleck from Dust & Dirt came next because I wanted to add a little texture in the negative space. Seaside allowed me to further enhance the greens, draw out some of the blues, and direct the lighting to an extent as well. From here, I layered on Idyllic from the Atmospheric pack because MORE BLUE! I knew that my film preset was going to be P-669-C because it gave me all of the blues and greens I wanted while adding contrast and fade and sandwiching some of my favorite numbers between two of my favorite letters. From there it was polishing as usual with a few slight tweaks to highlights and sharpening. Now the only thing left on my to-do list for the day is convincing my parents to love me!

See more work from Ev here!