We feel both excited and privileged to announce that we’ve partnered up with our friends and longtime Mextures community members at @mood.magic for a formula-themed contest that we’re downright giddy about!  

From today (Thursday, January 24th) until Monday, February 4th, post a photo edited with one of the formulas in the brand new Mood Magic Formula Pack (found in the” Formulas” section of the app).  Tag @mextures and @mood.magic in your post along with the hashtag, #MexturesxMoodMagic.  

At the end of the contest, our teams will select 4 winners.  All four winners will have one of their formulas added to the Mood Magic Formula Pack within the Mextures app as well as have their very own tutorial published in the Mextures Journal.  

Below you’ll find tutorial pieces created from two of the formulas found in the Mood Magic Formula Pack. Read, learn, and enjoy!

@SOULFULWANDERINGS

FORGOTTEN

I love to add mood and magic to my photography; Mother Nature provides us with an infinite palette of light and colour every second of every season and to enhance this with Mextures is a meditative joy as well as fun and an essential part of all my edits. Plus, using my prehistoric iPhone 5s, very necessary.

With this photograph, taken one misty morning in October, I not only wanted to bring the melancholy of the moment to life but I wanted to add a little mystery as well, to make the audience wonder why these three plants of maize were left behind after the harvest....

So to begin with, the brightness needed to be toned down to add more ambience and mood. To do this I went straight to the ‘Vintage Gradients’ and chose Sea Foam, overlay orientation 1 opacity 33% which gave a darker coolness to the image.

Next I headed straight for the atmospheric package and used Melancholy, hard light orientation 1, with 50% opacity - this gave impact and depth. Afterwards I wanted to highlight the stalks of corn just a little and give a little texture so I used ‘Blueberry/Peach’ in Grunge overlay 1, opacity 24%, this also gives a little magic. Although, in this case, I wanted a more sober look so I kept the opacity low. And because no image is totally complete without light from somewhere and to add a slightly ephemeral glaze I went to the Light Leaks 4 package and chose ‘Alien’ in soft light overlay, orientation 1, opacity 20%.

Finally, a little tuning in the adjustments to elaborate or fade the details - Et Voilà!!

@HAZEL_MERLEYC

MOONLIGHT

This is a 6-layer formula composed of mainly cool tones, for a moonlit or moody winter vibe. The vintage film preset adds a hint of golden light to tone down the blues just a little.

For the 1st layer I used the Optimism filter to create the direction of light in the left of the image using the overlay setting.

For the 2nd layer I used the melancholy filter with the hard light setting for a bit of depth.

The 3rd layer is the Seafoam filter,  using the overlay setting to darken the top of the image for a moonlight kind of feeling.

On the 4th layer I used the indigo filter to add some mysterious blue to the shadows.

The 5th layer is another layer of melancholy but using the overlay setting to deepen the tones

For the final layer I’ve added some moody light and texture with the passive filter on the screen setting.

I’ve reduced the exposure slightly to lower the light and increased contrast for a sharper feel. The tint has been adjusted slightly to emphasise pinks and purples. The saturation has been lowered to mute the intensity of the colours. There’s a little bit of fade and hi light reduction for mood, and shadows have been lifted a little to enhance the detail. The image has also been sharpened to bring out details.

We hope you’ll participate in our contest with @mood.magic and we look forward to seeing all of your amazing photographs!