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Watercolor Effects

Creating a watercolor effect in Photoshop Elements is as easy as 1-2-3. This effect works best on a landscape photograph with wide swatches of colors.

First, we copy the image into Photoshop format before we apply the effect:

We do a Select - All to copy the jpeg to the computer's memory.
We then do a File - New... - OK to create an empty canvas with the same dimensions.
An Edit - Paste will paste the image previously copied into the computer's memory onto our new canvas.
File - Save this new picture with a new name as a photoshop file (.psd).

Next, if necessary, you might want to brighten up any areas that are too dark, or they will translate into solid blacks:

Enhance - Brightness/Contrast - Brightness/Contrast... - Select Preview (if not already set ON). Then, slide the Brightness control right or left until the desired brightness is achieved.
You can also select part of the image with the Marquee Tool and apply brightness only to that area.
I darkened the highlights and brightened the shadows.

If you want to reduce the size of the image, do:

Image - Resize - Image Size... - Select Constrain Proportions (if not already set ON). Type in your new Pixel Dimensions.
I resized to a Width of 450 and the Height was automatically adjusted to keep the proportion.
You may wish to crop the picture anyway you want.

Apply the Watercolor Effect:

The watercolor effect is obtained at Filter - Artistic - Watercolor...
In the example below, I used a Brush Detail of 14, Shadow Intensity of 0, and Texture of 2.
Depending on your image, you might want to play with those numbers until the effect pleases you.

Save your newly created watercolor image as a new file:

File - Save As... and save it as a Photoshop file.
If desired, convert it back into a jpeg for posting to the web or for emailing (give it a new file name). Some resolution will be lost in the compression: File - Save for Web... and save as a JPEG with Medium compression.

Here are a couple of other examples:

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