Alright, let’s talk about that “arizona color rush” thing I messed around with. So, I was bored, scrolling through some design stuff, and I saw this cool Arizona Cardinals color scheme floating around.
First thing I did? Jumped into Photoshop, of course. I had this old picture of a sunset from a trip I took. Figured it had that Arizona vibe already.
Started by messing with the color balance. Cranked up the reds and oranges, brought out the purples in the shadows. Wanted to get that intense, almost surreal desert look.
Next up, played around with the levels. Darkened the midtones a bit to add some contrast. The goal was to make the colors pop, you know? Like, almost glow.
Then I thought, “This needs some texture.” So I found a brush that looked like cracked earth and lightly brushed it over the image, just to give it some grit. Not too much, just enough to feel like the desert floor.
I duplicated the layer and blurred it a little, then set the blend mode to “Overlay.” This kinda softened the edges and made the colors blend together better. It’s a trick I picked up somewhere, makes things look smoother.
Added a layer mask and brushed out some areas where I didn’t want the texture to be too strong, like around the brightest parts of the sky.
After that, I found a cool Arizona Cardinals logo online (just a random one, nothing fancy) and slapped it in the corner. Lowered the opacity a bit so it wouldn’t distract too much from the overall image.
Finally, I added a subtle vignette to darken the edges and draw the eye towards the center. It’s a classic trick, but it works.
Here’s a quick rundown of what I did:
- Opened the sunset picture in Photoshop.
- Adjusted the color balance to emphasize reds, oranges, and purples.
- Tweaked the levels for contrast.
- Added a cracked earth texture with a brush.
- Blurred a duplicate layer and set it to “Overlay.”
- Added the Arizona Cardinals logo.
- Finished with a vignette.
All in all, it was a fun little experiment. Didn’t take too long, maybe an hour or so. It’s not perfect, but it’s a decent representation of that Arizona “color rush” feel, if you ask me. Just a quick and dirty project to kill some time.
