With all the talk about the content-aware features in Adobe Photoshop CS5 – I think the following feature has been somewhat over shadowed but for me its ridiculously intuitive. I love it! I am already imagining the hours of time it is going to save me when retouching photographs.

The tool makes use of various different techniques which have been seen before such as not removing edges – but removing colours to define edges – but has condensed them into a simple to use and effective little tool which has an amazing amount of accuracy and control.

I honestly haven’t been this excited about Photoshop since CS2.

Enjoy the video!

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I found a number of old photos and after scanning them in – they had a grainy finish and had lost the punch and impact they once had. So I devised this little process to give them their punch back! Hopefully its of use to yourself. You can follow along with the screenshots or just watch the video.

Duplication

Ok, you are going to begin by duplicating the layer containing your photo. You can do this by selecting the layer with the original photo and hitting COMMAND / (CTRL) + J or by right-clicking the layer and navigating to ‘Duplicate Layer’. Repeat this step twice. Following this, you need to re-name the layers for good organisation.

Apply ‘Diffuse Filter’

Now, with the first of the duplicated layers selected ‘diffused smoothness’ you are going to navigate to Filter –> Stylize –> Diffuse and yur going to select Anisotropic. Hit OK. This is a trick that I sometimes use instead of Photoshop’s Reduce Noise filter if the grain is too extensive.

Apply ‘High Pass’

Now, with the second of the duplicated layers selected ‘high pass’ you are going to navigate to Filter –> Other –> High Pass. As you move the slider from left to right you will notice the filter picks up or dops more or less lines respectively. You need t experiment and see what value picks up the most lines in your image. For this image I decided 6.4

Set Blending Modes To Soft Light

Now, to finish up and complete the effect – you are going to set both layers blending mode to Soft Light. If you wish for certain images it may look nice to decrease the opacity of the layers ever so slightly, experimenting with different looks. So there we are – you should have now a slightly sharer punchier photo!

Below, is the video of myself doing this:

Give Old Photos A Punchy Stylistic Feel – Photoshop Tutorial from Acuity Designs on Vimeo.

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This is a fairly ‘intermediate’ tutorial, although most beginners will be able to follow along with the video. It’s a neat little tutorial packed full of lots of little gems and tricks which we use in order to arrive the result; which is a much more stylistic portrait, that’s a lot more emotive and also has greater depth. The change is supposed to be subtle and thus its an effect your likely to use a lot more often than some of the tutorials floating around. Hope you enjoy! and its of use! Don’t hesitate to drop a comment below…

You can view a full resolution version of the final image here: FINAL IMAGE

You can view the final next to our boring chap here: SIDE BY SIDE IMAGE

You can download the stock image of our boring chap here: STOCK IMAGE

Lets begin!

Follow step by step below or watch Video of the tutorial

To begin with we want to secure an original copy of our stock image using the ‘padlock’. Now duplicate this layer 3 times. Name the layers ‘desaturated, black and white glow and sharpening’ : this should give a clue as to what we are going to do to each layer.

Now you want to turn of visibility by clicking the ‘eye’ icon on the bland white glow layer and the sharpening layer. Select the desaturated layer and then hit at the same time COMMAND+SHIFT+U or for windows substiture COMMAND with CTRL. Then set the desaturated layer’s blending mode to Multiply. You hsould notice this creates a nice shadowy effect to the image.

Turn off the visibility on the desaturated layer and now make the sharpening layer visible. Navigate to Filter -> Other -> High Pass . You should see the below. Moving the slider makes the filetr pick up more or less lines. Play with this until you find a sweet spot. For this image I decided upon 21.5

It might look weird once you click’OK’ – the key is to change this layer’s blending mode to  Overlay and you should immediately see an increase in the sharpness of the image. This is a neat little trick for sharpening up images it’s at times are much better option than some of Photoshop’s standard sharpening tools. A great little process to run before taking photos to print.

Now you want to select the black and white glow layer as we want to create an adjustment layer above it. At the bottom of the layer panel click the circular icon for adjustment/fill layers and select Black and White.

The purpose of this step is to create a base for us to build up upon with the the subtle touches to the image. The aim at this stage is to try and make much of the facial skin white but to bring out many of the facial features and emphasise them (e.g bags under eyes / iris / white of eye / shoulder blades / mouth / forehead lines). This will serve the final effect and feel. In the adjustment layer settings if your following this verbatim – you can enter the same settings – if you are being adventurous, experiment with the slider until you receive the desired effect.

Once you’ve configured the adjustment layer  – hold shift and select the adjustment layer + the black and white glow layer. With them both selected hit COMMAND+E . This will merge them. Alternatively, you can right click and select ‘merge down.’ after this re-name the layer ‘Black and White Glow. Re-arrange your current layers in the order below and insert 3 new layers above the sharpening layer.

Here is another neat little technique. We want to fill each layer with 50% Gray. Select it and hit SHIFT+F5 and then choose 50% Gray.

Following this we then want to name the layers for the part of the image we will edit using them and then set all 3 layer’s blending mode to overlay. The 50% Gray will seem to disappear. Then select the Burn Tool as shown below.

We are going to touch up the mouth first and we will begin with a smaller hard-brush. We also want to begin using ‘Midtones’ at a low exposure. As we apply the effect below we are going to switch back to these settings and increase exposure / brush size/ brush weight to achieve the subtle effect. bit by bit.

Using the burn tool and different setting , with the mouth layer selected. We want to gradually emphasie the cracks / gap in the lips . The key is subtlety.

Repeat the same process on the forehead with a slightly larger and slightly softer brush. We want to gradually emphasie the lines across the brow . Once again, the key is subtlety. It is almost unnoticeable but when all these are combined there is a clear difference in mood etc.

Repeat the same process on the bags under the eyes with its relevant layer selected using a larger and much softer brush.the aim is to sink the eyes further into the head and create a slightly tired / deshevelled look.  Don’t forget, the key is subtlety.

Now above the desaturated layer, insert a new layer and name it two face, setting its layer blending mode to soft light. Get a very large soft brush and lower its opacity and flow. Select the colour black in the tools palette. Now paint one side of the image, softly and gradually with the brush until you have an effect as below. It may be beneficial to paint without soft light set so that you can see the areas affected as in the second image. The effect should be as in the first image.. very subtle but evident.

Now, with all the effects and processing we have done, the eyes have become somewhat blackened and lost. So lets add back some of their sparkle. Create a new layer and name it eye detail. With a thin hard brush, select the colour white. Create spaced iris like lines radiating from the center as below. They do not have to be perfect but try to prevent traveling into the white of the eye.

After completing this for both eyes. With the eye detail layer selected; navigate to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and you should see the dialogue box below. We want to remove the hard edges of the lines and create a somewhat sparkle like glow, so the blur does not need to be harsh.  I selected 4.

Once the blur is complete, set the layer blending mode to soft light.

Select the desaturated layer as we want to add an adjustment layer above it. Now select the adjustment / fill layer icon as earlier but this time select Channel Mixer… and enter the settings as in the second image. Once configured set the layer blending mode to soft light and we should see the dark side and areas of the face made slightly darker, increasing the contrast.

After completing this I noticed the whites of the eyes were slightly dull. So as earlier lets use our 50% Gray technique. Select the shoulders layer and insert a new layer above it. Name it eyes and fill it with 50% Gray, setting the blending mode to overlay. This time, instead of the Burn Tool we want to use the Dodge Tool. Now with a soft, applicable sized brush begin to re-whiten the whites of the eyes, zooming out and back in to ensure you do not over do it.

In the latter stages now, you want to select the uppermost layer – eye detail and holding shift select the black and white glow layer. Then right click on the selection and select ‘Duplicate Layers’

The new layers should remain selected. with them selected hit COMMAND+E to merge them.  Then re-name this layer which should be a reflection of what we have done thus far to ‘blur pop’. This should indicate what were are going to do now.

With the blur pop layer selected navigate to Filter ->Blur -> Lens Blur . This blur is going to be slightly over done to help make our chap pop out from the background and try and achieve somewhat of a 3D depth to the image. I used a value of 39.

After hitting OK, you should see a heavily blurred image. With the layer selected, add a layer mask.  This can be done by clicking on the layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette or by navigating to Layer -> Layer Mask -> Reveal All. Now equip a large soft brush with Opacity of about 65%. Select the white panel that has now been added to your blur pop layer. With your brush begin to paint on your image and you should witness your sharper image below begin to come through. Do not reaveal the background, nor the edges. It’s ok if its quite rough, it will add to the natural effect  – which is what we want!

Hopefully You should have something like the below:

A full resolution version of the final image here: FINAL IMAGE

The final next to our boring chap here: SIDE BY SIDE IMAGE

Video

Part 1

Part 1 – Photoshop tutorial – Boring Photo to Emotive Portrait from Acuity Designs on Vimeo.

Part 2

Part 2 – Photoshop tutorial – Boring Photo to Emotive Portrait from Acuity Designs on Vimeo.

Part 3

Part 3 – Photoshop tutorial – Boring Photo to Emotive Portrait from Acuity Designs on Vimeo.

Hopefully You should have something like the below:

A full resolution version of the final image here: FINAL IMAGE

The final next to our boring chap here: SIDE BY SIDE IMAGE

Hope this was helpful!!

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As a London dweller, I am in love with my city! Though I would share some images of the one and only city, London!

The Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College Greenwich by muddyclay

St Martin’s Cathedral by Acuity Designs

The Lloyds Building, London by m starling

HMS Belfast by edvvc

The Guerkin, by coostie

LeadenHall Market by Acuity Designs – Click to view..

The Globe Theatre by mightymightymatze

The London Eye by olib

02 Arena by mightymightymatze

Battersea Power Station by swh

House of Parliament and Westminister Bridge by Isofarro

Spitafields Market by Aurellen

The Royal Exchange by Acuity Designs

OXO Tower by Nikonmania

Tower Bridge by Kaddison

Borough Market by naughtyarchitect

Millennium Bridge by net_efeckt

No.1 London Bridge by Eat you greens

Tate Modern by beatbull

St Paul’s Cathedral by Carmen Seaby

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1) Water Goddess by Sugargrl14

2) Smog by alexiuss

3) Vertige I by Noistar

4) Revolution by Husam-Elfaki

5) Heart Of A Dragon by videa

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