Dramatic Gritty Effect
In this tutorial we’re going to show you how to add a dramatic, gritty, bronzed effect to your images. We’ll convert our subject image as follows:
1. Open our project image and immediately duplicate the background layer by right clicking the background layer and selecting ‘Duplicate Layer’. With the ‘Background Copy’ layer selected, go to ‘Filter’ on the menu and choose ‘Other’ -> ‘High Pass’, enter ‘5′ pixels as the radius and click ok. Next, change the blend of the ‘Background Copy’ layer to ‘Overlay’.
2. Duplicate the orginal background layer again (’Background Copy 2′) and move it to the very top of the layers list. With this new layer highlighted in the layers palette, go to ‘Image’ on the main menu and choose ‘Adjustment’ -> ‘Desaturate’. Change the blend of the this new layer to ‘Hard Light’.
3. Click on the right facing arrow in the top right corner of our layers palette and choose ‘Flatten Image’ from the drop down menu. This once again leaves us with a single layer ‘Background’. Duplicate this layer and press ‘Ctrl+F’ (Commmand-F on mac) to apply the same filter effect used in step 1. Change the blend mode of this layer
to ‘Overlay’.
4. Flatten the image again (Click on the right facing arrow in the top right corner of our layers palette and choose ‘Flatten Image’ from the drop down menu). Next, click the ‘Create New Adjustment Layer’ icon at the bottom of the layers palette and choose ‘Curves’. In the ‘Curves’ dialog add a point by clicking directly on the diagnol line (around the upper third in our example), move it toward the left, and click OK. This will lighten the entire image (but focus on the eyes).
5. Click on the layer mask thumbnail of the Curves adjustment layer we just created and press ‘Ctrl+i’ (Command-i on mac), the image will appear darker. Set your foreground color to white (press D). Select the Brush tool from the toolbox and using a soft edged brush (I used a brush with diameter of 15px and hardness of 15%), paint over the eyes to brighten them up.
Our effect looks like this now:
6.Create a new layer, and change your foreground color to a nice eye color you would like to highlight your subjects eyes with. We’re going to select a nice light blue (#94C4D4) for our subject. Change the blend mode of this layer to ‘Color’. Now using the same brush settings we used in the previous step, paint over the eyes to highlight them with your selected foreground color. If you find the color is too vivid, try adjusting the layer opacity to lessen the effect.
And voila…our dramatic gritty effect is complete! Have fun applying this technique in your projects.
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Great Job!
Amazing
Looks nice on your photo, not on mine
Great work. Brings the picture back to life. But I need more practising.
Great tut!
I think someone did this to me in my sleep!
DM
Fantastic, I was looking for a tutorial like this to use on some of my photos, and this help me a lot, you can combine with other technics at the same time, the results on my photos are really good, but you have to recognize what photos are good for this effect. and if you create other layers, like a 50% grey with noise and set to overlay helps with texture and more, again great job and THANK YOU
Titano
Hi, this is a great effect, BUT, who is the model? This man looks exactly like my late father, the likeness is uncanny to the point it could be a picture of him about 15 years ago.
Best regards
Peter Brown
Salam!
I was looking for a tutorial like this to use on some of my photos, and this help me a lot, you can combine with other technics at the same time, the results on my photos are really good, but you have to recognize what photos are good for this effect. and if you create other layers, like a 50% grey with noise and set to overlay helps with texture and more, again great job and THANK YOU
i’m only here to see if this in fact turns out to be Peter Brown’s father. That’s a very distinct looking fellow. It would be hard to imagine that someone so unique would not in fact be the person a son imagines his father to be.
The photo is the one used on the album cover of Jason Upton’s album ‘Beautiful People’…
…unfortunately it doesn’t say in the sleeve notes anything about the picture, so I don’t know how much that’ll help!
I have been looking for something like this for a long time. It’s great to use on portraits of older people, and has a totally different look on other types of faces and lighting. LOVE and will use again and again! Thanks!
me gustaria recibir este tutorial en español.
hi
just wondering exactly what part of the eye do u lighten up? all of it? just the iris?
I cant seem to get the color right either
but I have gotten some good pictures out of it
its a great tutorial …well discribed
here are some og my pictures
http://furby79.deviantart.com/art/the-harmonica-89472928
http://furby79.deviantart.com/art/arvid-89471665 (not stisfied with the eye there)
http://furby79.deviantart.com/art/having-a-good-time-89474117
best wishes
kris
Masha Allah
Peter: This is a fairly well known stock image. You should be able to contact the photographer here:
http://www.123rf.com/photo_684670.html
Thank you for posting this great tutorial… the instruction is easy to follow, and the results I’ve gotten are amazing! Love it!
Great tutorial, in fact it’s easy to follow and remember!
cool.great job!
–
very dramatic.lol
why is _longterm_ coming up I cant read the tutorial
excuse me but how do i get to change the filter radius?[lease email me the answers thank u
kingpin_478@yahoo.com
It should be noted that this was commonly known as the “Dragan Effect”. He was the first one to apply this technique and his photos are amazing! You can check out his website here -
http://andrzejdragan.com/
Looks not unlike the draganizer action, but this is much quicker. Thanks!
The same effect = Unsharp Mask (with Radius above 2 pixels)
quite crappy tutorial. looks like puke
wow that like we use lucius filter….amazing
visit my blog http://shevaphotography.blogspot.com/
essa montagem estar tudo inglês da para coloca em portugues
Thanks for the Tutorial!!! Great Work
perfect this is soo original and simple A+ for you jajaja
this tutorial is amazing, thank you
cool
exclusive tutorial, so much thanks!
this looks like me ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
oooo i like the children especially this guy
great great work.. thanks alot for helping me
I agree it looks great on “older” people or should I say people with more character in their faces.
Not much of a tutorial… this dosn’t really work for any other picture. This tutorial exclusively works with THIS picture.
Thanks, nice work
nice working.
congratulations.
very good, thanks
good working
thanks for sharing…
Superb Effect. All steps are very simple and easy to follow. Thanks a lot buddy.
Perfecto!!!! gran tuto felicidades!!!!
THANK YOU!
It also looks like Dave Hill effect
http://www.davehill.com
nice very easy to follow and nice effects ,good teater.
its nice and great thanks all you and this wonderful site i am from baku thanks 100000000000000000 time
that is not homeless mike… that is hippocrates
you can see him here…
http://depts.washington.edu/envhlth/newsletter/images/spring2003/hippocrates.jpg
thank you
great link.
superb work in the image now iam currently try to finish that same out put..
great effect!!
i was lookin it, and that so cool!!
Very nice effect , i would like to add that you can apreciatte a lot more of that style photos looking for “Andrzej Dragan” workarts .
Excuse my bad english
Why can’t i lighten the eyes?did everything step by step but can’t lighten the f…. eyes.any idea what i’m doing wrong?thanks.allmost forgot: Great tutorial.cheers
got it.idiot me
Totally Alphanumeric!
excellent!! thanks!! : )
Interesting look, certainly adds a gritty dirty atmosphere.
thanks for information
Nice articles, helped me a lot thanks.
I am grateful to you for this great content
goooood
it´s impresionant is very easy
thanks
Very well written tutorial, thanks.
thanks mate!
Very easy and very effective. Excellent job
Thanks
Hey dudes, if you need a more complete and soft tutorial about this effect, I recommend you this :
http://jambonbeurre.fr/blog/?page_id=35&lang=en
Feel free to check it out !
Thank you
great job. hope to see some more tutorials made by you
thanks very good
dude this is awsomw ahaha this is something i will use allot on me dog ahahahahha♥
Thank you for sharing the great tutorial
very good work
thanks
thank you ,
thank you great link…
Impressive effect!
I’ll try it.
Bye and thanks
Serge
Very cool!!
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