High Contrast and Detail Effect using dodge and burn technique.

[Clactonian]

Always good to know how it should be done Willie.
I still cheat by using the unsharp mask, on flattened overlaid or multiplied layers, to selected areas in order to achieve a similar result.
I suspect that the limitations on my short cut method would come to light on a large print but seem fairly well hidden at 95dpi for screen images.
M

[jiro]

There's always a lot of possible ways to attack a certain issue, Mike. Yours is a good process, too.

[rob marshall]

Nice one, Rob. If I can remember, this technique works quite well if you have an image rich in detail like bird feathers, clothing (specially jeans) and if you want to make it gritty sometimes it can also work with stones and concrete.

It doesn't work very well with portrait shots. Makes the model look rather gritty. Have you found that?

[jiro]

It doesn't work very well with portrait shots. Makes the model look rather gritty. Have you found that?

Yup. that is why you have to selectively apply it and use masks.

[Squidgy]

Hi Willie, thank you very much for this tutorial. I think the difference to the original is staggering! and will have a go at this. I love the detail, contrast and colours this method brings out. Thanks again.

Cheers
Nigel.

[Karl Johnston]

Thanks for the tutorial. I will have to look into this.

It reminds me of the blue channel technique

[jiro]

Hi Willie, thank you very much for this tutorial. I think the difference to the original is staggering! and will have a go at this. I love the detail, contrast and colours this method brings out. Thanks again.

Cheers
Nigel.

You're very welcome, Nigel. Cheers.

[jiro]

Thanks for the tutorial. I will have to look into this.

It reminds me of the blue channel technique

You're welcome, Karl.

[Squidgy]

Willie, you are the man! I had a go at this today and was well pleased with the result. Wow!!! I left the picture on screen and my wife, for the first time ever said to me.... "Ooooh, that's a nice picture... who took it?". What a result, thanks man! I get beer and curry tonight. Happy Time!

Cheers
Nigel.

[jiro]

Willie, you are the man! I had a go at this today and was well pleased with the result. Wow!!! I left the picture on screen and my wife, for the first time ever said to me.... "Ooooh, that's a nice picture... who took it?". What a result, thanks man! I get beer and curry tonight. Happy Time!

Cheers
Nigel.

Nice! That's something when you can please the lady of the house. Tell her you need a new lens to get better pics! Just kidding. Congrats, Nigel.

[Squidgy]

Nice! That's something when you can please the lady of the house. Tell her you need a new lens to get better pics! Just kidding. Congrats, Nigel.

LOL! I hope she never finds out how much I recently spent on the new 5D MKII and 17-105 lens, and earlier on my old fender strat, Roland digital multitrack recorder, digital audio desk, R8 drum machine, Cubase software, keyboards, sound modules, computers, etc, etc. I would be so in the dog house if she knew! Love taking pictures though as it gets me out of the house and out of her hair. Now... how about that battery grip???

Cheers
Nigel.

[Boatman]

Willi - nice tutorial! I just happened to print a few pictures last night so I had to go back and try your method to see how it works. It works! The results of the modified image look a lot like the results I get from using what I call, contrast sharpening. Typically this involves setting your unsharp mask at about 20 to 30 in the Amount, around 50 in the Radius, and 0 in the Threshold. I used this feature a lot with my A2 as that camera tended to have flatish images. I have not been using this with the GH2, though perhaps I should be.

I decided to compare your method with the contrast sharpening. Contrast sharpening is much faster and easier, but I think your method works better and gives more control by use of the slider in final overlay layer. A photo with both methods is attached. The contrast sharpening is set at 30-50-0. The shot using the overlay layer was set at 40-40 in the surface blur and then 75% in the final overlay layer.

The differences are hard to see in these reduced images, but are very noticeable in Photoshop. Look closely at the mid-distant rocks.

As opened from DNG into Photoshop


Contrast Sharpened 30-50-0


Using described technique 40-40 in surface blur, 75% strength in overlay layer

[jiro]

I'm glad you found them useful, Homer.

[jjbacoomba]

Great job Willie! Wish someone would do some tutorials on Paintshop Pro X2

[Boatman]

Jiro:

When I got up this morning I wanted to try a couple of other shots. This shot is a five-image HDR that I took a week ago. The HDR conversion (using Photoshop automate) worked OK, but the image came out only mildly interesting. I decided to try your technique on it. I also noticed with my earlier sunset shot that combining the contrast sharpening with the inverse blur overlay also works nicely, so I tried that here as well.

Here are the results: (use right-click, open in new tab to see differences more clearly)

Shot as opened from Photoshop HDR Automate:


Shot using 50-30-0 contrast sharpening:


Shot with inverse blur overlay layer (40%):


Shot with overlay layer over contrast sharpened layer (40%)

[MiniChris]

A step Willie left out and one which will reduce your file size is eliminating the middle layer once you've combined the vivid/blur into a merged layer.

[jiro]

A step Willie left out and one which will reduce your file size is eliminating the middle layer once you've combined the vivid/blur into a merged layer.

I did include it, Chris. It's in step 6:

6. We don't need the vivid light layer anymore since its effect is already added to the new combined layer (the topmost layer). Delete this layer now (or if you want, just disable it. Just make sure that you're not going to get confused later if you forget to disable this layer!) I prefer to delete it.

Thanks.

[MiniChris]

Well! Excuse Me! Oops.

[jiro]

Well! Excuse Me! Oops.

[victor]

Jiro,

Many thanks for yet another great workflow. Much appreciated.

Regards

David