Creating a stylized photograph in Photoshop. Effects with photos ⇡ Turning a photo into a painting using filters

This tutorial will show you how to style a digital photo using the collodion process in Photoshop.

About the technology itself

Wet plate, also known as the wet collodion process (wiki), as a method of photography, was first described in 1851, although the substance called collodion was invented several years earlier. It was a rather complex technique that required several chemical reactions, but it revolutionized photography - after all, compared to daguerreotype, it gave a higher quality result, and many times faster.

But already in late XIX centuries, the collodion process was replaced by more technologically advanced materials, and now it is used extremely rarely. However, to create a portrait in the Wet Plate style, it is not at all necessary to carry out complex and expensive operations with collodion and silver. All you need is Photoshop and 10 minutes of free time.

Simulate Wet Plate in Photoshop

You can work with any digital photograph, for example, a portrait. The first thing to do is sharpen the image. To do this, create a duplicate layer and apply the “Color Contrast” filter to it (Filter -> Other -> Color Contrast). Now move the slider so that only the edges of the objects on the gray background are visible. Then apply the blending mode “Soft Light” or “Overlay” to the layer. Play with the settings - they will be different for each frame. Excessive sharpening can be reduced by reducing the opacity of the layer.

The second step is to simulate the smear: it appears due to the long exposure in the real wet collodion process. Duplicate the background layer again and apply the Motion Blur filter to it. Choose an angle within 27 degrees - you don't need too much blur.

The third action is the mask. Create a mask for the blur layer and draw the silhouette of a person. Leave a little blur around the edges of the face and body.

The next step is working with Channel Mixer. Check the box next to “Monochrome”. Now edit the red, green and blue channels to get the colors you want and bring out the details of the face. In each case the settings will be unique, but for our example they are: Red -80, Green -10, Blue +200.

Step five - adjustment layers. Add a “Curves” adjustment layer and move the curve a little to deepen the shadows. Then move the leftmost point of the curve slightly up and the rightmost point slightly to the left.

Now add another layer and work with the levels to remove the brightness of the white, making it gray.

Step six is ​​to apply a photo filter. Create another adjustment layer, select the color “Sepia”, the density value is about 25%.

Step seven - imitation of texture. The true collodion process used metal or glass plates. Search the Internet for similar textures or brushes that imitate scuff marks or crumpled paper. Overlay them so that they are visible at the edges of the image. This will give the image a realistic appearance, as if people handled the plate or did not wipe off the dust before applying the solution to it. In short, the task is to create some defects in the image.

Then you can add some highlights to imitate a shiny surface. Don't overdo it with textures - just a little bit around the edges will be enough.

The eighth step is adding noise. Create a new blank layer and press Shift+Backspace or Shift+F5. In the “Fill” window that opens, in the “Content” section, select “50% gray” and click OK. Then go to Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise. Don’t forget to check the box next to “Monochrome” again and set the noise value to your liking. Apply the blending mode to the layer “Overlay” and reduce the opacity to 50%.

The last step is to create the stains and rust that have appeared on our “metal plate” over time. You can make the spots yourself: add a new layer and touch the brush to different places in the photo. The brush should be soft, large in diameter, black. Then apply the Gaussian Blur filter with a larger radius. Apply the Darken or Multiply mode to the layer and adjust the opacity as desired.

It is better to look for the texture of rust on the Internet. Overlay it on the image in Overlay mode and play with the transparency again.

The Wet Plate style portrait is ready.

The entire process of creating a photo can be seen in this video:

A selection of great plugins from various companies which I use when processing photos. In a nutshell about each of them:

Color correction and styling:

Alien Skin Exposure 3.
(Included Alien Skin Software Suite)

A plugin with a large set of stylizations for color and black and white films, filters and much more.

Nik Software Color Efex Pro 3
(Included Nik Software Suite)

A plugin with a large number of various stylizations, contrast, brightness and color corrections.

Noise control:
Imagenomic Noiseware Professional 4.2

A powerful tool for correcting noise in digital photos. Very useful plugin. Because everyone always has a photo which spoiled the noise due to poor lighting. This tool is your salvation.

Sharpening:

Sharpener Pro 3.0

I have never seen a more powerful and convenient tool. I recommend it to everyone.

Stylization:

Alien Skin Bokeh 2
Advanced plugin for simulating Bokeh (blur)

Red Giant Knoll Light Factory
Plugin for Simulated glare!

Imagenomic Portraiture
The most convenient tool for quick retouching of portrait photos.

As you noticed. All of these plugins belong to entire plugin packages. It is worth briefly mentioning them as well.

Alien Skin Software Suite
●Blow Up - OProvides high-quality image resizing
● Bokeh - Allows you to achieve an excellent blur effect to focus the viewer's attention on the selected object.
●Exposure - powerful program, as well as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop, created for color correction and stylization of images for film color and b/w photography. But, in addition to film stylization, the plugin also has tools for general photo processing: Shadow/Highlights, Curves, Sharpen and many others.
● Eye Candy you can create the most intricate natural effects in a matter of minutes
●Image Doctor A set of easy-to-use “plugins” for Photoshop that will allow you to save frankly unsuccessful photographs and help add additional shine to high-quality digital images.
● Snap Art will allow you, with one click, to use large library preliminary blanks simulating various styles, turn any photo into a painting written in oil or watercolor, into a drawing drawn with pencils, pastels, charcoal, etc.
● Splat! a set that includes 6 filters for creating imitation paintings and graphics.
● Xenofex is a collection of 14 special effects that will give new energy any graphic project. Natural effects and complex distortions have never been so easy to create. The interface is simple and intuitive, and includes a fully zoomable preview window that allows you to see the overlay effect for any part of your image. Xenofex also includes 160 presets to help you make complex effects quickly.

Nik Software Suite
● Color Efex Pro kit with an extensive database of 52 filters and 250 effects
● Dfine helps get rid of noise from digital cameras of any type.
● HDR Efex Pro Designed to help professional and amateur photographers quickly and easily enhance the full spectrum of HDR.
● Sharpener Pro to adjust image clarity in digital photos.
● Silver Efex Pro a plugin for Adobe Photoshop that allows photographers to stylize modern digital images into stylish black and white photographs.
● Viveza is the most powerful tool for selectively controlling color and light in your photos.

Styling photos in Photoshop

Using group filters "Stylize" - "Stylization" you can create a painting or impressionist effect in the selected area of ​​the image. Filters in this group work on the principle of pixel displacement, finding and enhancing contrast in the image. Let's look at some stylization effects in more detail.

To access stylization effects, expand the menu "Filter"- “Filter” and go to the effects group "Stylize" - "Stylization".

The first filter in the list is "Diffuse"- “Diffusion”, it allows you to slightly blur the image, making it look like a drawing made with paints on textured paper. In the dialog box of this filter there is only a setting for the blur method. When setting the parameter "Normal"- “Normal” all pixels will be blurred. If the option is selected "Darken Only"- “Dark replacement only” or parameter "Light Only"- “Dodge only”, the blurred image will be superimposed on the original one in the darken or lighten mode. And finally, in mode "Anisotropic"- “Anisotropic”, pixels are rearranged in the direction of the least color change.

Now go to filter "Emboss"- “Embossing”. This filter causes the selected area to appear raised or stamped. This is achieved by changing the fill color to gray and highlighting the edges using the original fill color.

The angle of incidence of light is set by the parameter value "Angle"- "Corner". Using the parameter "Height"- “Height” you can set the embossing depth, and the parameter "Amount"- “Effect” determines the sharpness of the edges. It is worth noting that this filter is often used to create the previously discussed texture effects, since images processed using this effect are considered by Adobe Photoshop as height maps. Therefore, using processing with this filter in conjunction with various blending modes, you can achieve relief in the image.

Consider the effect "Extrude"- “Extrusion”, which is used to create the effect of an image crumbling into fragments. Group Switches "Ture"- “Type” allows you to set the type of fragments. If the option is selected "Blocks"- “Blocks”, then image fragments are formed from cubes, and when you select the parameter "Pyramids"- “Pyramids” - from pyramids.

The block size is specified in the field "Size"- “Size”, their height is adjusted using the parameter "Depth"- "Depth". The depth also depends on the setting selected "Random"- “Random” or "Level-based"- “By brightness.” In the first case, the height of each block will be a random value, in the second it will depend on the brightness of the pixels in a given part of the image. In other words, the brighter the pixels in the image, the larger the height of the blocks.

When the parameter is activated "Solid Front Faces"- “Paint front edges”, the spaces between blocks are painted with the color of the image. If the parameter is set "Mask Incomplete Blocks"- “Mask incomplete blocks”, then blocks whose image does not completely fit within the specified area will be masked.

The filter dialog does not have a preview function, so you can only see the results of the filter after you close the window. To apply the filter, click OK.

Filter "Tiles"- "Splitting" splits the image into fragments, creating an offset between the image and its original position. The number of fragments located horizontally is indicated in the field "Number of Tiles"- “Number of fragments”, and the maximum gap between them is set using the parameter "Maximum Offset"- “Maximum displacement”.

Parameters in the section "Fill Empty Area With"- “Use to fill gaps” allows you to choose one of the ways to fill the gaps between pieces of the image. Filling with the background or foreground color is carried out after selecting the parameters "Background Color"- “Background color” or "Foreground Color"- “Primary color”, respectively.

You can fill the gaps with an inverted image, to do this you need to set the parameter "InverseImage"- “Inverse image”. And to fill with a regular image, select the option "Unaltered Image"- “Original”. When using last option image fragments are superimposed on the main image. To apply the effect, click on the “OK” button.

Thus, using group filters "Stylize" - "Stylization" you can create interesting effects that transform your images by processing them in various artistic ways.

In this step by step lesson shows how to process a portrait in Photoshop using brushes and adjustment layers.

Note: the photo styling in this tutorial was done in Photoshop CS6, so some screenshots may differ if you are using an earlier version. Some applied brushes are only available in Photoshop CS6.

End result

Additional materials

Materials that we will use in our work:

Debris Brush Set

Step 1 - Making the background

Adding texture

Create a 1000x1000px document with a white background.

Open the texture " Stone wall"in Photoshop - (Ctrl+O).

Using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, select part of the texture as shown below:

Copy the selection to a new layer (Ctrl+J) and, using the Move Tool, transfer it to the main document.

Resize the texture so that the image fits on the canvas (Ctrl+T), do not forget to hold Shift to maintain the proportions:

Open the layers palette - F7.

Select the texture layer.

From the Tools palette, select the Eraser Tool (E).

Adjust the eraser settings in the top tool options bar. I will work with a large diameter eraser with 50% pressure (Flow) and opacity (Opacity).

Using the eraser with the above settings, delete the following areas of the texture layer:

Working with adjustment layers

Click the round black and white icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a new adjustment layer.

In total, we will need to add three adjustment layers on top of the texture layer:

1. Adjustment layer “Black and White”:

2. Adjustment layer “Levels”:

3. Adjustment layer "Curves" ("Curves")

The image after this step should look like this:

Step 2 - Add a Portrait

Separating the girl from the background

Load the image with the model into Photoshop - (Ctrl+O).

Select the background surrounding the model, for example, using the Quick Selection Tool (W) - Quick Selection Tool (available only from version CS3).

On the top toolbar, you can choose two auxiliary views of this tool: “Add to selection” and “Subtract from selection”. Use these tools to make your selection more precise.

You can also use any other selection method, for example, using the Pen Tool (P) - the most accurate, but the slowest.

After selecting the background, click “Delete” to delete it.

Press the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+T), then right-click and select “Flip horizontal” from the drop-down menu:

Transform the image as shown below:

We work on the layer with the girl.

Go to the menu Filter – Blur – Surface Blur (Filter – Blur – Surface Blur):

Set the radius to 5 px, isohelium to 20 lvl.

Step 3 - Stylizing the Portrait

Since photo stylization in this lesson will happen using layer masks, let's use them.

Click on the mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. A mask will be added to the layer, and the base color and color background will change to black and white.

We paint with a brush with black color on the mask, erasing parts of the image to restore the deleted areas, switch to white(X).

Using a combination of standard soft and hard brushes, as well as brushes from the Debris Brush set, playing with the transparency and pressure of the brushes, apply the following mask to the model layer ( pink erased areas shown):

This is what you should get:

Add a new adjustment layer for the girl layer.

Adjustment layer “Black and White”:

Place the cursor between the girl layer and the Black and White adjustment layer, hold down Alt, and when the cursor changes view, click between the layers. In this case, the adjustment layer will only be applied to the girl layer.

Paint on the “Black and White” adjustment layer mask using a soft brush with black color, erasing the following areas:

Add the following adjustment layer for the girl layer - “Levels”:

Layer mask on the “Levels” adjustment layer:

Add the following adjustment layer “Curves”:

At this stage the image looks like this:

Step 4 - Add Brush Stroke

On the toolbar, select the Brush Tool (B).

We choose from the standard CS6 brushes “Round Fan Stiff Thin Bristles”.

Create a new layer - (Ctrl+Shift+N) and with the selected brush leave strokes, adjusting the opacity and pressure of the brush, use an eraser with the same brush to erase unnecessary areas.

It should look like the picture below:

You can also take the “Round Paint Stiff” brush and make a few strokes on a new layer:

Use the Liquify filter to deform the last created layer like this:

Move the warped layer to the right eye as shown below:

Step 5 - Working on the hair

Select the layer with the girl in the layers palette.

Let's transform the girl's hair a little. To do this, again use the “Quick Selection Tool” W (“Quick Selection Tool”) with a size of 10px:

Select the hair as shown below:

On a new layer, fill the selection with white. Deselect -Ctrl+D.

Then use a soft eraser to remove top part fills as shown below:

Change the blending mode to “Overlay” in the layers palette, reduce the layer opacity (Opacity) to 90%:

Here's what happened at this stage:

Duplicate this layer - Ctrl+J, set the blending mode to “Overlay”, move it down a little, as shown below:

Step 6 - Adding Details

Photo styling is coming to an end.

Let's add the finishing touches: using a brush from the "Debris brush" set, draw small particles around the girl (don't forget to reduce the brush size):

To add color to the image, add a “Vibration” adjustment layer with the following settings:

Ready! This is what we got as a result of the lesson:

The stylized portrait in Photoshop is ready. I hope you enjoyed my lesson and found it useful.

Hello, my dears!
My first lesson is dedicated to quick skin retouching and photo stylization.

Over time, as I mastered Photoshop, I came to the conclusion that everyone has their own way of working in it. Simple things (for example, selecting objects, color correction, etc.) are done differently by any user, depending on what is more convenient, faster, or even more aesthetically pleasing. Not to mention complex actions (retouching, stylization). There is no single principle or sequence for carrying out a particular operation. It is precisely guided by my already established (which may seem barbaric to some) methods that I will demonstrate my work and give lessons.

So, the lesson is quite “ancient” (previously it was available only to my students), but little has changed since then... therefore, I will not correct the “mistakes” of that time or add to it - improvise! I'll just show you your principle quick correction and retouching of the face.

The photo we have to work on:

Step 1

Using a “restoring brush”, “patch” or “stamp” we remove skin unevenness: pimples and folds. Using the finger tool, we give the nails the correct shape and reduce the cuticle. This can also be done using the “plastic” filter.

Step 2

We select the model’s skin and, using the “gaussian blur” filter, blur it to the state we need (when flaws, including color ones, will be less noticeable). But the less, the more natural it will look. I admit I retouched this image a long time ago, so I don’t remember anymore exact values specifically for this photo. Something like this..

A well-done step 1 will help you set the minimum blur values. Then, without removing the skin selection, add a little noise (filter-noise-add noise). Here you can experiment and perhaps “dust and scratches” to create a believable skin texture will suit you better. You can use the “Color Contrast” filter to create more emphasis on the edges and to increase sharpness (if your photo needs it).. Don’t forget to check that there are clear eyelashes, shadow transition, etc.. I usually go bold with the retouch layer “eraser”, then I duplicate all the layers, merge them and get a full-fledged common layer.

Step 3

Now comes the fun part! We correct skin color, add color, shadow and light to the image - where they already exist and where they are needed. Complementing makeup. All this is done using a regular brush with 0 hardness and layers with different blending modes and opacity. To create shadows, I use a black/gray brush with a low transparency, paint it over the photo on a new layer in the “overlay” blending mode and then gradually reduce the opacity to a minimum (from 10-25%). I paint the lights with a white brush using the same principle. Thus, a volume is formed and the light-shadow pattern is drawn in more detail. And finally, the color.. I select the desired one with an eyedropper and change it to a slightly more saturated one.. and also paint in the “overlay” mode layer with a slight opacity.

I do everything in separate layers - this gives me the opportunity to correct the “situation” if something happens. The latter method is not always advisable to use, and only for “coloring” small details of a photograph. I highlighted the nail polish color and lipstick(in the figure, layer 9 and layer 10)..
In the end I succeeded..