The New Process
Photoshop features you'll need:
- Layers and Adjustment Layers
- Blending Modes
- Filters
- Channels (created by saving selections)
- Gradients
1 Original
This is an image of Carla looking out from the walls of Edinburgh Castle. I tried to avoid doing bad things to her complexion or obscuring too many facial details. This was tough since we have to simulate light fall-off (vignetting) as well as focus fall-off, and rather pronounced grain.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
2 Vignetting
I created a layer above the original, and created a radial Gradient: white inside to black at the edges. I set the layer's Blend Mode to Multiply.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
3 Defocus
I created a duplicate of the original background layer for this filter, in case I messed it up. To create an effective loss of focus, with the added difficulty of making it asymmetrical, I used Photoshop CS's new Lens Blur filter. To be most effective, it requires a channel that indicates which areas should be most and least in focus.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
3a The Defocus Channel
To create the spare channel that controls the blur, I created a mid-sized rectangular marquee slightly left of center. I clicked the Save Selection as Channel button at the bottom of the Channels palette.
I then blurred the resulting channel.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
3b
To better see where the sharp areas (which I controlled with white on the new channel), I activated the "eyeball" on the new channel as well as the R, G, and B channels. This creates the orange overlay effect here, where orange/red stands in for black on the channel. I blurred to taste.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
3c
The Lens Blur filter allows us to choose the channel (I called mine "focus control") and which tone on it corresponds to the area that should be sharp. I chose 255 for white. Try sliding that slider around and seeing different areas fall out of focus.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
4 "Grayscale"
I didn't really want the image to be grayscale, since I needed it to have the coloration of a real lith print. What I wished to do was to affect which colors in the original contributed more to the virtual grayscale image. I often use Hue/Saturation to do this, but for fun, I chose to create a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
4a
I balanced it in this way to lighten and keep smooth the skin tones, since I was about to add a boatload of graininess.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
5 Grain
I filled a new layer with 50% gray (Edit menu > Fill). I then ran the filter Texture > Grain and chose an appropriate type and amount. I believe I chose "Contrasty" as Grain type. Still, I needed more intensity. I set the layer's Blend Mode to Overlay and the Opacity to about 65% (Your mileage may vary). Then I did a Levels adjustment, pulling in the white and black points to enhance the grain. Later, if I need to, I can always then adjust the Opacity up or down.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
5a
Overlay makes the middle gray invisible on the Grain Layer. Only the variation from that mean is left. This works for me. (Incidentally, I made sure this layer was below the Channel Mixer adjustment layer so I wouldn't get distracted by the colorful bits left by the Grain filter.)
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
6 Toning
To add the tone and color indicative of a lith print, I created a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer above all. A lot of clicking ensued: first on the Add Adjustment Layer button, choosing Gradient Map. This cool feature "maps" a color in a gradient to tones in the underlying layers. So if you wanted dark red overlaid on your highlights and light green over your shadows, you'd create a light green to dark red gradient (left to right respectively).
Clicking on the gradient preview gives us the Gradient Editor. For this effect, I wanted a bit of subtlety. Notice the colors at the left and right are pulled in a bit. This will effectively clip both the shadows and highlights as I noted in lith prints. Working from left to right: I made the darkest end straight black. I created another color stop and made it 79R 76G 45B (in Adobe RGB). Another I made 196R 188G 179B. The "white" end I made 255R 251G 236B. Perhaps the dark one should be a bit browner than black. Maybe next time.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
7 The final Result
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
7a
The layer stack at the end of it all.
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.
8 A "Cyanotype" Variant
Just a different Gradient Map Adjustment Layer makes this easy. Make something up!
Copyright ©2005 Luminous Works LLC, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all images and text in this web site are protected by United States and international copyright laws. Any reuse or capturing of work without prior authorization by Luminous Works, LLC [http://luminousworks.com] is forbidden. No images are in the Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright. Printing this page is allowed only for personal, educational use and not for distribution.