"Photo-Paint" -Crosspost from ModelMayhem

[OperaFan1981]

Ola! Some members are from MM. =) Anyway, I used to be a lurker here when I first started teaching myself photography and retouching two years ago and it has helped me alot.

Here are some stuff that I shared for the MM folks that recently got interested in Mr. August Bradley's style. http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=368397

I do not claim that I got the "look", but it is a variant that I can call my own and hopefully it will help some to be inspired and experiment.

My TIFF file: http://www.ronaldntan.com/temp/Crosby-2-205.zip

Lit with 22" Speedotron BD with 30-degree honey comb grid aimed high-low placed as my left.

Best in health,

[julianmarsalis]

Awesome work as always but this R-channel edges has me lost any details you care to share about it?

[dougly]

What did you do on the "R Channel Find Edges layer?" When turning this layer off "the look" goes away, this is the layer that makes the look. Can you please explain the "R Channel find edges" layer?

[OperaFan1981]

I also replied to the corresponding MM thread I started:

The R-Channel layer is the "magic" layer of my file. Because if you remove or hide it, the l.c.e effects dissipates.

I can't remember exactly what steps I took, this was during one of my experimental phases that I was doing in photoshop that I liked the effects.

Here is what I think I did to create that R-channel layer.

1. I merged all the preceding layers via the CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + E to create a merged composite.

2. Using this newly merged comp layer, I decided to work with its R-channel. Press CTRL + 1 (or 2, 3 to cycle through the monochromatic channel components to see which one might be good for your particular image).

3. I duplicated the R-channel (Rt. clk duplicate) and applied the "Find Edges" filter under the Stylize menu of Photoshop. You should now have a "Red copy" channel in your Channel palette and it should look like a detailed "pencil sketch."

4. You just made a mask. Now fine tune a but by a Gaussian blur of 5 pixels. and CTRL click to select it. Now you will see marching ants.

5. Now, click the merged composite layer and with the marching ants, press CTRL + J to copy the selected onto a new layer. This is how I got that "R-Channel Find Edges" layer.

6. Set this to luminance and do some local contrast enhancement (lce) via the USM at 50, 30, 0 and adjust to taste.

Someone on MM asked me why not the G or the B, why R?

I responded:

I can't provide a firm justification, but at the time, I was thinking that I wanted to make Crosby's upper torso pop out and I knew the R-channel contains the most information towards skin color and contains the most contrast.

Please try repeating the procedure with the G or the B channel and share if you arrived with similar results.

[OperaFan1981]

The "This" is referring to the layer you will copy to a new layer. The previous step was building a mask using the R-channel and using the Find edges filter.

Once the masked image information from the merged composite layer (when you CTRL + ALT + SHF + E) is copied onto a new layer via the CTRL + J, you will set this to luminosity blending mode and run a USM to taste.

Here, you are making Crosby's upper torso pop out. The trick is not to over do it. Just a minute amount to slightly enhance the overall appearance.

I hope this helps.

--Ron

[blaskica]

Thanks, I am a bit slow tonight. I got it. Works great!!!

[julianmarsalis]

Thanks for the info thats awesome great work as always...