Contrast Masking

23 February, 2008 03:37:00 Another World

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Hope no one minds, but as we were just discussing it on another thread, I though I would post this very simple tutorial. Its a technique for improving depth or detail and colours in an image without the need for clever HDR stuff and can be applied straight to jpgs off the camera. Its not a technique I have mastered by any means, only just discovered it, but if these forums are for anything, I think its for learning together.

So, the image I started with was this one, straight from the camera.

Create a duplicate layer [CTRL & J]and then desaturate this copied layer[imagemenu>adjustments>desaturate].
Invert this desaturated layer to give a black & white negative of the background image.[image menu>adjustments>invert]
Change layer mode to Overlay.[layers panel, use drop down box where it usually says 'normal', and choose 'overlay]
Apply a Gaussian Blur Filter to this layer. The level applied will depend on the size of the image. I used about 70 for this image but you will need to experiment.[filter menu>blur>gaussian blur, and adjust slider accordingly]

The opacity of the layer should be altered to get the desired lighting effect. [layers panel, slide opacity setting down] - this could be anything between about 30% and 70%, or even more, but again, its experimental for each image, so remember to use the undo function and try again if you dont like it.After this, apply any saturation or other editing you want [for this image I increased saturation by a small amount] and flatten the layers

This really is just a basic outline, and much playing can be done to get different levels of effect depending on what you want and the image involved. I have seen it applied incredibly well to 'character' portraits to [you know, those lovely shots of wrinkly old men looking thoughtful] but not yet been brave enough to go that far.

However, the end result was this - bearing in mind this was my first effort too...maybe a little overdone, but it gives you an idea of what can be done very quickly.

I must say many thanks to Gary, a friend from another forum, for the outline of this tutorial, to which I have just added a bit of detail for anyone that is new to photoshop!

A nice, quick and concise tutorial Yvonne, thanks! - GS Team

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Comments (3 posted):

Highwayman on 17 March, 2008 02:27:31

As the GS Team said, a concise tutorial. It struck me that if you're going to do this often, you could record steps 1 to 4 as an 'action' in Photoshop, so that you get to that stage quickly, before you start adding the unique touches of blur, opacity and saturation to individual pictures

Tandem on 16 April, 2008 12:47:16

There's so much to learn about Photoshop, it makes a refreshing change to find something like this that keeps it simple. K.I.S.S.
Now would Highwayman care to provide just as simple a tutorial on 'Actions'? Perhaps one as suggested above that effectively automates this particular process. It would be valuable to those of us less experienced with Photoshop than Highwayman obviously is.

Highwayman on 06 June, 2008 03:38:30

Sorry to be slow in responding to Tandem. There's a good video tutorial about Actions at www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/tt/actions-mov.html. Be patient - it starts by talking about batch processing.

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