Photoshop: Freaky Amazing Details

[Sonny]

I was watching an episode of Photoshop User TV and they had special guest Calvin Hollywood. He was showing a technique for achieving "Freaky Amazing Details' much like HDR, Topaz Adjust, or the High Pass filter.

The one major benefit about this technique is it greatly minimizes the halos you often see in the other the techniques mentioned above. So here we go.


1. Open a photo in Photoshop (Background Layer).



2. Make two copies of the Background Layer (Layer 1 & Layer 1 copy).



3. Select Layer 1 & Layer 1 copy. Then go to Layer>New>Group from Layers.





4. Change the Blend Mode of the Group from Pass Through to Overlay.







5. Inside the Group, choose the top layer (Layer 1 copy) and invert the image. Then change the Blend Mode to Vivid Light.









6. Still on the top layer (Layer 1 copy), convert that layer to a Smart Object. Go to Filter>Convert for Smart Filters.




7. Now we need to run a filter. Go to Filter>Blu>Surface Blur.




8. Here's the trick to minimizing the halos. Adjust the Threshold slider until the halos disappear.



These are my results. Just remember...you results may vary.

Before



After

[49884]

Nice! I'll have to experiment with this.

[Redneck]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[Linda Bingham]

Will have to give it a whirl! Thanks for sharing.

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Thanks Sonny! I'm going to try it out as well.

[Sonny]

Aiight peeps, post your results so we can all see your "Freaky Amazing Details"

[jmalbright]

Gave this a quick shot and the results are pretty cool!

Before:



After + a little additional cleanup:

[dmarty78]

Calvin is the king of Photoshop!!

[Sonny]

Looking good Marshall. You might want lower the Threshold slider some more. I can see halos around the mountains in the background and on the railing of the bridge.

[The Philos]

This same effect can be achieved more simply with highpass - I don't see the point here (other than highpass can be a lot to wrap the head around).

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by ThePhilosopher

This same effect can be achieved more simply with highpass - I don't see the point here (other than highpass can be a lot to wrap the head around).

Why do you guys reply in this manner? I didn't say this technique was better than the rest. All I offer is another option. I'm here to help other learn & get more comfortable with their editing programs.

Maybe you like big glowing halos when you use the High Pass filter. That works for YOU. There's nothing wrong with that.

[Richard_B]

Originally Posted by ThePhilosopher

This same effect can be achieved more simply with highpass - I don't see the point here (other than highpass can be a lot to wrap the head around).

I would have to try this out and compare the result to that of highpass, but highpass can achieve remarkable results.

[Joe_Lorenzini]

So here's my attempt. It's a useful technique although you have to find the right subjects to use it on (as with any processing).

Before:


After:


Mine looks a little oversharpened for my tastes and I'd probably mask out the far mountains and keep them more OOF. It's definately a technique to use sparingly and works really well at full size as opposed to web size.

Thanks Sonny,

Joe

[Sonny]

Whoa Joe! Those foreground formations really jump out.

[The Philos]

Originally Posted by Sonny

Why do you guys reply in this manner? I didn't say this technique was better than the rest. All I offer is another option. I'm here to help other learn & get more comfortable with their editing programs.

Maybe you like big glowing halos when you use the High Pass filter. That works for YOU. There's nothing wrong with that.

There's a simple way to avoid halos when using HPF - pay attention to the preview as you slide the radius slider. I sharpen just about every image using HPF, no halos. For me it's less time intensive to mask a HP layer (or stacks of them at various levels) to get exactly the look I'm looking for; the look I see in most of this tutorial is to create an overly-sharpened messes - then again I shoot and edit for print, not for web. These images look great for viewing on web, but what does it do to your fullsize image when you print it at 8x10 or 16x20?

Joe's example is a fine example of what's possible using this technique - it looks like what might happen if you run your photo through Nik's Tonal Contrast, but without the subtlety and control (this seems to be one of the only filters that stumps even some of the best retouchers out there today).