Digital Camera - Ken Gilbert

Be bold with the crop
1Open the image named portrait_before.jpg in
Photoshop. For a cool, contemporary crop, select
the Crop tool from the Tools palette and choose No
Restriction from the drop-down menu. Be bold and
confident with your crop and don’t be afraid to make
a radical cut into your subject’s head.
Remove thecolour
3Create another Adjustment Layer, but this time
choose Hue/Saturation from the list of options.
Reduce the Saturation slider to -100 to make the
image black and white. Now change the Blending
Mode to Soft Light. This will increase the contrast
further and some of the colour will also return.
Enhancethe detail
5Make a flattened version of the image as a new
layer at the top of the layer stack by pressing
Ctrl+Alt+Shift and the letter E simultaneously. Now
go to Enhance>EnhanceLighting>Shadows/Highlights
and set Lighten Shadows to 10%, Darken Highlights to
15% and Midtone Contrast to 15%.
Boost the contrast
2Go to Layer>NewAdjustmentLayer>Levels and
increase the contrast by moving the left and right
sliders a little towards the middle of the histogram
and the middle slider a little to the left. Press the Ctrl
key while you’re doing this to avoid losing detail by
clipping the highlights or shadows.
Alterthe opacity
4To remove even more colour, create a second
Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and again set
the Saturation slider to -100. This time, keep the
Blending Mode set to Normal and then set the
Opacity slider to 60%. This will introduce more subtle
hues into your black and white image.
Finishingtouches
6To finish your image, select the Dodge and Burn
tools from the Tools palette and use each tool
in turn to selectively darken and lighten specific parts
of the final image. By subtly burning areas at the four
corners and edges of the image with a large brush
you can draw the viewer’s eye into the frame.
PhotoshopSchool
CREATE DYNAMICPORTRAITS
EXPERT TIP
“Thisisagreat
techniquethat’ssure
to give your portraits
a cool, modern look.
However, it’s worth
considering your
subjectmatterbefore
youstart –it’snot a
flattering effect.While
it hasacertain grizzled
charm anddraws out
thecharacterofa
RamsayorAlanSugar,
it might not go down
quitesowellwithyour
partner or kids!”
Ben Brain, deputy editor
Did you know?
Darkroom effects
The bleach bypass
technique originates
from the traditional film
darkroom. During the
processing of colour film the
bleaching step was skipped.
Put simply, this would result
in a black-and-white image
over the colour one. The
resulting prints would have
muted colours, increased
contrast and film grain.
DigitalCamera July2010
81