Creative Effects Challenge No 241 - Chiaroscuro Look
Nov 23, 2024 18:17:56 GMT
hmca, Lillias, and 1 more like this
Post by Andy on Nov 23, 2024 18:17:56 GMT
In art, Chiaroscuro is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrast effecting the whole composition. (Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro)
I actually used ChatGPT to try creating a tutorial for this. It did a surprisingly thorough job, but made a number of errors. So the below tutorial is the ChatGPT one modified by me so that it would work.
For an image, I found it is important to start with one that doesn't have a bright area that you don't want to emphasize (for example, an image with a bright sky makes it hard to produce the intended result.).
I hope this is fun for everyone! Please post back if I made any mistakes or if you have suggested improvements!
Step 1:
1. Open Your Image
Step 2: Duplicate the Background Layer
1. In the Layers panel, right-click on the Background layer and select Duplicate Layer.
2. Rename the duplicated layer as “Chiaroscuro Adjustment” or simply leave it as "Layer 1".
Step 3: Convert the Duplicated Layer to Black and White
1. With the duplicated layer selected, go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color.
2. This will convert your duplicated layer to a black and white version of the image.
Step 4: Apply the "Levels" Adjustment
1. Go to Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels.
2. A Levels adjustment window will pop up. Move the middle (gray) slider to the right to increase the contrast and deepen the shadows. You are going to apply a layer mask to this, so I went pretty intense with the settings. You want to achieve a generally dark image with a lot of contrast.
Step 5 (optional)
1. Add a Brightness/Contrast layer for added effect
Step 6
1. Apply a layer mask to the Levels layer
2. Set the foreground color to black and select a brush (I used standard soft edge brush, but you can experiment with artistic brushes).
3. Set a low opacity and paint where you want to brighten the image. I found it worked best using a very large brush and just clicking once over the areas to brighten (rather than painting over it).
4. If you created a brightness/contrast layer, you can similarly mask out portions of it (as a shortcut, click on the layer mask for the Levels adjustment, hold Alt (OPT on a Mac), and drag the layer mask to the Brightness/Contrast layer
Step 7 (optional)
1. If you want to bring back the color in the image
2. Duplicate the background layer
3. Move it to the top of the layers
4. Change the Blend Mode to Color
Step 8 (Optional)
1. If you want to add a little more artistic effect
2. Alt-Ctrl-Shift-E to create a new merged layer
3. I found good results with the Accented Edges filter. The settings varied greatly based on the image I used
4. You can adjust the layer opacity to get the desired look
5. I didn't have much change to play around with this, but I think you could get some interesting results by changing the blend mode on this layer.
I actually used ChatGPT to try creating a tutorial for this. It did a surprisingly thorough job, but made a number of errors. So the below tutorial is the ChatGPT one modified by me so that it would work.
For an image, I found it is important to start with one that doesn't have a bright area that you don't want to emphasize (for example, an image with a bright sky makes it hard to produce the intended result.).
I hope this is fun for everyone! Please post back if I made any mistakes or if you have suggested improvements!
Step 1:
1. Open Your Image
Step 2: Duplicate the Background Layer
1. In the Layers panel, right-click on the Background layer and select Duplicate Layer.
2. Rename the duplicated layer as “Chiaroscuro Adjustment” or simply leave it as "Layer 1".
Step 3: Convert the Duplicated Layer to Black and White
1. With the duplicated layer selected, go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color.
2. This will convert your duplicated layer to a black and white version of the image.
Step 4: Apply the "Levels" Adjustment
1. Go to Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels.
2. A Levels adjustment window will pop up. Move the middle (gray) slider to the right to increase the contrast and deepen the shadows. You are going to apply a layer mask to this, so I went pretty intense with the settings. You want to achieve a generally dark image with a lot of contrast.
Step 5 (optional)
1. Add a Brightness/Contrast layer for added effect
Step 6
1. Apply a layer mask to the Levels layer
2. Set the foreground color to black and select a brush (I used standard soft edge brush, but you can experiment with artistic brushes).
3. Set a low opacity and paint where you want to brighten the image. I found it worked best using a very large brush and just clicking once over the areas to brighten (rather than painting over it).
4. If you created a brightness/contrast layer, you can similarly mask out portions of it (as a shortcut, click on the layer mask for the Levels adjustment, hold Alt (OPT on a Mac), and drag the layer mask to the Brightness/Contrast layer
Step 7 (optional)
1. If you want to bring back the color in the image
2. Duplicate the background layer
3. Move it to the top of the layers
4. Change the Blend Mode to Color
Step 8 (Optional)
1. If you want to add a little more artistic effect
2. Alt-Ctrl-Shift-E to create a new merged layer
3. I found good results with the Accented Edges filter. The settings varied greatly based on the image I used
4. You can adjust the layer opacity to get the desired look
5. I didn't have much change to play around with this, but I think you could get some interesting results by changing the blend mode on this layer.
