How to "posterize"?

[Rickenbacker]

Is there an extension that can reproduce this effect? 

[HyReZ]

In the Asmageddon Prince's Tools Pack -v3 is a plugin called Asmageddon_Multiplo Uniqua.dll that does a good job of producing the effect of photo solarization or posterization as it is called.

Note:
Back in 2007 this .dll was listed as a potential virus, but I've had this .dll in my Paint.NET Effects folder for years and today I have run Microsoft Defender, SuperAntiSpyware, and MalwareBytes and on it and his other Effects and no virus/malware has been detected.

I have gone to this thread on in the Paint.NET forum today, but I get corrupt download when I attempt to get the plugin pack.
I hope that the Admins can repair this.
https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/6845-asmageddon-tools-pack-v3/

 

Edited January 15, 2019 by HyReZ
Correcting spelling and adding more nfo!

[Rickenbacker]

Yeah, I'm seeing the corrupt link, too. Guess I'm stuck for now unless there's another option.

I saw the Posterize effect under Adjustments but it's not versatile enough with the colors.

[HyReZ]

The download does load a file that can be accessed if you add a .zip to that crazy character string. 🙂

( While you're at it; you may as well rename the file before adding the .zip extension until they repair the link )

Note:

When the October 2018 update to Windows 10 (the first 1809 version) launched, they quickly took it down

and did not re-issue it until late November because it was causing a problem serving .zip files. This was just one

of many issues with the original version 1809 launch.

 

Edited January 15, 2019 by HyReZ

[toe_head2001]

50 minutes ago, HyReZ said:

... until they repair the link ...

 

The ZIP files have been fixed.

[MJW]

As @HyReZ alludes to, the effect you're after isn't really posterization; it's more like solarization. Ed Henry has a Solarize plugin in his plugin pack. It's not very flexible, though, since it has no adjustments. Dpy's plugin pack contains a Metallize effect that might be useful (uncheck Gray Scale to get color images). Another option is to use pyrochild's Curves+ plugin, from his plugin pack. To use Curves+, select some of the color channels, and set the curve to a wavy pattern. It's basically a more flexible way to achieve the Metallize effect. The Hue/Saturation and Brightness/Contrast adjustments are useful for touching up the modified image. Hue/Saturation+ from BoltBait's plugin pack allows you to modify ranges of colors.

[Rickenbacker]

Thanks, MJW!

 

So, a question - The tricky part is trying to get two colors in the hair. (like George Harrison's orange & green) Any ideas?

[MJW]

19 minutes ago, Rickenbacker said:

Thanks, MJW!

 

So, a question - The tricky part is trying to get two colors in the hair. (like George Harrison's orange & green) Any ideas? 

 

I think it could perhaps be done with Curves+ by running it on the Red channel, with a curve that's very high most places but the goes to zero for some values. Another method is to make a greenish image in a lower layer, and a very punched-up orange image in a higher layer (with perhaps some blurring), then use the Eraser, with a soft setting, to erase some of the red image. In most cases, I don't think the results you want to achieve can be done with a single plugin, just as I doubt the examples you gave were produced in a single step.

[HyReZ]

I must have some vintage plugins. Years ago, I would use the Asmageddon_Multiplo Uniqua.dll by Asmageddon (Which is one of the 29 plugins that installs under the Effects\Asmageddon Tools tab) and the myPhsycocolour2.dll  by jr (found under the Effects\Advanced after it is installed).

Now they are as hard to find as snake feathers.
 

If you can find these two plugins and give them a try them in various setting combinations, you will not be disappointed in the results!

Edited January 16, 2019 by HyReZ

[HyReZ]

Here is a short but contemplated tutorial on methods to produce a solarization effect upon photo.

 

Photo 001 is a cropped Pixabay.com download that has not been otherwise altered by me.

Photo 002 is the result of an alteration by the myPhycocolour2.dll plugin at the settings indicated on the box on the Photo 002.

Photo 003 is the result of Photo 002 after a change of hues at the settings indicated on the box on Photo 003.

 

Photo 004 is the result of using the Color Picker Tool to sample the bright blue on the subjects nose of image 003 and using the GrimColorReaper.dll  plugin to remove that primary color from that image and make it transparent it the area.

Now make this altered Photo 003 the top layer and place Photo 002 directly under it.
I also used the Effects\Object\DropShadow.dll plugin by Kris Vandermotten to add a yellow glow to the edges of the transparent areas of newly altered Photo 003.
Last I merged Photo 003 over Photo 002 to get Photo 004.

Edited January 16, 2019 by HyReZ

[MJW]

Another plugin worth experimenting with is Red ochre's Psychocolour. As you move the slider, it produces a large variety of different color modifications.

[Rickenbacker]

DAAAANG! This mama jamma is HARD to reproduce! Came sorta close with a few tricks but the hair is hard. Played with blending Mode in a different layer to change hair color but it didn't have that bright orange look with the subtle green  & white highlights. (Like Harrison's above)  

 

I think I'd need to somehow do it the way the original artist (Richard Avedon) did it like in the attached photo. Layered one color at a time & then blended.

 

The end result should have that Thresholdy/ Solarized look. 

 

 

 

[HyReZ]

I have seen the original black and white prints from Avedon's August 1967 photoshoot. Back then he would have produce duplicate negatives and used film solarization to get his effect and photo compositing to add textures and symbols as well as to put the hand in the George Harrison image and the hand and dove in the Ringo Starr image.

As you can see in the image that you provided; that Avedon uses the CMYK layers technique that is common in the  professional printing industry. His images were later distributed as poster's.

Paint.NET use sRGB instead of CMYK, but there are some methods for simulating CMYK layering within PDN.

 

https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/3763-rgb-to-cmyk-plugin/

By the time I was studying printmaking in college; we were trying to achieve the effect with lithography and serigraphs.

Thank God for computers! 🙂

 

 

Edited January 17, 2019 by HyReZ
add nfo / correct mistakes

[Rickenbacker]

I'm seeing that Artistic Contour comes Really close. Just that it's got a bit of a learning curve. Also, if I try doing different colors on different layers, it works until its time to merge them. I 1st need to decrease opacity on one of them & that kills the color's intensity. 

SO close! 

[MJW]

On 1/17/2019 at 11:04 AM, HyReZ said:

As you can see in the image that you provided; that Avedon uses the CMYK layers technique that is common in the  professional printing industry. His images were later distributed as posters.

 

One way to do CMYK adjustments is to duplicate the image into four layers. Set the Blend Mode of the upper three layers to Multiply. Run Ed Harvey's Color>Extract Channel plugin on each layer.  On the lowest layer, use the K channel, on next layer, the Y channel (with Grayscale disabled), then M, then C. (Note: the order of the layers really doesn't really matter, but it's easier to keep track of them if a standard order is used.)

[HyReZ]

On that Beatle photo shoot, Avedon shot black and white and made the CMYK layers from a solarized duplicate negative. The rest was trial & error and creative license.

[Rickenbacker]

1 hour ago, MJW said:

 

One way to do CMYK adjustments is to duplicate the image into four layers. Set the Blend Mode of the upper three layers to Multiply. Run Ed Harvey's Color>Extract Channel plugin on each layer.  On the lowest layer, use the K channel, on next layer, the Y channel (with Grayscale disabled), then M, then C. (Note: the order of the layers really doesn't really matter, but it's easier to keep track of them if a standard order is used.)

Ok- did that. (pretty sure I followed that to the letter)...Now what? lol

[MJW]

You can apply different adjustments to each layer.

[Rickenbacker]

I guess I'm lost only because this is my 1st time trying this. 
Am I simply doing  one different color on each level & then merging them?

Using Harrison as the example- greens for one layer, bright orange for another, whites for another & then the very darks?

 

[MJW]

To be honest, I'm not sure how useful a conversion to CMYK is for this sort of thing. The reason I mentioned it at all is that, since the subject of CMYK was brought up,  I wanted to point out that when doing separate CYMK layers, the blend mode for the upper layers needs to be Multiply in order for the layers to combine properly to produce the original image.

 

As a side-note, I'll mention a plugin I wrote called the HSV Scrambler which can be used to produce a wide range of odd color effects.

 

 

[Reptillian]

8 hours ago, HyReZ said:

On that Beatle photo shoot, Avedon shot black and white and made the CMYK layers from a solarized duplicate negative. The rest was trial & error and creative license.

If that's the case, then you would definitely need CMYK. If I had the urge, I would write a G'MIC filter specifically for this task. G'MIC can import files to get around this issue of PDN can't filter multiple layers and lacks CMYK.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Reptillian

[HyReZ]

Back In the 1967 Avedon was using photography and industrial printing techniques and his results were experimental. 
You are trying hit on producing a faithful copy of something that was subjective and serendipitous.
I believe that you could achieve something very close to Avedon's  Beatles poster effect in Paint.NET,

but it may probably be easier to accomplish with an app that supports CMYK.

Note: This may be useful when developing your plugin

"In digital media

Graphs describing solarisation curves typically place input range of tones on the x axis, with black at 0 and white to the right, and the output range of tones on the y axis with black at 0 and white up. A curve then defines the input to output mapping."

From: http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/the-modernist-era/the-influence-of-modern-art/1016-solarisation

Edited January 19, 2019 by HyReZ

[HyReZ]

53 minutes ago, Reptillian said:

If that's the case, then you would definitely need CMYK. If I had the urge, I would write a G'MIC filter specifically for this task. G'MIC can import files to get around this issue of PDN can't filter multiple layers and lacks CMYK.

Above in this thread I included a link to a plugin by BoltBait that generates CYMK layers in a process similar to what MJW described

Here it is again:
https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/3763-rgb-to-cmyk-plugin/
 

Edited January 19, 2019 by HyReZ

[Rickenbacker]

I'm now trying to approach this based on what HyRez wrote: 

 

 "Avedon shot black and white and made the CMYK layers from a solarized duplicate negative."

 

I made the photo b&w, converted it to a negative & solarized that. Up to the tricky part- colors. I guess I'll do one color at a time & erasing where necessary & then merge them.

I'm not sure how to properly use the CMYK technique & I'm not finding any tutorials on video.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Rickenbacker

[HyReZ]

Although Avedon used solarization and CMYK layering, the Beatles graphic contains a bunch of manipulation and most of it is subjective to the artist and the process and will not be easily achieved with a few settings to a plugin in. It was an artistic endeavor that took time and subjective choices, just as you are now discovering. My advice is not to do Avedon, but to do you!

 

Don't worry about Avedon! He was working in a different mediums, photography and commercial printing technology of the late 1960's. CMYK is about preparing works to be commercially printed. Play with the image and software and make something personal and special. Your work in RGB can be converted to CYMK when it is ready to go to print.

Edited January 20, 2019 by HyReZ
inserting additional information