What is this effect called?

[Mark6319]

I'm a long-time lurker and can usually find an answer to my own questions either on here or search engine results. With this particular question, I've literally never been able to get a response elsewhere.

 

So, I've been going thru some old 1024x768 wallpapers I have to convert some to regular wide-screen. This one always has fascinated me. Is this effect available in PDN or is it a PS thing? And what is it called?

 

[Djisves]

If I understand you right, there are many ways to achieve this effect.

The simplest is to use a plugin called Cyanotype, part of KrisVDM's Plugin Pack.

Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and Adjustments > Curves will give you more control as would plugins such as Color Balance, Gradient Mapping, Duotone Ink on Paper and many others (Plugin Index). 

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Djisves
better example image

[Welsh Yellow Cheddar]

If you transform your photo to black and white first and then you use the Color ramp... adjustment plugin, you may obtain something like you want.

[Mark6319]

Thanks for the tips. I own Gigapixel and enlarged the image. For this particular one, the source isn't very good so the enlargement isn't as good as most images I've enlarged. But for the sake of my post, here's my results.

 

Cyanotype

 

 

Color Ramp

Edited May 1, 2021 by Mark6319

[Mark6319]

Okay, I got another one that has always got my curiosity. There's a dreamy haze around the subject. What is that and how is it done?

Edited May 7, 2021 by Mark6319

[ardneh]

For the airbrushed look check the pdf of this tutorial.

https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/12937-how-to-airbrush-like-a-professional-lets-try-this-again/
 

[lynxster4]

Also try 'Dream' effect from @BoltBait's plugin pack found here.

 

If you already have his pack, the effect is found under the Artistic Menu.  🙂

 

[IHaveNoName]

The original photo looks to me a fairly simple monochrome image taken with a, I'd guess, medium telephoto lens at a fairly wide aperture giving a fairly shallow depth of field. 

 

If you look the nose, eyelashes (extensions?) and the stalk of the cherry, they're all slightly out of focus as a result of the latter.

 

In portraits the eyes, 99% of the time, must be in sharp focus but other elements can be slightly soft (like the tip of the nose) without it compromising the image. The out of focus softness of the hair at the left and right edges actually frames the photo quite pleasingly and helps focus your attention on the face and eyes.

 

My thoughts are that this is a black and white image either originally or post production that has had the contrast raised and the colour changed using PDN type tools, as others have also suggested. I'd go with it being something simple in the Adjustment menu tool-set: perhaps Hue/Saturation or Color Balance but it could be more complex and done using the Curves tool.

 

I'm suspicious of both the highlights in the eyes and those on the cherry having been digitally added or enhanced in some way. It could even just be a sparkly custom contact lens. Many celebrities who might have to wear glasses in real life wear contacts for photo-shoots etc.

 

Of course even those purely photographic effects mentioned can be done post production using PDN or similar; a bit of graduated blur at the right and left edges and sharpening of the eyes, banging up the contrast or otherwise manipulating the image luminance and/or colour profile.   

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by IHaveNoName
typo

[Mark6319]

Thanks for the replies, you all.

 

I'm still a rookie at all of this and learning slowly. This particular effect may be something for me to revisit down the road.

 

I figured that this was an effect that the creator of the wallpaper did, maybe maybe not. Of course, this wallpaper is from the old days (mid-2000s). The creator used to make a ton of walls on celeb forums, so I'm figuring the guy is/was a professional at things. Probably a PS user. I don't PS nor do I own it. I really like PDN.

[TrevorOutlaw]

2 hours ago, Mark6319 said:

 

 

I figured that this was an effect that the creator of the wallpaper did, maybe maybe not. Of course, this wallpaper is from the old days (mid-2000s). The creator used to make a ton of walls on celeb forums, so I'm figuring the guy is/was a professional at things. Probably a PS user. I don't PS nor do I own it. I really like PDN.

 

For the first picture, if you look at it analytically, you would note that Jennifer Aniston's eyes was highlighted with some contrast and the cherry was clearly manipulated to give the effect it is shown. There is a lot of masking that is going on and the end result is stunning.  While other gave you some tips on the tinting, they didn't really touch up on the subtlety of the effect.

 

For the 2nd picture, you can use the Dreamy effect that others linked in to BoltBait's plugin pack, or you could duplicate the layer and run a Gaussian blur, play with the setting, but I would keep it under 10 and play with the blend modes to achieve the effect you are after.

[MJW]

The "dreamy" version appears to me to have a high degree of the (built-in) Surface Blur effect applied.

 

@MichaelVinther's Laplacian Pyramid Filter can also be used for a similar look.