Make your photo vibrant!

[happierhannah]

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

This is my first tutorial, and yes, I'm a newbie to the forum, but I've been fooling around with paint.net for a couple of years now, and I check the forum regularly even though I've just now become a member! So, on with it now.

These are the before and after pics of the photo I'm working with.

This is really quite simple, however, you will need a couple of plugins:

Local Contrast Enhancement (part of Tanel's Plugin Pack)

http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=11619

And Combined Photo Adjustments (which is part of BoltBait's Plugin pack)

http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/8318-boltbaits-plugin-pack-updated-december-12-2011/

Open up your image and click Effects → Photo → Local Contrast and set it to:

Next click Adjustments → Levels and set them to:

Then click Adjustments → Hue/Saturation and set it to:

Last, click Effects → Photo → Combined Adjustments and set it to this:

And my finished result, the before and after:

Some images do better with different settings however, depending on their quality. The first image you see (below) is the original, the second is the one I colourized, and the third is after I made it more vibrant.

The other effects were a bit dramatic on this colorized photo, so I used these ones instead.

Effects → Photo → Local Contrast

Adjustments → Hue/Saturation

And lastly, Effects → Photo → Combined Adjustments

And once again, the finished result:

If this helps even one person - I'll be happy ^_^

 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Nice technique.

Q: how does your method differ from duplicating the layer and setting the blend mode of the upper layer to Multiply?

[happierhannah]

Nice technique. Q: how does your method differ from duplicating the layer and setting the blend mode of the upper layer to Multiply?

I've tried duplicating the layer and setting it to multiply, but I've found that when you do that, the photo looks blurrier, the colours less vibrant, and the photo still looks as if it has a slight gray filmy layer covering it. With my technique it allows the photo to pop out, and become more dimensional, not to mention vibrant

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Your technique certainly does give a photo some 'pop'.

You've linked to the plugins used, posted reasonably sized images and explained everything nicely. Well done on your first tutorial!

[happierhannah]

Your technique certainly does give a photo some 'pop'. You've linked to the plugins used, posted reasonably sized images and explained everything nicely. Well done on your first tutorial!

Thank you!

[HELEN]

There's definitely a difference. I was looking for different methods on how to make photos look better using PDN. I really like this tut. Quick and simple.

[happierhannah]

There's definitely a difference. I was looking for different methods on how to make photos look better using PDN. I really like this tut. Quick and simple.

Glad you like.

[barbieq25]

Great outcomes & a well-written tute.

[nitenurse79]

Well written tute with good results, thanks for this

[happierhannah]

Agreed .... nicely written tut' I just tried it with Overlay instead of Multiply ... reducing opacity and it got the same result But who cares ... good result either way

I just tried that as well, and you're right, the results are similar, but I noticed some differences.

1. When you do the overlay effect some parts of the picture are more saturated (then my way) and some are less saturated, giving it a bit of an unbalanced look.

2. The image isn't as clear. (which could be achieved by adjusting the sharpness but then you're back to more steps again)

3.It still looks very 2-D with a kind of gray, filmy covering over it, not allowing the objects in the picture to present themselves individually.

Thanks for the idea though.

If you follow the link the picture on the left was done using the overlay mode, and the one on the right, using my method.

http://i1251.photobucket.com/albums/hh541/Hannah_Vlasblom/beforeandafter1.jpg

But even just doing the overlay does make a big difference, but doesn't give quite the same results.

[ddlbd]

i know this is an old thread but can anyone tell me why i cant see the pics/screenshots?

[toe_head2001]

13 minutes ago, ddlbd said:

i know this is an old thread but can anyone tell me why i cant see the pics/screenshots?

 

[ddlbd]

ok thank you