pencil Portrait

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Hi everyone

I would love to try this technique out but do not know if it's possible in PSE2 - anyone have any ideas of how I could go about mastering the effect?

<http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=3842725>

Many thanks in advance and a merry and peaceful xmas to all.
regards
fran

[Bert_B...@adobeforums.com]

franjo,
Fascinating technique. I read the procedure rather quickly, but it seems to me it should be possible in PSE. Hopefully, others who are more knowledgeable will chime in...
bert

[Leen_...@adobeforums.com]

It is. You can find some of these images on my website too.

I will explain later -if someone else doesnot before me- as I have to leave for the studio now.

Leen

[Paul...@adobeforums.com]

?? :( Looks like it uses curves, channels and history brush, not available in Elements2 'out of the box'

Paul

[Susan_S.@adobeforums.com]

But most of that is not really necessary.
Try this (I haven't yet)
Convert to black and white - (remove color is the easiest way, but you can get fancier if you use a gradient map layer or an add on tool)
Smarten up the image using levels if you don't have curves
Then duplicate the layer
Sharpen the lower layer
Then using the eraser at around fifty per cent opacity erase the top unshrpened layer to allow the shaper bits to show through around mothe and eyes (you could be a bit fancier and use clipped layers as masks or add on masks - but this works)
Flatten and then use dodge and burn as described
Then filter as described

Susan S.
Edit:The filter is actually filter/texture/grain using the soft setting in the grain menu, I think. And it works...

<http://www.users.on.net/sestewart/Softpencil.jpg>

[Grant...@adobeforums.com]

Paul

You can get Curves from many places here is the one I like
http://member.melbpc.org.au/~pshipley/Download.htm

Channels from and curves from
http://www.hiddenelements.com/

History brush is very easy to simulate using channels

Grant

[Dick_...@adobeforums.com]

Susan,

Super shot. I love the way the individual strands of hair just seem to shine!

Dick

[Chuck_...@adobeforums.com]

Ray, you need to look at Susan's beautiful shot in the fourth message in this thread; I believe it's a great example of an image made more powerful by the lack of distracting color.

:-)

Chuck

[Leen_...@adobeforums.com]

Another easy way: make a white layer, put it on top, set the opacity in a way you can see the original image shines through and use the eraser with a large soft brush at about 10-15% and "paint back" what you need. If you remove too much, either undo or repaint with white at a low setting.
Afterwards you can still play with the opacity of the layer or add another white layer at a low opacity.
Next you can apply a soft white brush to paint the corners and edges white.

You don't have to do this in B&W; in colour the effect is very nice and romantic too.

Leen

[Leen_...@adobeforums.com]

One thing is extremely important in high key images according to the classical portrait theory: there sould always be an almost black part somewhere in your image. Usually this point is the eyes and/or the eye lashes.

Tip: when shooting in high key with a digital camera, DON'T overexpose like we always use to do on film. The best way is to underexpose about 1/2 stop for high key and correct or a little overexposure for low key. The rest is done in Photoshop.
I know it sounds odd and against all rules, but I have learned the hard way until somebody explained me this different technique. ;-(

Leen

[Nan...@adobeforums.com]

I read many posts on that thread and these were two of them;

"You should be able to. If you notice, most of the examples posted are nothing more than grayscale or desaturated images, bumped up with a middle level curve adjustment, with a screened layer and the background removed followed by a texture layer. You should be able to accomplish this easily in Elements."

" did the vignette on the color background layer, some levels and brightness/contrast work, and kept it intact as safety, then made a dup layer to use Enhance>Color>Remove Color, and and made a dup of that and put it in overlay mode and adjusted opacity. (I don't know what a "snapshot" in PS is, but dup layers seem to work)."

[Nan...@adobeforums.com]

I copied this from digidaan, though I put it in outline form for my notes. This is his "new" preferred method of converting to black and white...

Black to white conversion
add H/S layer, mode color, no changes
add 2nd H/S layer, set Sat -100
bottom H/S, move Hue slider around
can boost Sat if desired

[Chuck_...@adobeforums.com]

Preferred method of John Paul Caponigro, author of "Adobe Photoshop Master
Class" can be done with Elements using the optional tools. He opens his
image in Photoshop and also creates a new blank canvas of similar
dimensions. Then he copies the individual red, green, and blue channels and
pastes them as three layers in the new canvas. Then he adjusts the
opacities of the individual layers until he achieves the effect he wants.
He also adds layer masks to each channel to enhance the effects. Haven't
tried it yet; need to find a good inmage for experimenting.

[Bert_B...@adobeforums.com]

Fantastic hints and suggestions from you all! So many new things to learn and try...
Thank you, thank you!
Bert

[Susan_S.@adobeforums.com]

In the example I posted I did a conversion to black and white using a gradient map layer - by playing around wih the shades of grey and position of the tabs on the gradient you can do everything with that on a black and white image that curves can.

Susan S

[Chuck_...@adobeforums.com]

Susan, that's a great technique!

[Chuck_...@adobeforums.com]

Susan, re gradient maps: they're a lot of fun, too! Can generate some wild effects by using different gradients in Gradient Map adjustment layers....the opportunities are endless!

Chuck

[Susan_S.@adobeforums.com]

Chuck - if you mean the gradient maps I learnt it from Richard Lynch's Hidden Power book - they are a very powerful tool.

Susan S.

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Susan

What a beautiful pic!

fran

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

My thanks to everyone who posted advice, tips. I'm going to have fun, I hope, trying this project out. Thanks again.

Xmas regards
fran

[Susan_S.@adobeforums.com]

Thanks fran! (child in question is currently running a temperature, poor thing and has been too sick to have Christmas today - which is why I am here rather than eating turkey at my brother in law's!)
Susan S.

[Chuck_...@adobeforums.com]

Hi, Susan: 'Santa' is waiting for the rest of this household to go to bed
so he can wrap some last-minute gifts.... Sorry to hear about your little
one feeling poorly; hope it passes quickly.

Chuck

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Susan

Bless her. Hope she gets better real soon, poor mite. Xmas kisses to her from the UK xxx

fran

[Bert_B...@adobeforums.com]

Fran,
Where do you live in the UK? I have a niece on the IOW whom we have visited many times. I lived in England for a year when I was a bit younger(?) Um, well, in 1960...:)
Bert

[Susan_S.@adobeforums.com]

Thanks fran (I'm in Australia so we get to Christmas first!) I'm an expat londoner tho'

Susan S.

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Bert

Live in Somerset, south of UK, at the moment - beautiful part of the country. I used to live in Portsmouth a short ride away from IOW! Whereabouts in UK did you live?

fran

[Susan_S.@adobeforums.com]

fran - I've been out here 22 years nearly - more than half my life now! If it wasn't for the sick child it would have been a beautiful Christmas day - I can hear the sounds of a traditional backyard post Christmas dinner cricket match going on in the house opposite and smell the barbecues going in the gardens around me. (it's now early evening in Adelaide)

Me, I'm having a ham sandwich for tea - the turkey is the other side of town at my brother in law's place....but I still have the mince pies and the Christmas cake.

Susan S.

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Susan

Lucky you all that sunshine on Xmas Day! I've never visited Australia but would love the photo opportunity. You miss the UK at all and how long have you been in Oz?

fran

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Leen

Just had to compliment you on your exquisite children portraits, totally engrossed with your site on this xmas morn.

best wishes
fran

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Susan

Me, I'm having a ham sandwich for tea - the turkey is the other side of town at my brother in law's place....but I still have the mince pies and the Christmas cake.

Who needs turkey anyway, lol. Enjoy your pies and pud and hope the rest of the festivities, partic for your patient, improve. Soak up some of that sun for me when you can, we're a bit short of it here!

Warm wishes
fran

[Leen_...@adobeforums.com]

Susan, wonderful image. Hope the child gets better soon.

As we start hugging and kissing now, I 'll join. Love and christmas kisses to all of you from Zeeland, the most beautiful part of the Netherlands.

Leen

[Leen_...@adobeforums.com]

Thank you Fran, portraying children isn't that difficult; you just have to love children.
I want to be a Grandfather, but my son keeps telling me he loves the training, but obviously he has other ideas about parents rights!

So I just use somebody elses children as a substitute. ;-)

Leen

[Bert_B...@adobeforums.com]

Fran,
We know Somerset. In fact, we visited a friend there a few years ago. He lives in the little town of Enmore...in "Enmore Castle"...which isn't really a true castle. Do you know Enmore?

When I lived in England back in 1959/60, I was a civilian employee, but I was working on the installation of missile bases in several different areas. I lived in Yorkshire...north of Hull, near Driffield. Also in Rutland, in Lincolnshire, near Lincoln, and in East Anglia...lived on the Lakenheath air base there. My wife and I have been back many times since then, to visit our niece, and just to travel around the UK...Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Lake District...and of course a lot of time in London. We always have a great time, mostly because of the people who are wonderful.
Bert

[Leen_...@adobeforums.com]

Bert, Lakenheath, isn't that this US airbase near Mildenhall where they start testing jet engines only a few hundred yards from your open bedroom window as early as 06.00 AM Monday morning in midsummer?

How I cursed these guys!!!!!!!!!

Leen

[be...@adobeforums.com]

Fran, Bert . .. just following this thread. Wonderful portraits and techniques - I'm learning so much and I have a lot to learn. :)
I haven't been to the UK since the early 70's. I enjoyed my trip - such a wonderful country and people. I have some friends in Kettering Northants and my grandparents lived in Dorset.

beth

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Bert

Haven't visited Enmore, I've heard of it and it's not too far from me, so many places to visit! "...Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Lake District" you've certainly visited some of our most picturesque areas (I tend to favour the beauty of Scotland). A friend of mine is a Yorkshire lass and probably as fiery as those missile sites!

regards
fran

[Bert_B...@adobeforums.com]

Leen,
Yup, that's the place. We actually put some missiles near Mildenhall, which is (was) a MATS base...Military Air Transport Service...big cargo planes. Lakenheath was a SAC base...warplanes.
Lakenheath is not too far from Cambridge, as I recall.
East Anglia is very beautiful out by the coast, but my favorite was Yorkshire...Bridlington and Scarborough.
Well, I agree with Fran that Scotland is very beautiful too. We took our daughter out to the Isle of Skye as a college graduation present...almost twenty years ago. I still remember the wild beauty of Skye...and the wild night life in the ceilidh parties. (I think I spelled that right)
Bert
EDIT: I had a 35mm Agfa camera back then, my first decent camera, and I still have a lot of slides from my England days back in 1960.

[Paul...@adobeforums.com]

Bert

I was born in Scarborough and didn't leave 'till my early 20's. I still go back to visit my family quite often, and it hasn't changed much from when I was growing up, although a lot of things seem smaller than I remember, LOL.

There are some beautiful timeless villages on the North Yorkshire moors, where on a summers day you can while away the hours sitting outside the local pub, a few pints of local brewed beer (not too warm), a large ploughman's lunch, listeneng to the stream babbling beside the main street and chatting to everybody about nothing in particular. And you can still do it.

Paul

[fra...@adobeforums.com]

Paul

You certainly can, the UK is generally, on the whole, still a friendly place - you can still find people to natter away to! Wherabouts in USA(?) are you? It seems there's not many from the UK on this forum which surprises me really, as a trip into my local Jessops proves otherwise :-)

regards
fran

[Bert_B...@adobeforums.com]

Paul,
A ploughman's...complete with Brampton Pickle...and a pint. One of my favorite lunches. And, you're right about pub conviviality. Much different from American bars.
In York, they make an ale called Theakston's Old Peculiar which I really enjoy. A few years ago, I was at a local market here in the States, and parked in front was a perfectly restored old Triumph TR-3. The license number was "OLPKULR."
Bert

[Grant...@adobeforums.com]

Please include me in on the ploughman's and a pint. I might just have to
make it down to the Winchester's Arms as the Melton Mowbray and a pickle
onion are call my name.

Grant

[Wendy_E_...@adobeforums.com]

Hi Fran,

I originally came from Lancashire but ended up in the Midlands because of my job .... there are a few of us on the forum from the UK but as you say not that many :)

Wendy

[Mac_Mc...@adobeforums.com]

> Theakston's Old Peculiar ...

I was over in North England (Hull area) and Scotland for a month, years
ago.
Consumed quite a bit of that.
Now I AM Old Peculiar :-)

Mac

[Bert_B...@adobeforums.com]

Now I AM Old Peculiar

Me too, Mac...must've been that stuff that did it...
EDIT: I lived in Driffield for a couple months...back in 1959. It's a few miles north of Hull. Had a girlfriend in Hull.....used to go over to a dance hall in Bridlington not far from Hull.
:)
Bert

[Leen_...@adobeforums.com]

Yorkshire is my favourite part of the UK and although I almost completely quit drinking alcohol, I love to make an exception for Old Peculiar.
Two years ago I lectured in Hambleton near Selby and I was rather disappointed it was impossible to have a pint of OP.

I've spent several holidays in Wharfedale (the lovely village of Appletreewick) and in Swaledale (Reeth) and Wensleydale (Aysgarth),
One of the images I took of the wonderful Limestone Pavement near Conistone (Wharfedale) even won me a Gold Award in the BIPP National Print Competition.

At home, I listen to good music on a Wharfedale loudspeaker set!
Moreover, I have an appointment to have a portrait of my wife and me taken in Yorkshire, a little outside Leeds!

Leen

[Bert_B...@adobeforums.com]

a little outside Leeds

If I remember correctly, Leeds people have a very strange local vernacular...the only thing I remember is that a sidewalk is called a "causeway."
:)
bert