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JD Anderson | all galleries >> My Absolute Favorites > October 21, 2004
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October 21, 2004

"Jonah's Eyes Again..."
Just playing a little in Photoshop. You can see this shot posted with the original in my Photo Retouching gallery.

Here is how I did it:
I started by shooting this 2/3 stops overexposed. I adjusted the levels on the original to lighten the light areas even more. I then converted to BW using calculations in Photoshop. I used gray, red, screen at 65%. I duplicated the BW layer and again adjusted levels on the BW layer (top one) and blew the highlights even more, and increased the blacks to get the shading I wanted as well as the high contrast in the eyebrows. This made the eyes way too dark, which I expected. That's why I kept an original of the BW layer. I made a loose selection around the eyes on the original BW layer and copied them to their own layer (on top). I adjusted levels to really increase the whites and slightly darkened the blacks. That did not give enough of an effect, so I used the dodge tool to lighten the light parts of the iris, and I used the burn tool to darken the dark parts of the iris. I used the eraser with a very soft edge brush and erased around the eyes to get rid of the transition lines. I then flattened the image, and duplicated the layer. I changed the top layer to multiply blending mode and reduced the opacity to 30%. That gave me even more contrast. I flattened the image again, and duplicated once more. I ran the color pencil filter in Photoshop on the top layer, and reduced the opacity of that layer to 20%. I flattened one more time, then ran FM Intellisharpen (Photoshop actions and plug ins availabe at www.fredmiranda.com) with the settings at 80 and fine detail at 24, zero halo. Oversharpening is what gave me the pixelated/grain look. The left eye was narrower than the right in his expression, so I selected his left eye, copied to a new layer, and used the transform tool to increase the vertical to 104.5%. I then used the soft edged eraser to get rid of the transition lines again. That is pretty much it... Hope you like it!


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Dan the Man21-Dec-2007 13:13
Excellent work! This picture really tell a story...I love it! Bravo!
D. 07-Jun-2006 20:43
Stunning! Absolutely breath taking. Best image I've seen on Pbase.
Guest 28-Mar-2006 16:51
very nice effect! Voted
Gonzalo Garcia de Viedma17-Oct-2005 17:01
Impressive !!
Thank you very much to share with us your great work.
Congratulations
Chris22-Oct-2004 03:27
Really nice work
Pepe Zyman21-Oct-2004 21:27
This is an incredible image!
jude21-Oct-2004 20:34
love the treatment on this.. and the beautiful eyes which look a bit evil as well
Guest 21-Oct-2004 20:33
great eyes (and great PS work...)
ciao
Andrea
Guest 21-Oct-2004 20:14
Fantastic!
Almost spooky!
Guest 21-Oct-2004 20:04
what a pose. Excellent eyes.
Kaye-Louise Harvey21-Oct-2004 20:03
Very eye catching.... Great photo! kaye
Gary Blanchette21-Oct-2004 20:02
Those are really an intense pair of eyes!
Graham Whitehead21-Oct-2004 19:58
Very striking shot, great definition and use of contrast. I love it and it gets my vote.