Adding additional subtle detail in Photoshop

[sea2stars]

Not sure if this would be useful to anyone else, but it's been something I've been using when time is of the essence to eek a bit more detail out of a rendered image.

1. Duplicate your background layer in Photoshop
2. Desaturate your new layer 1 and then duplicate that
3. Invert Layer 1 copy
4. Change Layer 1 copy's blending mode to Color Dodge
5. Apply Filter- Other- Minimum
6. Collapse the top two layers and apply Multiply, 30% opacity is a good starting point

It's subtle but I think it helps.

[glyph]

interesting - not far off 'unsharp mask' but seems a bit richer and without the harsh edges that can give

[cyrille32]

That is one clever trick, thank you for the tip.

[PsychoSilence]

Sweet! Thank you for that tip. just tried it on an older render. adds good detail

cheers,
Anselm

[tct70]

Very cool. Thanks!

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Any chance to see example pic and clear pic ?

Thanx

[sea2stars]

Sure. Here you go.

[dbuchhofer]

Another controllable sharpen method, basically the same idea:

1 - duplicate the layer
2 - (optional) Convert to smart layer
3 - High pass filter
4 - Overlay blending mode
5 - tweak your high pass radius, and your layer opacity to control the amount of sharpening
6 - paint yourself a mask to have different levels of sharpening on different parts of the image.

[glorybound]

Yes. Subtle, but nice! I just tried it.

[MoonDoggie]

I just tried it as well. I was so curious I just had to see it. I like it as a starting place definitely.

[Spikeadeliv]

Excellent, used it already, can also create a 'pencil sketchy' feel as well!

laters

spike

[pg1]

great tip, thanks

[sea2stars]

I'm glad that it's of benefit.

So far I've found it to be useful for stills only; too many issues when compiling video frames run through a batch. Then again, I haven't moved far into the realm of HD video yet.