Björke Photography

© Björke Photography 2012

© Björke Photography 2012

© Björke Photography 2012

I tend to do nearly every curves adjustment layer in Photoshop individually, depending on the photo, but every now and then I’ll save one that I really like. I could call this deep, moody, purple and faintly pink toned setting something romantic like “Midnight Princess” or “Colors to Make Love to Your Old Lady By,” or something equally cheesy, but I’m already stocked up on cheese in my fridge, so instead it’s just crossproccess3. Note that I can’t spell “process”.  Enjoy.

After posting this photo, I’ve gotten numerous comments remarking how sketch-like it was and wondering how it was done. I haven’t done a tutorial in a while, so…bottoms up! 

I didn’t feel like redoing the same image, so I chose another one that I took in the same cam-whoring session. Both these photos were taken in simple, diffused window light. The light in the photo is important to the effect—things need to be exposed evenly. Click the screenshots for a larger view. 

Now, I need to you click the Channels tab on the Layers palette. Here you will see an RGB channel, and the Red, Green, and Blue channels separately. An RGB image is a composite of, obviously, all the Reds, Greens, and Blues in the picture. Each pixel is a combination of different percentages or each. The programming in our precious Photoshop doesn’t actual “see” direct color though, so the numbers that make up the color percentages of each pixel are determined through the 3 separate B&W channels that Photoshop does see, using the amount of grey in the channel as a filter for how much of the color would shine through into the full composite image. 

Above, I’ve displayed all three channels of the image I’m working with. You can see that skin tones etc. that have warmer, more red colors, are very light in the Red channel, but not so much in the Green and Blue. If this were, say, a photo of the ocean, the Blue channel would be primarily light instead. How I’m using the channels here is to manually define the tones in the finished B&W image. I want the glowing, lighter tones for the hair and eyes, and the detailed, darker tone for the skin, so I’ll be using the Red and the Blue channels.

Click on the Red channel to display it, then Select All, Copy, click back to RGB and back to the Layers tab, and Paste. Repeat for the Blue channel.

Now your Layers palette should look something like this. Your original, a B&W Red copy, and a B&W Blue copy. The trick to mixing the two B&W layers is using a Layer mask. Select the top layer, then click the Layer Mask icon on the Layers palette (circled—or Layer»Layer Mask»Reveal All). This will give you an essentially empty canvas next to your layer that you can draw on with the brush tool to define what shows and what doesn’t. Make sure you’re painting with black to mask parts of the layer off, and white white to bring them back. The great thing about Layer Masks is that you can always change your mind without permanently erasing the actual layer!

I masked off the hair and eyes by drawing over them in the Layer Mask, as you can see in the thumbnail. You can also change the opacity (circled—essentially the strength) of your brush while painting for a less severe mask in certain places or however you see fit. Now the parts of the layer that I didn’t mask off—the skin primarily—are darker like they are in the Blue channel, while the masked off parts allow the lighter Red channel to show through.

When you’re satisfied, merge the B&W layers together (Layer»Merge Down).

To even out the tones even more, I created a Curves layer to very slightly decrease the contrast, by making my brights darker, and my darks brighter.

Now, to get “sketchy.” Make a copy of your B&W layer, and then you’re going to apply the High Pass filter (Filter»Other»High Pass). As I’m writing this, my husband leans over and says, “High pass filters are for music, dummy,” and he’s right! In music, a high pass filter is used to only allow certain high frequencies through the amplifier. In the case of Photoshop, the “frequencies” allowed by the High Pass filter are the concentrated high contrast ares, like edges. The filter then boosts the saturation in these areas. The High Pass filter is especially useful in that it only affects the edges and details of an image, allowing you to sharpen just those and reduce noise sharpening in broader areas like skin.

When you choose High Pass, a window will pop up with a preview of the image and a slider prompting you to choose your radius in pixels. With a smaller radius your details will be more defined, and with a wider radius they’ll be, well, wider. For this layer I’m choosing a wider radius. How little or big you choose to go depends on the size of your image, and of course, you! Play with it.

Once your filter has been applied, go to your Blending Mode menu on the Layers palette (it should say “Normal” to begin with). You’ll want to choose either Soft Light, Overlay, or Hard Light (circled). I recommend either Overlay or Hard Light as they create a more drastic effect, and you can then modulate that with the layer’s opacity (circled). 

I then repeat this process by creating another copy of the original B&W layer and applying the High Pass filter again, this time with a smaller pixel radius.

As a finishing touch, I create another Curves layer to just slightly boost the contrast, and….

You’re done!

• They rather hold their bulky camera, than hold hands with you.
• On a romantic date, you’ll watch the sun go down and think “Wow this is gorgeous” and they’ll go “mirror lock, tripod, and stop down f/8 at 1/125.”
• You’ll never be able to enjoy tv, movies, or magazines because they’ll point out all the visual flaws.
• They like to sit in obscure coffee shop and voyeuristically watch people for great lengths of time.
• If you’re taking a walk outside and you come across some “interesting light” they will make you sit/stand/pose in public so that they can take a photo.
• You’ll never get to enjoy freshly cooked meals because they’ll spend 15 minutes taking 20 variations of the same dish with their iPhone.
• They get angry when your friends go up to them and say “I am interested in photography, can you recommend a good camera for me?  Nothing professional I just want to take pretty pictures.”
• You’ll wait longer for them to finish analyzing art in a museum than you’ll wait at the dmv
• Same goes with old used bookstores.
• When you think they’re giving you their undivided attention, they’re really wondering how they could fix you with a little Clone Tool and Patch Tool.
• Or they are actually using you to not look so creepy as they people watch everything going on around you.
• They rather drop $1,000+ on new glass than a purse for you. 
• You can’t take a photo with them without taking at least five more.
• If you ask them if you look fat, they’ll say “don’t worry I can photoshop you later.”
• They’ll never photoshop something simple for you if the content is not up to their “standards.”
• That photo they randomly took of you yesterday?  Good luck getting them to send it to you.
• They spend all their time on the computer (and not for porn.)
• They can’t have a normal conversation with throwing acronyms and random numbers.
• They still use film cameras.
• They spend a lot of time with people cooler than you i.e. models, actors, musicians, successful rich people.
• They’ll be fussy over the position of a common household object, like a coffee cup.
• They won’t return your calls or text messages, but you can bet they’re still posting pics on Instagram.
• They like watching old films that you’ve never heard or will ever understand.
• They like looking at weird things in general.
• Instead of having penis-envy, they have camera-gear-envy.
• If there’s a natural disaster in a far away land, they’re already on a plane going over there.
• Everything is watermarked.
• They think everyone else’s photos suck.
• They want to color correct a lot of scenes from Twilight and Jersey Shore.
• They hate rainbows, especially ones spinning in a circle.
• Whenever you’re in a group talking and the conversation goes deep, they’re taking notes in some form of Moleskin.
• They use over priced Moleskin notebooks.
• They like trespassing into old abandoned buildings filled with health hazards.
• They always want to show a new photo they took, but don’t really care if you like it or not.
• They hate your n00bie friend’s new artsy profile picture.
• Bright, sunny days make them sad, but cloudy, overcast days are apparently great!
• They’ll take you into places that have “culture” as well a high chance of getting mugged.
• Your birthday present will be a portrait that they’ve taken of you.
• You can’t go anywhere new without them stopping to take a photo of everything and anything.
• They will always bug you to be a test subject.
• Nothing can ever be naturally pretty, everything must be fixed in Photoshop.
• Bringing their camera means, bringing 50lbs of equipment.
• If you break any of their things on accident, you’ll owe them thousands of dollars.
• You can’t get them a birthday/Christmas present without spending at least $500
• They are natural hoarders, collecting and keeping piles of old newspapers, packaging, magazines, and other things that “inspire” them.
• They are weird and geeky.
• They have hard drives of photos, but probably have printed 10 images.
• They are always secretly judging your creativity.
• If you’re ever in auto mode, they laugh at you.
• They orgasm every time they learn a new lighting technique.

© Björke Photography 2012 

Spice up your Valentine’s Day with some sexy photos for your sweetheart

© Björke Photography 2012 

Promotional shoot for Iqwak Bhurji’s new album Klasikhz: For the Record
Album consists of bhangra remixes. Available for free download at his website: http://klasikhzmusic.com/

© Björke Photography 2012
 

© Björke Photography 2011