The Dubai Chronicles

Thursday, August 16, 2007

workflow: pinhole effect

this was taken at the dubai museum in bur dubai when i accompanied new friends for a mini-tour. i asked a friend to take a candid shot of me riding on a cannon. later i realized that it would look nice if we make it antique-looking.

so i decided to make it like taken from a pinhole camera. i used adobe photoshop cs2 for post-processing.

the original shot


curves, saturation and levels adjustment (global)


burning the midtones to let the subject stand out more


more of curve adjustment to have better contrast


the blur part


- duplicate the layer of the desaturated image. next is use radial blur (filter > blur > radial blur) with these options... amount: 3, blur method: spin, quality: best

- use the radial blur filter once again but this time use this settings... amount: 5, blur method: zoom, quality: best



- still on the duplicated layer, we wanted to see the subject more sharper. by applying layer mask (see screenshot), erase the subject using an eraser tool (brush mode, opacity 30%). make sure the color palette is set to default (white foreground, black background).

the final output


- putting the finishing touches, flatten the layers and sharpen the image once again by applying unsharpen mask (filter > sharpen > unsharpen mask) with the settings... amount: 18, radius: 40, threshold: 0
- hue adjustment, add sig

tips:
- we were told that composition is best when off-centered. we break it here. i suggest that you take your subject on the center.
- square format is ideal (1:1 ratio) but not really necessary.
- it works for barren landscapes for an eerie and surreal feel.

What other people think:

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