Marv…by Marpel on June 1st, 2012, 11:13 pm
Hello Den,
Have been out of the country for quite awhile, or would have requested your help or posted a reply a bit sooner.
Regarding your offer to assist in a workflow adaption - I have been using a PS workflow that seems to bring out amazing detail (in fact it is called "Freaky Detail" - disclaimer - it is not my workflow, but available on the Net) and have often wondered if it could be duplicated in PWP as it is a pain to constantly move back and forth between the two programs.
...1. Create new layer (Ctrl J).
...2. Invert layer (Ctrl I).
...3 Change Blend Mode to Vivid Light (Alt + Shift + V).
...4. Filter > Blur > Surface Blur (5 and 15 seem to work for my images) > OK.
...5. Create new layer (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E, I think).
...6. Delete first new layer.
...7. Change Blend Mode to Overlay (Alt + Shift + O).
This produces some noise in some areas, dependent on the image, which may require a mask to deal with.
The difference between the initial image and resultant image is oftentimes amazing, and I would be interested in what you can do with this, so await your response.
Marv
The basic PWP workflow process for “Freaky Detail” is really only a variation of a High Pass Filter image of a Starting image that is Composite Soft or Hard Light blended; where a modified High Pass Filter image is the Overlay image and the Starting image is the Input image. An Overlay mask of the modified High Pass Filter image [Mask Tool – Brightness Curve default diagonal curve] can be used to perhaps limit the white half of the sharpening to 1/3 of the black half [mask white = 33.3% and mask black = 100.0%] reducing objectionable white half sharpened edges. Also, the Input image Amount could be decreased from 100% to a preference while monitoring Preview to soften overall noise contributions.
The “Freaky Detail” can be achieved by modifying the initial High Pass Filter image… …perhaps apply USM sharpening to it and then use the “sharpened High Pass Filter image” as the Composite Soft or Hard Light Overlay image.
More options for effects are possible when the modified High Pass Filter image is created by:
...(1) Click on the Starting image and blur using any blurring method: Blur, Blur More, USM, Gaussian, Median 3x3, Median 5x5, or the pixel averaging of the blur portion of Bilateral Sharpen… click OK.
...(2) Open the “Transformation | Gray | Negative” transform and click on Negative.
...(3) Click on the Starting image and open the Composite-Blend transform where the Input = the Starting image and Amount = 100% and the Overlay = the resulting “(2)” image and Amount = 50%. Click OK, creating a High Pass Filter type image that appears predominately 50% gray.
...(4) Modify the resulting “(3)” image if preference by sharpening: Sharpen, Heavy Sharpen, USM, Bilateral Sharpen, or Advanced Sharpen.
The point of the above is that while PWP does not have a specific “Surface Blur” or a “Vivid Light” blend mode, a variety of equivalent effects are available to essentially duplicate them and perhaps offer even more ‘artistic’ options.
See also the discussion here: “Low/High Spatial Frequency Imaging & PWP” [http://www.dl-c.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=434]
Hopefully, the foregoing is not beyond understanding… …ask if there are questions…
…den…