Practical significance of Gaussian Blur and Color Dodge in Photoshop

It is to draw a perfect sketch of any person or object by hand has always been considered a great art. But whenever we look around, such sort of artists are very rarely found. But we can see such sketches in books and newspapers  almost everyday . These sketches might be real and drawn by real artists with art on their finger tips but at the same time they might not. As it has long since been possible to convert a photograph whether it be a colored one or a black and white, into a sketch that seems perfectly hand-drawn, news papers and other publishing companies have stopped bothering themselves finding such artists. Though there are many other photo-editors which are used to convert a photograph into a sketch or line-drawing, but the most popular and easy to use is none other than Adobe Photoshop.

How to make a perfect sketch out of a colored photograph?

In order to turn a picture into a line drawing or a sketch, first of all open a picture in Adobe Photoshop by hitting CTRL + O or by getting inside the File Menu and clicking Open

colored-photograph
Image: Initial look
Then get inside the Window Menu and put check right beside the option Layers

layers-in-photoshop
Window Menu :Is used to open different windows in Photoshop
 As soon as you will do that, a small window will be appeared at the right side of your Photoshop window. In that window, the option Layers will be selected by default.  Further the picture you have opened to work at, will clearly be visible in that window as locked-background.

Layers-channels-paths-window
The Option Layers is selected by default in in the layers window

How to unlock a locked  layer?

The next thing you are supposed to do is to unlock the locked layer. For that purpose, put the pointer of your mouse on the Background (layer which contains the picture you have recently opened to turn into a line drawing) and press the left button of your mouse twice. As soon as you will perform that action, a small window will be appeared called New Layer.

option-group-with-previous-layer-is-not-active
New Layer: Type the name for unlocked layer and set mode and opacity
 In that window there will be seen two boxes including Name and Group with previous. Type the name of the layer in the name box while do nothing with the second option that is Group with previous (that option will not be active in this case because we  have not created any  layer previously). Apart from these two boxes, the New Layer window contains three more options.These are called Color, Mode and Opacity. 

Selection-of-mode-and-opacity-for-new-layer
Color setting in New Layer window is not necessary
Set the Opacity of the layer upto 100% and out of the Mode Menu select Normal.  As far as the menu called Color is concerned,  if you select red or green or blue or white or totally ignore that menu, it will not make any difference at all. After necessary setting, click OK. As soon as you will click OK the New Layer window will disappear and the name of the layer will be changed from 'Background' to the one you have typed in the New Layer window’s name box,  and the picture of lock will disappear out of the layer, meaning, layer will be unlocked and freely movable .

movable-unlocked-layer
Layer name has been change from Background to Background copy

How to create a duplicate  layer?

 Then put the pointer again on that unlocked layer and hit the right button of your mouse once. With that right click a menu will be appeared, out of that menu select the option Duplicate Layer.

Duplicate-layer
Select the option Duplicate layer to open Duplicate Layer Window
 As soon as you will select that option , another window will be appeared called Duplicate Layer.

creation-and-setting-of-duplicate-layer
Duplicate of  Background copy is about to be made
 In that window type the name of the duplicate layer in the box called As. While there is no need to set the Destination of the duplicate layer, so you can leisurely ignore it. After that click OK and you will find the two identical layers with different names (depends on what names you have given those layers) in the layer window.

identical-layers-with-different-names
Background copy and Sketch :Two identical layers

How to select Blending Mode?

Select the top-most layer out of both and then select the blending mode called Color Dodge out of the drop-down menu that can be seen right beneath the word layers in the layer window.

color-dodge
Drop-down Menu: Contains many blending modes

 As soon as you will select that color mode, there will be seen a few but obvious changes in the picture’s color scheme.

effects-of-color-dodge
Image: After the selection of blending mode called Color Dodge

 Invert (CTRL + I)

After that, hit CTRL + I. As soon as you will hit the keys , picture will be vanished totally and all you will see, will be nothing but a blank page.

inverted-image
Image: After being inverted

Gaussian Blur

Then get inside the filter menu, select the option Blur and out of the submenu of Blur select the option Gaussian Blur.

Gaussian-blur
Selection of filter out of the filter menu
 As soon as you will select that option, picture will be reappeared on the page along with a window called Gaussian Blur. Here at this point picture will look more like a hand-drawn sketch than a photograph, but your work will not be accomplished at that point.


drawing-like-photo
Work nearly accomplished
 In the window that is referred as Gaussian Blur  you are supposed to set the Radius of the Blur.  Before starting,  put check in the check box right beside the word Preview in the Gaussian Blur window. Then set the radius of the blur to set required details in the picture.

setting-of-radius
Radius :Show as much details in the sketch as you want
 If you set more radius your picture will show more details and if you set  less radius your picture will show less details after being transformed into a sketch. After the setting of required radius, click OK and with that click the window called Gaussian Blur  will be disappeared.

Saturation

The last thing you are supposed to do to accomplish the task is to click the tiny icon that can be seen right beneath the layer window called Create new fill or adjustment layer.

create-new-fill-or-adjustment-layer
That tiny icon will open a new window
As soon as you will click that icon, a menu will be appeared and out of that menu select the option Hue and Saturation.

menu-options-of-new-fill-or-adjustment-layer
Menu : That contains many options to manipulate the image look
 After the selection of that option, within an instant, another small window will be appeared called Hue/Saturation. In that window ,you will see three options these are: Hue, Saturation, and Lightness.

Saturation-setting
There is no need to set Hue and Lightness

Out of these three options, you are not supposed to make any change in Hue and Lightness. The only change you are supposed to make is in Saturation. Set the saturation of the layer equals to -100 and click OK.  With that click you will notice that the picture has lost all it’s photographic qualities and has assumed the form of a hand-drawn sketch.

hand-drawn-sketch-like-image
 Image : After complete editing
Save the image in your required format by getting inside the file menu and selecting the option Save As or hitting the keys CTRL+ SHFT + S.
 I hope you will find this post useful. If so, please don’t forget to subscribe your comment.





Location: Pakistan

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