Photoshop Elements: Gritty Hard Light

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Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 7

January 12, 2009

Give any ordinary photo a gritty hard light look using adjustment layers and the Hard Light blend mode.

Before After
Battery before Battery after

To get the gritty look:

  1. Open the image you want to improve.

  2. In the Layers palette, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the Background layer. In the Hue/Saturation dialogue box, remove the saturation by dragging the Saturation slider to -100, then click OK.

    Hue/Saturation layer

  3. In the Layers palette, add a Levels adjustment layer above the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. To adjust the color and contrast, move the sliders in the Levels dialogue box, then click OK.

    • Move the black slider right to the base of the histogram to darken the darkest pixels.
    • Move the white slider left to the base of the histogram to lighten the lightest pixels.
    • Move the gray slider as desired to adjust brightness and contrast in the midtones.
    Levels dialogue box

  4. Duplicate the Background layer and move the copy to the top of the layer stack:

    1. In the Layers palette, click to select the Background layer
    2. From the Layer menu, select Duplicate Layer. The duplicate layer is displayed above the Background layer.
    3. Click-and-drag the duplicate layer to the top of the layer stack.
  5. In the Layers palette, select the top duplicated layer and press Ctrl+G to clip the layer to the Levels adjustment layer below. You have created a clipping group that groups the two layers together; the layer mask attached to the adjustment layer now affects the top layer, too.

  6. Apply the Hard Light blend mode to the duplicate layer. In the Layers palette, click the duplicate layer, then select Hard Light from the blend modes drop-down list.

    Apply Hard Light blend mode
  7. Apply the Hard Light blend mode to the Levels adjustment layer. In the Layers palette, click the Levels adjustment layer, then select Hard Light from the blend modes drop-down list.

  8. Paint the mask on the Levels adjustment layer to reveal portions of the grayscale image below:

    1. Select the mask on the Levels adjustment layer.
    2. Select the Brush tool and choose a large soft brush. Vary the opacity of the brush to reveal more of less of the grayscale pixels below.
    3. With the mask selected, paint on the picture with black to hide the pixels on the top layer and show the pixels below. (The paint will show on the mask, not the picture.)
    4. If you make a mistake, paint with white to reveal the pixels on the top layer again.
    Paint Levels adjustment layer mask

  9. Optionally, paint the mask on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to reveal portions of the original image below. In the battery image, the red portions of the battery were painted to reveal the rich red color of the orginal image.

    Paint Hue/Saturation mask

Examples

The following example shows how this effect can be applied to a colorful photo and the mask on the Levels adjustment layer that was applied to the photo:

Before After
Frog before Frog after
Mask shown at right: Frog mask
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Updated on November 9, 2009