Miss Behaving: A Quickie

When working on a photo, sometimes I feel that adding a photo treatment is so much work. I start off with an idea in mind, then get side-tracked and before you know it, I’ve spent over an hour playing with settings, gradient maps and I end up with a headache.

Sometimes I just want to say, “Not tonight honey, I’m tired.”

However, I figured I could give you all a quickie.

This is another “Fake HDR” photo treatment. It is so fast, you probably won’t want to blink because you might miss it. Bwahahaha (I crack myself up.)

In keeping with the theme, I’m using my friend Mr. Heron. Actually, this is a new boy. Look at his pretty plumage and bright blue around his eyes. He’s on the make. When this fine avian species is ready to find a mate, he is beautiful. Yes … he’s in the mood for love.

First step:

Go to Image > Mode > Lab Mode

Second step:

Click on the Channels Tab, then highlight the “Lightness” layer.
**Warning – This will turn your image black & white – dont worry. We’ll be changing it back very shortly.**

Third Step:

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharpen Mask.

These are the settings I used:

Fourth Step:

Go to Image > Mode > RGB Color. (We have our color back.)

Fifth Step:

Click on the Layers Tab, then duplicate your original layer.

Sixth step:

Go to Filter > Other > High Pass.

These are the settings I used:

Seventh step:

Change the Blend Mode to “Vivid Light”.

Eighth step:

Click on the Create New Fill/Adjustment button (circled in red). Select Gradient.

These are my settings:

Ninth step:

Change the Blend Mode to “Soft Light” and lower th Opacity to 50%.

See … amazing results in less than ten steps!

Before:

After:

This is so easy, I did a couple more examples for you:

Before:

After:

Before:

After: