Painted Effect for Screenshots

Share your videos and screenshots
User avatar
Solfege
Harpylisk
1461 | 209
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Legendary Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 250.000 views
Great Love Badge
Earned over 100 cookies
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
I thought I'd share a quick little tutorial on how to spice up your screenshots by adding an interesting "painted" effect. Because...why not?

Image



Step 1:
Open your screenshot in Photoshop and duplicate the Background layer.

Image



Step 2:
Ever so slightly increase the contrast by using the Curves Adjustment Layer.
Image->Adjustments->Curves

Image



Step 3:
Duplicate the layer again and apply a High Pass filter. Adjust the slider until the details of the image just begin to appear. Anywhere between 0.5-1.0 pixels ought to be enough.
Filter->Other->High Pass

Image



Step 4:
Change the Blending Mode to Linear Light and merge the duplicated layer with the one below it to make the effect permanent.

Image



Step 5:
Increase the image to 200% of it's normal size. Next, apply the Diffuse filter with the Anisotropic option selected. Then, rotate the canvas 90 degrees clockwise and apply the Diffuse filter again. Do this twice more before rotating the canvas one last time to return it to it's original, upright position.
Filter->Stylize->Diffuse

Image



Step 6:
Apply a Surface Blur with a Radius of 25 pixels and Threshold of 7 pixels. Higher values will yield a smoother image, but you'll lose details in the process.
Filter->Blur->Surface Blur

Image



Step 7:
Reduce the image to 50% of it's current size and apply the Smart Sharpen filter with an Amount of 100% and a Radius of 1.0 pixels.
Filter->Sharpen->Smart Sharpen

Image



And there you have it! A nifty little painted effect to give your screenshots a bit of pizazz.

Image
Edited by Solfege 7 years.
User avatar
Taem
Necrobot
2471 | 150
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Legendary Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 250.000 views
Great Love Badge
Earned over 100 cookies
Great Supporter Badge
Donated 5 times
Very cool! I love playing around with PS.
User avatar
Pinball
A dragon with boobs
6557 | 255
Great Posting Badge
Posted over 2.500 messages
Legendary Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 250.000 views
Great Love Badge
Earned over 100 cookies
Common Auction Badge
Won 50 auctions
Thank you for sharing this. Helpful for me :D