From photograph to drawing

[mongo]

OK, try number 2 with a picture of my mom and me.

 

[wbiss]

Solitaire, I love your avatar! B7

 

[wbiss]

mongo... looks great! See how you've already improved by doing another one! BTW... I wouldn't know "who is who" in that rendering 'cause the two of you look more like sisters! Tell your "Mom" that... she'd appreciate it! And keep up the good work!

 

[Guest]

Looks great Mono

 

[sfm]

Hey Mongo it looks great now........ which one is which? he he he
sfm

 

[Larry]

Very nice mongo

 

[mongo]

I seem to keep having the same problem of having really grainy pictures instead of more of a line drawing look. Is this due to the level of Gaussian Blur? How do I make my lines look like the first post in this thread? I love this, but I would like to be much better.
I will tell my mom that and she will be flattered. [honesty]

 

[sfm]

yep the lines become finer with less blur.......... you could also try the linear dodge instead of the colour dodge but this I find needs more blur
sfm

 

[Guest]

mongo , it's like Sue said; don't use too much blur or your lines are going to be to thick. It also helps to brighten the image first, which will leave out some pixels in the final result. It's important that you use large sized images. The reason for that is that Threshold only has 255 levels and the more pixels you have, the more accurate your lines will be.

This example was originally about 700 pixels, but larger is better. Also blending the final result using blending mode Screen with 72% opacity for example makes it possible to colorize your image. In this case I also added a clipping layer using the Linear Dodge blending mode and resized to 300 pixels to get a smoother appearance.

 

[mongo]

ARGH! I am so frustrated. This seems to be the best I can do. I am just not getting the detail that you guys are. I will attach the original and the changed. Maybe it's the original that's the problem...HELP! I want to be able to do this.

 

[mongo]

Here is the original.

 

[mongo]

This is the adjusted one I made.

 

[Guest]

That doesn't look bad Mongo. Important to know also is that if you use jpeg and it's saved in a low quality, you will get worse results. Also be aware that this technique doesn't work great for every image.

You might try to combine this new image with the orginal image.

In my case I made a sort of cartoon image after adding two effects and the right blending mode and opacity. Also a levels correction was needed.

 

[sfm]

okay I had a go at this ........ first up the image was a bit dark so I lightened it a bit
then I duplicated the layer then inversed it, set the layer mode to colour dodge, Gblur was 1.3 merged the 2 layers then desaturated and finally adjusted the levels a tad to get this........
sfm

 

[sfm]

I had another go...........
adjusted the lighting first then as before............. I duplicated the layer then inversed it, set the layer mode to linear dodge, Gblur was 5.8 merged the 2 layers then desaturated and finally adjusted the levels a tad to get this........
sfm

 

[sfm]

dang! that's twice I forgot to say this............

I like your effect Gaus looks cool
sfm

 

[wbiss]

Looks good Sue!

I had another 'go' at this, too, and tried something a little different. I wanted to focus on the 'subject' matter, so I blurred the background, in this instance...

 

[sfm]

looks Good Wendy much better - good idea that hmmmmmmm he he he just thought of something hang will be back in a mo
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[sfm]

forgot the McDonalds! ha ha ha
sfm

 

[wbiss]

Sue! Nice Mickey D touch there!