How to make nice looking thumbnails

[blasteralfred]

Yesterday one of my friends sent me an image, and asked me to create a thumbnail image. I just resized the image inside Photoshop. But then, he sent me a thumbnail, that looks better compared to the thumbnail image I created. I tried some workarounds to make some improvements, but was not actually succeeded .
I am attaching the images below (original and thumbnail). How can I create such a thumbnail (with or without plugin)?

Thanks in advance..

(Original)(Thumbnail)

 

[Paul]

Without i suppose you could:


Giving you - on the finished version i just did a light brush pass over lightened are of face using the Dodge tool.

With a plug in TOPAZ more than likely.

 

[blasteralfred]

But, in my thumbnail, hair and skin are smooth, also skin tone and colors are great. How can I do this? Sorry, I am a beginner in PS

 

[Paul]

Go liquid tool or smudge tool on small areas lightly

 

[Hoogle]

If you just want a quick edit I guess you could just take the image duplicate it twice set 1 blending mode to multiply and 1 to screen flatten image.

Duplicate image go to filter> oil Painting if your in CS6 and above play with settings until you have desired effect making sure the shine filter is all the way down to the left or it will add texture you dont want.

Now with the layer without the oil painting on duplicate it and move that to the top and then go to filter > other > high pass and add enough to sharpen the image again and set that layer blending mode to soft light or whichever you prefer.

Final step is to add a layer mask and remove some of the oil painting effect in the eyes and mout to bring them back sharp I only did miine by about 20% opacity,

do some exposure and color correcting

 

[scarmack]

Gaussian Blur

 

[IamSam]

As with most effects, there are many ways to do them.

Here's what I tried.

Duplicate original.
Add a Curves adjustment layer above the duplicate, darken slightly.
Use the Smudge Tool set to about 16%. Work slowly and in shorter strokes.
You can avoid the eyes and mouth with the Smudge Tool or include them and add a layer mask to redefine later.



edit: Tried without darkening.


Lightened with the Curves adjustment layer.

 

[Tom Mann]

A few thoughts:

1. One has to be careful to distinguish (a) the production of the actual thumbnail from (b) post processing work done on the full rez file followed by (a).

Specifically, if you don't want the prospective customer / viewer to be disappointed because the thumbnail and full-rez versions look different, all post processing work is typically done on the full-rez file, and then, step (a), above, consists of nothing more than down-rez'ing + sharpening at the new resolution. One certainly isn't going to use labor intensive manual smudging and blurring techniques in preparation of a thumbnail if it isn't going to also be seen (ie, used) at full rez.

2. I don't know of any pro photographer who lavishes individual care on each thumbnail, especially if they are as small as the one you posted (ie, 200 px horizontally). Other than nerdy pixel peepers (ie, like most of us involved in this thread, including me), members of the general public (and even photo editors) just don't look at small thumbnails very carefully. They simply want to get a general overall idea about the image, and if they are interested, they will click through to either a higher resolution preview, or to the full-rez (watermarked) file.

In addition, other than fine art photographers and web designers who do work on very small number of images, most working pros who need thumbnails are typically working on groups of images that can easily number in the hundreds, if not thousands. This includes wedding pros, photojournalists, sports shooters, corporate and other event photographers, etc. This is another reason not to get all wound up about ultra high quality small thumbnails.

3. Most pros can get all the quality (and speed) they need for thumbnail production out of a program like Lightroom (or Bridge + the ACR component of PS).


For example, attached is the result of about 2 minutes of fiddling with sliders in ACR, and then using PS only to down rez the resulting image and do final sharpening. No smudging, no masking, nothing but global operations were performed on the image.

For reference, immediately below it is a copy of the thumbnail that the OP liked.

HTH,

Tom

 

[Hoogle]

I would assume the thumbnail would be downsized version of the edited picture otherwise it wouldnt be a thumbnail it would be just another small image

 

[Tom Mann]

That's exactly what I also would assume, Hoogle. However from the way the OP's 1st post was worded, and looking at the significant differences (other than size) between the two images in that post, as well as the various responses in the thread, I got the distinct impression (and worry) that people including the OP wanted to modify the full rez image before down-rez'ing it, yet the modified full rez version would never see the light of day.

OTOH, I could be reading too much into this.

T