Getting Dirty in Photoshop CS3

True Grit

STEP 1 Choose Image; Duplicate Layer; Change Blend Mode
Ideally, pick a photo that already has some character: Perhaps the subject has a wrinkled face or lots of facial hair, or maybe the lighting is dramatic. (You could also accentuate the lighting before proceeding with the next steps.) Once your image is open, press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the Background layer, and then use the blend mode pop-up menu in the Layers panel to change the mode to Hard Light. (Or with the Move tool active, press Shift-Option-H [PC: Shift-Alt-H].)

STEP 2 Apply the High Pass Filter
From the Filter menu, choose Other>High Pass. Change the Radius setting to something in the range of 10–20 pixels. Rather than basing your decision on the filter preview area, look at the image itself, since that will show the effect with the layer in Hard Light mode. Click OK to close the dialog.

STEP 3 Make Composite Layer and Oversharpen
With both the Background layer and Layer 1 visible, press Command-Option-Shift-E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E). This will add a new layer (Layer 2) that’s a composite of the two layers. Change this composite layer’s blend mode to Overlay using the pop-up menu in the Layers panel (or press Shift-Option-O [PC: Shift-Alt-O]). With the top layer (Layer 2) active, go to the Filter menu and choose Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Sharpen using values higher than you normally would—in other words, oversharpen a little. In our example, we used an Amount of 199 with a Radius of 2. Click OK.

STEP 4 Add a Slight Tint
You could actually stop at the last step if you like, but let’s add to the gritty look a little more. Click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Hue/Saturation from the pop-up menu. Click the Colorize checkbox, move the Hue slider to add a warm tint to the image, and click OK. To allow a little bit of the original color to show through, lower the Opacity of the Hue/Saturation layer in the Layers panel to 70–75% (we used 71%).

STEP 5 Add Some Noise
This step is optional, but if you want to really accentuate the gritty look, add some noise. Start by adding a layer by clicking on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Now, choose Edit>Fill and in the dialog, select 50% Gray from the Use field pop-up menu, and click OK. Change this layer’s blend mode to Hard Light and from the Filter menu, choose Noise>Add Noise. In the dialog, use an Amount of less than 10% and check the Uniform and Monochromatic boxes.