Create a portrait with a gritty and rugged look

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In this post I want to show how to add a bit of drama, grit and ruggedness to a portrait using Photoshop.

I am using CS3 but just about any version should work and I believe this will also work with the Elements series but don't take my word for it. Let me know if it does or does not work with Elements.

Open our project image

Duplicate the background layer by right clicking the background layer and selecting ‘Duplicate Layer’.


With the ‘Background Copy’ layer selected, go to ‘Filter’ on the menu and choose "Other - High Pass", enter ‘5′ pixels as the radius and click ok.


Change the blend of the ‘Background Copy’ layer to ‘Overlay’.


Duplicate the orginal background layer again (Background Copy 2) and move it to the very top of the layers list.


With this new layer highlighted in the layers palette, go to ‘Image’ on the main menu and choose "Adjustment" then "Desaturate". Change the blend of the this new layer to ‘Hard Light’.


Flatten image - You have one single layer


Duplicate this layer


Press CTRL/F (Command-F on a Mac)


This will apply that High Pass filter again


Change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay


Flatten the image


Click on the "Create new fill or adjustment layer" at the bottom of the layers palette.


Select curves


Move the upper part of the line to the left


You will have to play with this adjustment as to how much to lighten the image
Pay attention to the eyes


Click OK


Click on the layer mask thumbnail of the curves adjustment layer and press CTRL+I (Command-I on the Mac). This will darken the image.


Set the foreground color to white (press D)


Select the Brush tool and using a soft edged brush (about 10px but this depends on your image size) hardness about 10 to 15%. Paint over the eyes to lighten them up.


Flatten image and save


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