Creative Effects Challenge No. 203 - The Pointillism Effect
Jun 10, 2023 0:46:40 GMT
VickiD likes this
Post by tonyw on Jun 10, 2023 0:46:40 GMT
Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. One of the best known examples of the technique was painted by Georges Seurat
This creative challenge works backwards by taking an image and turning it into coloured dots using a filter that you probably have never found a use for - and yes it's the Pointillize filter.
The following tutorial is based on this one for Photoshop but I've modified it for Photoshop Elements by removing the use of Smart Objects which allow going back and adjusting the point size as well as some other changes. As a result I've suggested an image size and point sizes that worked for me although feel free to experiment.
I started with an image around 2000 pixels wide and 1500 wide and used cell sizes in the filter of 15, 12 and 9 . If you start with a larger image I'd suggest increasing those cell sizes.
Step 1: Open your image and make a duplicate layer from it. Reset your foreground and background colours to black and white by pressing D on your keyboard. This is important as the Pointillize filter uses the background colour as the background and at this stage we want it white.
Step 2: Apply the Pointillize filter (Filter>Pixelate>Pointillize and the only choice you have to make is the Cell Size. I used 15 for my 2000 pixel wide image. Larger images may need a bigger cell size
Step 3: Change the Blend Mode of the layer to Darken which hides the white areas between the dots.
Step 4: Make another copy of the background layer and switch the foreground and background colours by clicking X . The background should now be black. Apply the Pointillize filter again using a smaller cell size (I used 12) and set the Blend Mode to Lighten.
Step 5: Make another copy of the background layer and change the background colout to 50% gray. You can do that by clicking on the background colour and in the colour picker set the HS and B values to 0,0 and 50%.. Apply the Pointillize filter again using a smaller cell size (I used 9) and set the Blend Mode to Overlay.
Step 6: At this stage the result will probably look too contrasty and over-saturated so add a couple of adjustment layers to correct. I used Levels and Hue/Saturation.
Step 7: Feel free to experiment as always and if you find other ways to use the Pointillize filter please share with us the result.
Here are the layers I finished up with followed by the before and after results:
Tony
This creative challenge works backwards by taking an image and turning it into coloured dots using a filter that you probably have never found a use for - and yes it's the Pointillize filter.
The following tutorial is based on this one for Photoshop but I've modified it for Photoshop Elements by removing the use of Smart Objects which allow going back and adjusting the point size as well as some other changes. As a result I've suggested an image size and point sizes that worked for me although feel free to experiment.
I started with an image around 2000 pixels wide and 1500 wide and used cell sizes in the filter of 15, 12 and 9 . If you start with a larger image I'd suggest increasing those cell sizes.
Step 1: Open your image and make a duplicate layer from it. Reset your foreground and background colours to black and white by pressing D on your keyboard. This is important as the Pointillize filter uses the background colour as the background and at this stage we want it white.
Step 2: Apply the Pointillize filter (Filter>Pixelate>Pointillize and the only choice you have to make is the Cell Size. I used 15 for my 2000 pixel wide image. Larger images may need a bigger cell size
Step 3: Change the Blend Mode of the layer to Darken which hides the white areas between the dots.
Step 4: Make another copy of the background layer and switch the foreground and background colours by clicking X . The background should now be black. Apply the Pointillize filter again using a smaller cell size (I used 12) and set the Blend Mode to Lighten.
Step 5: Make another copy of the background layer and change the background colout to 50% gray. You can do that by clicking on the background colour and in the colour picker set the HS and B values to 0,0 and 50%.. Apply the Pointillize filter again using a smaller cell size (I used 9) and set the Blend Mode to Overlay.
Step 6: At this stage the result will probably look too contrasty and over-saturated so add a couple of adjustment layers to correct. I used Levels and Hue/Saturation.
Step 7: Feel free to experiment as always and if you find other ways to use the Pointillize filter please share with us the result.
Here are the layers I finished up with followed by the before and after results:
Tony
