dragan

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Dragan Effect

Trying to imitate the work of photographer Andrzej Dragan. Look in links section for original video Photoshop tutorial. This is my version for GIMP with a few modifications.

1. Open image.

2. Duplicate background layer.

3. Top layer Colors > Desaturate. Gaussian blur : 45 blur radius. Colors > Invert.

4. Change top layer mode to overlay. Change opacity to personal taste, for this photo 80.0%.

5. Flatten image.

6. Duplicate layer.

7. On top layer use the dodge / burn tool using a soft brush with about 14% to 18% opacity. For the lighter parts of the image use dodge-highlights and for shadows and dark parts use burn-shadows.

8. Do not forget to dodge the eyes. Don't worry about overdoing the effect, you can always reduce the top layer's opacity. In this case opacity was set to 66%.

9. Flatten image.

10. Duplicate layer.

11. Top layer Colors > Colorize. Set hue at about 20 to 30 and increase lightness.

12. Change top layer mode to soft light.

13. Flatten image.

14. If necessary reduce saturation.

15. Duplicate layer.

16. Top layer Colors > Color Balance increase red and yellow.

17. Change top layer mode to hue.

18. Flatten image.

19. Image needs to be sharpened. Duplicate layer two times (you will now have three layers).

20. Top layer apply gaussian blur 10.0 blur radius. Colors > Invert and change opacity to 50.0%.

21. Merge down top layer.

22. Upper layer go to Colors > Levels and bring black point arrow to 70 and white point arrow to 185.

23. Change top layer mode to overlay.

24. Flatten image.

25. This particular image was too blueish, so in color balance the red and yellow were increased.

26. Create new black layer and add white layer mask.

27. Reduce top layer's opacity to about 50%. Start painting on the layer mask with large, soft, black brush. Set brush opacity to about 60%. This is called "painting with light".

28. Flatten image.

29. Duplicate layer.

30. Top layer gaussian blur: 45 blur radius.

31. Reduce top layer's opacity to about 50%.

32. Using the eraser tool, erase were you want the image to be sharp. For this image the face.

33. The final image: