Gritty Look

You must have seen that dark gritty look in magazines and wondered how to achieve it. Here is an easy way to simulate that look in Photoshop without having to try very hard..

This is the effect I will achieve.

Step 1 : I will be using this well lit, free stock image which you will find here

It belongs to Albert-Smirnov

Step 2 : Press CTRL+J to duplicate the Background Layer to Layer 1.

Step 3 : Click the Eyedropper Tool.

Step 4 : I have clicked a shaded portion of the skin with the Color Picker.

The Foreground Color changes to the Color picked with the Eyedropper.

Step 5 : Press CTRL+L to bring up the Levels dialogue box.

Step 6 : I have dragged the Black slider to the right quite a bit to darken the image. I have also moved the middle slider to the right somewhat to decrease the highlights and nudged the White slider to the left so as not to make it too dark. Click OK.

This is how the image looks after applying Levels. It will give you an idea how to use the Levels sliders if you use a different image.

Step 7 : Click the Channels palette.

Step 8 : Click through the Red, Green and Blue channels to find which has the most contrast.

Step 9 : Usually the Blue channel has the most contrast.

This is how the image looks when you click the Blue channel. It has the most contrast.

Step 10 : Duplicate the Blue channel by dragging it to the Create New Channel icon at the bottom.

Step 11 : We now have a Blue copy channel.

Step 12 : Press CTRL+L to bring up the Levels dialogue again.

Step 13 : I have dragged the Black slider a little to the right as also the middle slider. Click OK.

The image looks like this.

Step 14 : Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise.

Step 15 : The Add Noise dialogue box opens. Set it to Gaussian. For the Amount keep it low. You can see the effect in the Preview window when you drag the Amount slider. I have kept it at 4.8%. Click OK.

The image looks like this with Noise added.

Step 16 : Click on the RGB channel.

Step 17 : Click back on the Layers palette.

Step 18 : Go to Image>Apply Image.

Step 19 : The Apply Image dialogue box comes up.

The image looks like this so far.

Step 20 : Change the Channel from RGB to Blue copy.

Step 21 : Change the Blending to Multiply or Hard Light or even Linear Burn. See the effect and choose the Blending mode. I will leave it at  Multiply. Click OK.

The image looks like this.

I had clicked on a dark portion of the skin in Step 4. The Foreground Color is set to it.

Step 22 : Click the New Layer icon. A new Layer 2 forms.

Step 23 : Press ALT+BACKSPACE to fill Layer 2 with the Foreground Color.

Step 24 : Change the Blend Mode to Color.

Step 25 : Lower the Opacity.

The image looks like this. The eyes seem a mite too dark.

Step 26 : Press SHIFT and click on Layer1. Both Layer2 and 1 are highlighted.

Step 27 : Press CTRL+G. The two layers are grouped into Group 1 Layer.

Step 28 : Click the Add Layer Mask button. A Layer Mask forms on Group 1 Layer.

The Foreground/Background Colors changes to White/Black.

Step 29 : Press x on the keyboard to change the Foreground/Background Colors to Black/White.

Step 30 : Click the Brush Tool.

Step 30 : Click in the top panel at left. Set the Hardness to 0. Make the Brush small.

Step 31 : Drop the Opacity of the Brush in the top panel to around 25%.

Step 32 : Paint to reveal the eye. Be careful how you paint. With the Opacity set low, if you make more than a couple of passes too much of the eye is revealed. 

Step 33 : Paint the other eye.

The finished gritty look. 

Other photoshop tutorials are here