In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to achieve the High Contrast effect, that you can find in my latest group of actions.
1. If you have retouched the image and made density corrections, press crtl-shift-alt-E to make a merged copy of the image, then press crtl-J to create another copy.
If you are working from the original image, press crtl-J twice.
Name the first copied layer Black & White and the second Soft Light.
2. Turn off the Soft Light layer. Select the layer Black & White and press crtl-shift-U to desaturate it. Add a layer mask and mask out the eyes.
3. Turn on the Soft Light layer, change the blend mode to soft light. Add a layer mask and mask out the eyes again.
4. Now press crtl-shift-alt-E to create a new merged copy of all the layers. Name this layer Overlay and change the blend mode to overlay with 50% opacity. Again add a layer mask and mask out the eyes.
5. Press crtl-shift-alt-E to create a new merged copy of all the layers. Name this layer Noise and now go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Apply the Add Noise filter with the following settings:
Amount: 4%
Distribution: Gaussian
Tick the box Monochromatic
Here’s the final image:
Here you can download the action on its own:
High Contrast Effect (7.5 KiB)
Downloads: 321
Or you can download the whole set here: AllyKatDesign Actions







