Help Making Wood Grain More Prominent In Attached Photo

[claytron3030]

Hi All,

I have researched and tested a lot trying to figure out how to do this, but haven't found anything that works so far.

I am trying to make the wood grain lines in the attached photo (the center wood rectangle) pop/look darker, while still maintaining the overall color of the wood.

If anyone can figure it out and explain to me how they went about doing it, it would be a HUGE help.

Thanks in advance!

Clay

 

[fogo00]

Hello claytron3030
To make the wood's lines darker, you simply use some sharpening (high pass+overlay) and bring the contrast up while managing brightness. (First image)
The problem with getting more contrast into this photo is that it's a fairly low quality one, causing more contrast to also bring out more noise, which makes the image look worse in general.
you could just try to darken the lines manually, but its going to be less accurate and often look more "photoshoppy" (second image)
I would recommend getting a better quality picture taken so contrast/brightness filters wouldn't make noise pop out so much or really take your time making the lines darker using a layer mask on a curves or brightness/contrast layer
Hope I helped

 

[MrToM]

Two quick examples...the first is just darkening with black, the second is burning and sponging.

Any good?...






Depends what you ultimately want to do with it really but a good mask for the grain is the key....you can do anything you want with a good mask.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[claytron3030]

Hi Fogo00,

Thanks so much for your input!

The second one actually looks great in my opinion relative to what I was able to come up with...how did you go about darkening the lines manually?

Thanks again for the help,
Clay

 

[fogo00]

I just made a new curves layer, lowered the middle a little, made a layer mask and painted it black and then started painting it white with a soft brush and about 10% flow over the lines

You're welcome d:

 

[thebestcpu]

Here are two version just using the ACR filter from PS.

I duplicated the image twice, made the two new Layers Smart Objects and separately masked the two pieces of wood.

Then individually I took the two new Smart Ojbect Layers and applied the ACR filter turning the contrast and clarity to full and moving the black slide to the left till if felt about right. Also added some sharpening

The first set is making those changes with the blend modes set to Normal

The second set is making those changes with the blend mode set to Luminosity to preserve the original color

Just another option and sliders are real quick and easy

John Wheeler