What's the name of this effect and is it available in ps elements

[onehunglow]

Hello,

Here is a stencil image found online:

What's the name of the effect applied to achieve the breakup of the colours (i.e. the different greys). Is there a filter on there to smooth the shapes of the tones?

Thank you

 

[Tom Mann]

To get the smooth contouring effect seen in the example you provided, I usually start with a very softened version of the photo, and then apply filter / artistic / cutout in order to give me an initial guide. I would mask out the eyes, mouth, and any other details that I didn't want to contour.




To improve this, I then would use the pen tool to produce my own paths which would roughly follow the contours produced by the cutout filter, but which could be smoother or more angular, contain cusps (like this example does), etc. One could also produce new contours in-between those generated by the automated process described above.

I would then turn off the contours and filled areas produced by the automated filter, and would fill each new path that I generated with successively lighter or darker shades of gray, as needed. I didn't demonstrate this because this is the most time-consuming step.

HTH,

Tom M

 

[onehunglow]

To get the smooth contouring effect seen in the example you provided, I usually start with a very softened version of the photo, and then apply filter / artistic / cutout in order to give me an initial guide. I would mask out the eyes, mouth, and any other details that I didn't want to contour.

View attachment 48186


To improve this, I then would use the pen tool to produce my own paths which would roughly follow the contours produced by the cutout filter, but which could be smoother or more angular, contain cusps (like this example does), etc. One could also produce new contours in-between those generated by the automated process described above.

I would then turn off the contours and filled areas produced by the automated filter, and would fill each new path that I generated with successively lighter or darker shades of gray, as needed. I didn't demonstrate this because this is the most time-consuming step.

HTH,

Tom M

Hi Tom, thanks so much for the reply. When you say you used the pen tool do you have a digital pen and pad you use with the software?

 

[Tom Mann]

I do own a Wacom tablet, but that's not the pen tool was referring to in my post.

I was referring to the pen tool which is a software tool that is part of the full version of Photoshop.

Just Google {pen tool photoshop}.

Tom

 

[onehunglow]

I do own a Wacom tablet, but that's not the pen tool was referring to in my post.

I was referring to the pen tool which is a software tool that is part of the full version of Photoshop.

Just Google {pen tool photoshop}.

Tom

I understand. Thanks very much for your replies Tom.

 

[onehunglow]

To get the smooth contouring effect seen in the example you provided, I usually start with a very softened version of the photo,

How do you soften the photo?