For quite a long time I have been trying to convert grayscale images
to black and white for a woodcut effect. I have tried numerous filters
with names like photocopy, trace contours, lithograph, and one was
even called woodcut. The results were most unsatisfactory.
Does anyone know of a free filter which does a passable job
of converting grayscale to black and white without losing all
picture quality?
And I would also like to have freeware filters for the vignette effect.
Thanks if you can help
Anne
Vignette and Woodcut free filters????
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I think what you are looking for is the Andromeda Cutline filter at
http://www.andromeda.com/ or Panopticum Engraver at http://www.panopticum.com/ps/engraver/engraver.shtml
Both are commercial. You have to spend some money if you want some quality effects.
For a free vignette filter see
http://www.mediaspark.com/productsPSFiltes.htm
http://www.andromeda.com/ or Panopticum Engraver at http://www.panopticum.com/ps/engraver/engraver.shtml
Both are commercial. You have to spend some money if you want some quality effects.
For a free vignette filter see
http://www.mediaspark.com/productsPSFiltes.htm
Line Drawing
I have so far found that the best way to produce line drawings is the following set of options. If you don't have Photoshop or Painter most of the other tools have similar functions.
In Photoshop:
1) First clean-up the photo with Image Adjustment - Auto Levels and then sometime increase the contrast and color saturation.
2) Go to Artistic filters select Poster Edges. Start with lower line size (1-2) and intensity (1) and Posterize of 6.
3) Next select Image - select mode and Grayscale and click OK to drop the color.
4) Last select the Image - Adjustments and select Brightness/Contrast.
Move the Contrast slider all the way to the right and then move the Brightness slider as far to the left as you can before losing the picture.
You need to experiment with each photo depending on the amount of detail, how light or dark, etc. in the original photo. You can make adjustments at any of the above points such as in the poster edges selecting larger lines or greater intensity.
You can play with the Brightness/Contrast in all kinds of ways.
I find that you can get better line drawing in this fashion that you ever get with the plug-ins. This is more of a process that allows you to make up for the particular issues of each photo in an intelligent way that the plug-ins can't do.
Maybe some day when we will have intelligent plug-ins. You know a line drawing plug-in from Intelli-Plug that has artificial intelligence and used 128 megs of working memory with a joy stick interface. Anyway for now I think that you will find this method will provide very good results if you work with it.
In addition you can play with the Brightness/Contrast before you remove the color by selecting the grayscale and get some interesting line art with slight coloring like you went back and water colored.
Load these line drawings in Painter and drop the original picture or a cloned painting over it and select gel and you’ll have a colored Pen & Ink drawing.
In Photoshop:
1) First clean-up the photo with Image Adjustment - Auto Levels and then sometime increase the contrast and color saturation.
2) Go to Artistic filters select Poster Edges. Start with lower line size (1-2) and intensity (1) and Posterize of 6.
3) Next select Image - select mode and Grayscale and click OK to drop the color.
4) Last select the Image - Adjustments and select Brightness/Contrast.
Move the Contrast slider all the way to the right and then move the Brightness slider as far to the left as you can before losing the picture.
You need to experiment with each photo depending on the amount of detail, how light or dark, etc. in the original photo. You can make adjustments at any of the above points such as in the poster edges selecting larger lines or greater intensity.
You can play with the Brightness/Contrast in all kinds of ways.
I find that you can get better line drawing in this fashion that you ever get with the plug-ins. This is more of a process that allows you to make up for the particular issues of each photo in an intelligent way that the plug-ins can't do.
Maybe some day when we will have intelligent plug-ins. You know a line drawing plug-in from Intelli-Plug that has artificial intelligence and used 128 megs of working memory with a joy stick interface. Anyway for now I think that you will find this method will provide very good results if you work with it.
In addition you can play with the Brightness/Contrast before you remove the color by selecting the grayscale and get some interesting line art with slight coloring like you went back and water colored.
Load these line drawings in Painter and drop the original picture or a cloned painting over it and select gel and you’ll have a colored Pen & Ink drawing.
free woodcut effects
Actually, I have a couple of plugins alternative to Andromeda "Woodcut":
http://photoshop.msk.ru/as/ngrave.html
http://photoshop.msk.ru/as/mesh.html
both have free LE versions, and even commercial ones are not as pricy as Andromeda stuff.
http://photoshop.msk.ru/as/ngrave.html
http://photoshop.msk.ru/as/mesh.html
both have free LE versions, and even commercial ones are not as pricy as Andromeda stuff.
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