Can this be done? (Extensively blurred but still effective and beautiful as a book cover)

[Amy Choue]

I've learned quite a bit about Photo and will learn some more in the coming weeks. I am trying to create a book cover on the basis of a portrait of Napoleon. One of the models was the book Napoleon and Berlin, and another model is Adorno, One Last Genius. I love this green/yellow combination and I think it is beautiful and perfectly matches the book. 

It is based on a photograph. I guess the photograph used for the cover was quite small, the size of the usual family/personal photos in the 60s. I've seen it somewhere but couldn't find it after many searches. Probably it was in black and white. I guess it must have been extensively blurred, so that the whole image can become either yellow or green in not many different shades. (Please tell me if that's not the case). 

I am trying to turn a Napoleon portrait into something like this book cover. I've learned Gaussian blur (applying blur, and selectively erasing blur), inpaint brush, etc. And I am expecting to learn and practice many more skills required to try this. 

I would like to know if this is something doable at a beginner level. At first I thought: with an example like Napoleon and Berlin, it must be entirely doable, even by me; I can see how it can be done. Then I am beginning to see difficulties. Maybe that image on Adorno book only looks easy, but in reality requires years of experience in detailed editing to pull off? 

 

This question sounds like it already has an answer it wants: Yes, that's something easy, very good practice for a beginner! 

I would persist in trying to get the result I want even if it's something quite tricky and difficult. (I'm hoping it's not at the "impossible" level for a beginner). With this goal at hand, much of what I learned could be more clearly understood. So please tell me if there are things I need to be extra-aware of, in terms of improving photo editing skills, when doing this sort of work as a beginner). 

 

[GarryP]

You can probably replicate the green/yellow example, up to a certain point, by adding a Black & White Adjustment and a Gradient Map Adjustment – see attached image.

You will need to experiment with the settings of each adjustment to get different results as necessary.

If you want something more specific then you will need to be more specific about your requirements.

[Amy Choue]

Wow, that's beautiful. Thank you. Gradient Map adjustment, I'll tackle this. 

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.

I suspect that the Gradient Map may need to use more than two colours to get it closer to the original but I can’t be sure.
And an Add Noise Live Filter applied to the image might help a bit with the ‘graininess’, maybe.
And maybe a ‘light touch’ Gaussian Blur Live Filter too, perhaps.

Basically, just keep experimenting and see what you get.

[Amy Choue]

On 11/25/2023 at 6:13 PM, GarryP said:

You’re welcome.

I suspect that the Gradient Map may need to use more than two colours to get it closer to the original but I can’t be sure.
And an Add Noise Live Filter applied to the image might help a bit with the ‘graininess’, maybe.
And maybe a ‘light touch’ Gaussian Blur Live Filter too, perhaps.

Basically, just keep experimenting and see what you get.

 

I would like to thank you again. I didn't know about Gradient Map (the courses I took do not cover it) and this seemed like something very difficult for me to do. Then today I got definitely closer to what I want. This is something quite unexpected! I couldn't have done this without you telling me about Gradient Map! Many thanks again! 

 

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.

In your latest image it seems a bit of a shame that the horse’s head is obscured by the text but if that’s what you want then that’s fine.

I’m also wondering if adding a ‘dual-colour/tint’ effect could add to the ‘drama’ of the scene somehow – see attached image for a bad example – but that’s entirely up to you of course. (Or maybe it would look worse, I don’t know.)