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Photoshop Tips: High Pass Filter

This photoshop tips section looks at High Pass Filters and how they can be used to increase the contrast and impact of boudoir photographs. These are particularly useful when the photographs have been taken with cheaper lenses (like you would find on most compact cameras) as they can emphasise the parts of a photograph that make them appear sharp to the eye...

Filter -> Other -> High Pass...

The three pictures below show a before, during and after comparison of a boudoir photograph that initially lacked impact (and may have been slightly out of focus). You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.

The original picture is a nicely composed, modest nude but it isn't very sharp.

Here are the simple steps to improve this with a high pass filter:

Photoshop tips - image BEFORE high pass filter

The first step to improving this is to duplicate the background layer, name the new layer "High Pass" and select it.
Next select Filter->Other->High Pass... A dialog will open up allowing you to play with the Radius for the filter. There is no substitute for trial and error here, because each image will require slightly different treatment depending on the subject (portraits will be different from full figure work), and the size of the image. The example here was 1584x2192 pixels and I used a Radius of 4.2. Photoshop will show you a grey preview image which shows the extreme highlights and shadows; you need to vary the Radius so that only the main features are visible as quite thin lines. You can of course experiment with higher settings; the images will become more stylised though!
Now comes the important bit - you change the layer mode to Overlay (you can also choose Soft Light, Hard Light, Vivid Light etc for varying the effect).

If you look at the models hair, face or fingers (particularly in the larger versions) you will see more definition as a result of the high pass filter. In fact the original tends to look completely blurred by comparison.

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