Butterfly on Bench (Graphic Pen Filter)

This is a walk-through of the images that I use in my graphic pen filter layering process.

1. The original image. (Ok, this isn't really the original. I tonemapped the original in Photomatix for the HDR image effect. Then, I cropped the resulting image in Paintshop. The resulting image below is what I took over to Photoshop.

With my graphic pen filter set at right diagonal, the stroke length here is 3 and the light/dark balance (which will be the same for all of the graphic pen images) is 50.

This is stroke length 6.

This is stroke length 9.

This is stroke length 12.

This is stroke length 15.

Beginning with the 3 image, I set the next layer opacity at 80% and pasted the 6 image. I then set the next layer opacity at 60% and pasted the 9 image. Next, I set the next layer opacity at 40% and pasted the 12 image. Finally, I set the next layer opacity at 20% and pasted the 15 image. I flattened the image, auto smart fix, auto levels, and auto contrast for the following:

There is a certain grainy roughness in each of the preceding layers that seems to have mellowed out in the final, layered image. I typically then layer the original color image back into the BW at somewhere between 60-70% opacity. (The following image was 70%.)

And that's my graphic filter process. Thanks for stopping by!