Found it hard to reproduce, there are so many parameters that change so much.
Modifying the width of the gaussian blur in the different layers (or lowpass instances in darktable) changes the smoothness of the contrast, can give a glassy look of the face or a rough and hard texture.
There are several photos of an old man with a huge beard taken by a professional photographer.
Just using one of my XMPs posted above look amazing on these photos.
Unfortunately the photographer did not give permission to post images outside modelmayhem, but for experimenting on your computer it should be sufficient enough.
Wow; thanks for all the replies. I understand why people like to use that with portraits. However, I’m more likely to explore its use with landscapes. Kinda obsessed.
G’MIC>Testing>Iain Fergusson>Pyramid Processing (@Iain why is it still in Testing?)
Thereafter a (local) contrast filter or “DCP Dehaze”. Try and play with more filters in G’MIC>Details. “Freaky Details”, as mentioned above, is also a nice choise after “Pyramid Processing”.
I decided to give a try with my quick touchup in Krita 4.3 Alpha. I used Interpolation 2x, HSY’ Color and Saturation along with Guassian High Pass Adjustment Layer. A bit of G’MIC Pyramid Processing.
Since I can’t share .KRA file, here’s the layer setting.
Guassian High Pass Adjustment Layer (Flat Light 90 Opacity)
Original Layer at Color Blending Mode at 73 Opacity
Original Interpolation 2x at 62 Opacity
Original Saturation at 100 Opacity (This isn’t needed)
G’MIC Processed via Pyramid Processing
EDIT:
My edit in Krita for any one that wanted it- edit.kra (4.0 MB)
Thanks, @patdavid! No longer need to mention how the layers are structured.
You may also get a similar effect with a “Bleach Bypass”. You can find this in the “Nik Collection”, although that’s not free anymore. A DIY version would be to apply a Black & White conversion with an overlay blend, which is kinda mimicking the film effect.
I think that the most sophisticated way of doing it in Gimp is using the method described in the tutorial for the ‘Dragan effect’:
You learn about using layers and blend modes and get a better understanding of how they work.
With these ‘filter collections’ your knowledge is limited to the effects that one specific collection contains.
convert to BW and put weight on green (and maybe blue) channel > skin tone will be darker and pores more visible
add contrast to taste
pull down midtones, if skin tone is too pale
add local contrast
oversharpen, especially use too high radius, but watch for jagged lines especially in hair - masking can help in this task
Usually red channel is favored in portrait BW-conversions because it usually yields pleasant low contrast look. Green channel will give darker skin tones and more contrasty skin, usually doesn’t look good if it has lots of weight.
The answer is bw adjusted for high contrast skin tones and … flash! Can also be achieve with other lighting but flash does the trick. You won’t be able to postprocess a good result.
