My diffuse glow story, thoughts and confessions
January 3, 2008 11:24 pmWelcome, dear follow SL photographers. Take a seat, lean back in the desk chair, release the drawing pens and touch the scroll button for a fantastic, amazing and for some probably even shocking ride through the world of diffuse glow with me as your guide. ;)
The Diffuse Glow Story Prologue
I sometimes wonder if the photoshop filter Diffuse Glow is something like nuclear weapons: some say they should be abolished, others say they should be used. But even the latter folks do not agree on where and when to use them. And even then, what at first glance seems like reasonable use would only be abuse.
Although I would not put capital punishment on the use of the Diffuse Glow filter and I know there are genuine, good reasons to apply it, only to often I have to shake my head when seeing this powerful tool, given to us by the Adobe Gods, abused. The same goes for it derivatives as there are for instance the Beautify filter. Although Bella thinks I’m an enfant terrible, I’m not going to name the offenders here or point to their respective Flickr streams, but I think you surely know who you are!
As it draws attention to a photograph and gives it a feel of ‘liveliness’ a normal Second Life snapshot does not have, the Diffuse Glow filter is mainly used to ’save’ photographs that are else lousy or average at max. Yet, one can find some major reasons for Diffuse Glow abuse:
- To make up for lack of composition.
- To make up for lack of content/idea/story in the photograph.
- To make up for lack of creativity.
- To make up for lack of time spend on getting the lighting in Second Life correct.
- Because one does not know better.
See where I’m going?
Yet I do not claim Diffuse Glow is evil, only that one needs to think on as to why one is using it and if it _really_ adds to the photograph, in stead of just making the snapshot look a bit more catchy.
So if I claim it can be used without ‘overdoing it’ and well thought trough, then why do I not prove it? Aha! Here it comes. Sit back, relax and feel free to mention so if you disagree. ;) When you read carefully you will find at least one alternative way to use diffuse glow.
My Story of Diffuse Glow
We all know I have a tricky skin: as it is white, major post-processing or boosting the contrast makes me loose all zits and detail. Yet this original snapshot does look like it could use some boost in ‘liveliness’.
Now, as Diffuse Glow is the answer to all boring photographs, let’s do that! At the same time this might help fix what bothers me most about this photograph, the harsh edges between my dark hair, my pale face and the red background.
Hmmm. Looks way better, but the harsh edges problem is not entirely solved yet. I think it needs some more diffuse glow and it will be _just perfect_.
Yeey! The harsh edges are gone. Does it not look awesome? And this way it takes up even less disk space! This photograph will surely catch attention now it’s glowing almost entirely. Let me quickly submit it to Flickr. A shame it does not contain any boobs. I’m sure I would get even more views with that. Ah well, the boobs - of course with diffuse glow on them - are for tomorrow.
No, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I just lost all detail in my light tones and did not make my photograph any better or interesting, but just more glowing. Let me try something else: I’ll return to my background layer and invert that. Yeah, that’s a great idea!
Now. Hmmm. What do I do next? I know! I know! Diffuse glow, the solution to all.
Strange, now all my details in the hair are gone. Let me undo this one and try again with a higher clear value and a lower diffuse glow one. Way better!
Maybe the inverted image is a bit over the top, I wonder what happens if I press ctrl+I again?
Oh my f*cking god! The harsh edges are gone. What I just did made the black hair blend in with my face texture and the background texture more. Geeh, that I did not expect. Diffuse Glow can be used for something else then just casting a white glow?! W00t!
Yet, the eyes are a bit dark. What if I return those to normal by using a mask? I must take care to leave a bit of the upper part of the eye dark, as that’s the natural shadow the eyes casts. Let me try…
Awesome! Who would have thought… . Yet, it does not catch the eye as much as a diffuse glow photograph and now I’m scared that people will not look at my photograph. Wait, I’ll just Diffuse Glow it to make it catchy again!
More catchy, indeed. Let me quickly submit this one. Or.. ow… wait… something just does not look natural. My face is way to white compared to my neck, and all my detail is gone again. Now, which retard stole my detail yet again?!!!
But yet… some glowing is natural, nah? But… yeah… got it! I am genius! What if I mask out the entire layer, and then use the white masking brush to only show highlights where they are supposed to be, as on my - cute - nose, my - sexy - lips and my - elegant - cheekbones?
Hmmm. Sweet! But some of the edges are a bit to hard, and do need some retouching. And oh, no! I know by now that Diffuse Glow does not _really_ solves that problem. My god, would I dare? Would I actually do some local spot correction which takes 5 times the time applying the Diffuse Glow filter? My Adobe Gods, I’m scared. I don’t know if I can handle this. Blur the edges manually?! Do some cloning? Manual labour?! No way! How the hell could that solve my problems and fix my self portrait?!!
Strange. Apparently manual spot correcting does solve a lot of the problems. Who on earth would have guessed that!
Moral of the Diffuse Glow Story
There’s more in life than just Diffuse Glow. There’s even more in Photoshop than this particular filter. Using Diffuse Glow once in a while is not a shame, but go easy on it, and know why you are actually using it and what you are trying to achieve - if that is not a quick and dirty cheap diffuse glow effect. Take the time to get your photograph exactly how you like it and for the love of the Adobe Gods, once in a while, dare to experiment - with something else but diffuse glow.
Diffuse Glow is like dry shampoo, it’s good once in a while if you are in a hurry, but at least a few times a week, you need a decent wash and need to lick every paw and ear that you have.
cordialement,
Vint
This ‘enfant terrible’ posting is dedicated to Bella March, who - despite what she thinks - keeps inspiring me, puts me with my two paws on solid meta-ground once in a while, is one of the best conversation and discussing partners I know off and has enough creativity in her virtual body - and thus probably also in her human - to be a great SL photographer with an eye for awesome scenes, a good scripter and an always interesting person. Even in her bad moods. With letting her go, Avatrait made probably the worst decision in their career and I’m glad I never accepted their invitation. Bella, meid, respect! ;)
Disclaimer: It could be that this Diffuse Glow Story is not totally truthful and that for some diffuse glow applications I knew from the beginning what they would result in. Surprise may be faked.
22 Responses to “My diffuse glow story, thoughts and confessions”
I’m just stopping by to say you rock.
Great post, Vint. Maybe a good moral to the story is that if we can _recognize_ the filter, maybe it’s best not to use it, alone. I always recommend that if you are going to use the standard PS filters, that they be used in tandem with one another. More work, more experimentation, but much nicer results that way.
*can’t stop laughing* … great post Vint …no tool is the sole solution, unless you know why you are using it and what you aim to achieve all filters and plugins are useless … and hey, I’m guilty. it’s so easy to touch up something quickly using the right plugin /filter, some are truly amazing. Bottom line, with all creative work … technology is there to serve the idea … and that’s it ;-)
Vint, Bella … respect meiden ! ;-)
LMAO
Yup… love it… Your post that is, not diffuse glow or the myriad of similar plugins. I’ve been guilty of the likes lately and I have to keep on slapping my fingers away from certain tools that are just a cop out to getting the pic right to start off with….
Yup, sometimes these instruments of the devil can and should be used…. but in moderation, and with thought and planning. And never, ever to fix a “meh” pic…
Vint, Bella, you both rawk!!! ;-)
/me likes to “fix” stuff manually…. and spends hours doing it. So I don’t churn out lots of pics, but they are, experiments aside, clearly identifiable as MINE…. not Photoshop filters’ and plugins’…
That’s too sweet Vint … come on, let’s be honest. Who writes all those whitty posts on her blog, makes splendid pictures to accompany the posts and doesn’t care about mainstream opinion ? Ok, ok, we all have our bad days, but there are plenty of gems in your work.
And you know what really touched me today ?
The way we interacted on your Wrath picture, it wasn’t planned, it just happened and it felt really good. What a world of difference between the usual woooows and waaaauwwws, and the constructive interaction.
Respect Vint, respect !
PS: Enfant terrible ? Hmm, did I say that ? My reading of the term is as follow : successful person who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, or avant-garde. That’s you Vint !
Great post Vint.
I love your photoshop tips, Vint. Every so often I try doing certain things in “inverse mode” and then re-inverting it afterwards as well. Actually, I haven’t done anything in a long time. I need to work on at least one creative photo sometime soon.
Awesome tutorial Vinty! You managed to turn a pretty-bad — no offense (Second Life makes it bad though your avie takes it up a million notches ;-) ) — snapshot into a wonderful piece of work! Now, if we only had that type of feature in Second Life…
I haven’t been in ImageReady for a while now, been working in InkScape for a while, practicing my Scalable Vector Graphics skills. (Check it out, SVG’s the FUTURE!) Should get ’round to working on something in that. (Now, my computer crashes before I even get to the Second Life login screen. STUPID COMPUTER! [1st that is, 2nd works pretty OK with Second Life])
P.S.: How the heck do I always end up writing something off-topic, that is eventually bigger than the on-topic message? Stupid, stupid me…
Seems Musti had to vent some frustrations.. lol..
But you are absolutely right Vint.. a big amount of the “arty” SL pics on Flickr suffer from this problem and seem to become more of the same after a while.. maybe another reason why I dont visit Flickr that much anymore..
I am not at all a PS expert.. but, thanks to ao this blog, since some months I fool around with it sometimes.. and after a while, although not really mastering them, one starts to recognize many of the (easy) tricks behind some pics that at first look seemed to be stunning.. and appreciation grows for the few where you can see that real work and creativity was put in..
Keep up with the good work in 2008 girl.. and posting tutorials like this one, even if they have a bit a sour taste.. :-p
@Veronique: Musti ?? MUSTI ??? *laughs till tears roll down his cheeks* I love that … Vint I think you have just been given a brand new nickname … *wipes the tears from his eyes*
@Loki and Veronique: Haha, Musti! We got a gum brand here called Must, so I guess Musti Must’ve chewed on some Must? xD
Ok, I wrote a long reply yesterday, but lost it in the progress of crashing FF. But don’t you worry, it were all nice things to Bella, Loki, Tobie, … and a comparison between diffuse glow and cookies. As I’m lazy, I’m not going to retype, but I do want to say a few things on what was recently added in the comments here:
Now that is off my chest, please do continue telling me how great the tutorials are and how much my opinion is appreciated! ;) ;) ;)
PS. Veronique was referring to my new banner - how come nobody noticed it yet?!! - that features the Neko Vint. One very neat Neko Vint photographed by Mylena Aquitaine and one Neko Vint of my own. What’s a reasonable time to let new year decoration stay? I really like it. :d
[…] Falken posted one awesome Photoshop tutorial again. I didn’t think of that technique she exhibits so well in that post. It’s things like […]
Once again a photoshop tutorial that blows me away! Thank you for these! Not only do I learn how to clean up my SL photographs but it helps me learn something new in an application I need to learn so much about!
*mews*
Don’t know how to bring this ..
I baptised your technique the ‘Inverse Diffuse Glow’.
I was a bit sceptical at the start, then started to experiment with it.
And … it blew me from my chair.
Avarian Caves is a good example. It did miracles to this snapshot. Watch the zoomed part to look closer at the effect.
Or the Pile-Up of Lex where some blending of this technique on top of a Orton treatment, produced a watercolor effect and a nice healthy shadow.
That’s what I call ‘keeping me inspired’ !
Love the diffuse glow story. My eyes are having a hard time telling the difference between some of the steps you took. Still, awesome.
Dedric, that’s where the text inbetween the picture-steps is for! ;)
And Bella, that early?! ;) The Reversed Diffuse Effect has an official name somewhere, it is actually one of the techniques to get a soft focus effect on B&W photographs. Should look up what it’s name is though. :d (And yes, maybe it is Invert Diffuse Glow, who knows… )
On Avarian Caves, I like it, not so sure on Pile-Up of Lex, but might also be that the Orton treatment is to blame. I don’t really ‘love’ the effect in the demo that your blog links to either. Might want to have a go on that portrait picture myself… *grins* (But the links end ‘dead’ because I’m nog logged in, here?)
Ow, and what happened with Wrath and I? :d
You’re right, Vint…this is something I learned when I was still a photographer in rl. You can use a diffusion filter on your lens when you take the photo and it’ll diffuse the highlights (or at least, it will diffuse the highlights more noticeably). If you use a diffusion filter when you go to print from the negative, it will diffuse the shadows. =)
You printed from negatives in stead of converted raw? Ow my god! You didn’t look that old on the real life picture… ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
Hahahaha!
I did know the RL trick with the nylon panty, but the inverse ?
What’s wrong with admitting I learned something new ? I wish people would do this more often …
Ehm Vint, I guess you scared me with your RL photoshoot proposal, lol. No serious, there was no hi-res version accessible on your Flickr account. Need the same material as you, in order to have a fair chance at beating you …
Looking back, I don’t think it’s a good idea, I would only make a fool of myself. I’ll let you and Wrath live happily until I have more skills.
/me goes back in protective mode
Hey,
Thanks for the tutorial, I put it in practice here:
http://flickr.com/photos/mrfrans/2251830124/
Me lurve you long time
and diffuse glow, guilty as charged.
Care to comment?