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Posts Tagged ‘Frequency’

Former Facebook employees claim Instagram hid ‘likes’ to increase post frequency

12 Dec

A new report claims on behalf of three former Facebook employees that Instagram is hiding ‘likes’ as an experiment to determine whether doing so will get users to post more content. The theory, according to CNBC, is that users who receive few likes on their content may not post as often out of a sense of embarrassment. By hiding likes, Instagram may remove the psychological barrier preventing many users from frequently posting.

Over the course of its test this year, Instagram repeatedly presented its decision to hide likes as an effort to ‘depressurize’ the platform, reduce cyberbullying, and help users focus on the subjects and people who interest them. By hiding likes, the company has said, Instagram will feel less like a popularity contest.

The anonymous sources speaking to CNBC claim that it was parent company Facebook’s research that spurred the hidden likes test. The social media company allegedly found that removing public like counts resulted in Instagram users posting more often.

One source claims that Facebook’s research showed users were deleting or hiding posts that didn’t receive many likes, among other things. Whereas the lack of publicly visible likes helps users feel less self-conscious when their content doesn’t get much attention, the delivery of like and comment notifications to these same users may provide an incentive for them to post more often.

Instagram is allegedly aware of the fact that hidden ‘likes’ may have a negative impact on influencers by reducing the amount of engagement on their posts, but the sources claim that Facebook isn’t terribly concerned due to the lack of adequate competing services these influencers have available to them. This may not matter for the company in the long run if enough users start posting often enough to noticeably boost ad revenue, potentially making up for any negative effects on influencers.

The question remains over whether the ‘depressurized’ nature of a publicly like-free Instagram will lead to the more habitual use of the platform among some users, potentially paving the way for an uptick in ‘Instagram addiction’ cases. If a sense of peer pressure is causing many users to inherently moderate their use of the platform, removing that psychological barrier may have some unwanted consequences.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to do Frequency Separation Portrait Retouching in Photoshop

27 Apr
The goal of portrait retouching is to bring out the most naturally pleasing image of the subject. This image is the finished result of Frequency Separation Retouching in Photoshop.

The goal of portrait retouching is to bring out the most naturally pleasing image of the subject. This image is the finished result of Frequency Separation Retouching in Photoshop.

Portrait retouching may be accomplished using many different methods. Still, how often have you seen a portrait image that has been retouched to the point that the subject’s face looks unnatural? Even many of the software packages available for portrait retouching result in an airbrushed effect to skin tones.

What if the detail and color of a portrait could be separated for retouching? Frequency Separation Retouching will allow you to do just that! It will allow you to fix all the usual facial issues like removing wrinkles, bags under eyes, and blemishes. By dividing your image into two separate frequency layers, one layer being high frequency digital data, which contains the information of detail in the image, and a low frequency layer which contains the tonal and color information of the image.  However, the neat thing with Frequency Separation Retouching is that it allows you to make these corrections and retain the natural textures of the skin. By separating the colors and the details you can work on one aspect without affecting the other. Sure, some people will prefer the usual retouching methods, including airbrushing, but Frequency Separation Retouching gives you another option to use for enhancing your portraits. If you have a working knowledge of Photoshop, here’s how to get started:

Setup

#1 Make two copies of the background layer

In Photoshop, open your image, then make two copies of the background layer. Label the first layer “color” as this will be your low frequency layer, then name the second layer “detail” to become your high frequency layer.

#2 Apply a blur to the color layer

Turn off the detail layer and select the color layer. Apply a Gaussian Blur (found under the Filter menu>Blur) to a setting that blurs all the detail of the image, but leaves features intact (see sample below). This setting will vary from one image to another depending of the size of the image.

3-7-2015-2-21-56-PM750

#3 Setup the detail layer

Turn the detail layer back on and select it, then go to Apply Image under the Image tab. Depending on which color depth you are working with, 8 bit or 16 bit, see settings below for Apply Image.

apply-image3Set your Layer to color. For 8 bit images set the Blending to Subtract, Scale to 2 and Offset. For 16 bit images set the Blending to Add, Scale to 2, Offset to 0 and check the Invert box.

Set your Layer to color. For 8 bit images set the Blending to Subtract, Scale to 2 and Offset. For 16 bit images set the Blending to Add, Scale to 2, Offset to 0 and check the Invert box.

  1. Change the blending mode of the detail layer to Linear Light.
  2. Create a layer group, and drag the color and detail layers into the new layer group.

Once you get the hang of this setup, it’s easy to make a Photoshop action to take care of these steps with one click. Download my Photoshop action for the setup HERE (the file is zipped, just unzip and load into Photoshop)

Now you’re ready to start the fun part!

Retouch the Color layer

By retouching the color layer, you are going to even out all the color tones of your subject’s complexion and to remove dark and light areas.

Clone Tool – the Clone tool can be used to even out the color tones or experiment with different blending modes. Normal, Darken and Lighten are very good effect modes to use on the color layer. You may also need to adjust the opacity (the degree of transparency) of these blending modes.

Dodge and Burn Tools are a couple of other useful tools to even out dark and light tones of the skin tones.

As with almost any Photoshop function, there are various ways to get the results you desire. The tools mentioned above are good starting points for working on the color layer, but the possibilities are endless! Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Retouch the Detail layer

Click on the Detail layer, which contains every detail of your portrait image. There are a wide variety of tools you can use to fix skin imperfections, ranging from wrinkles to acne.

Clone Tool – Use the Clone tool with mode set to normal and just clone out imperfections, sampling (ALT/OPT key click) from a desirable area to paint over an imperfection in another area.

Healing Brush Tool –  The Healing Brush tool works similarly to the Clone tool and will sample textures from nearby areas to make a seamless patch.

Spot Healing Brush –  Spot Healing Brush works similarly to the Clone tool and Healing brush, but does not require you to sample a source area. It will automatically sample from another area to repair the target imperfection. Use the adjustable brush sizes to paint over spots and remove them.

Patch Tool – Like the Healing tool, the Patch tool will match the texture of the near-by area for a seamless repair. Make a selection over the area to be repaired and drag the selection over a good area. For best results work on small areas at a time.

Content-Aware Patch –  Similar to the Patch Tool, but with the Content-Aware Patch you select a good area and drag it over area to be repaired, and the tool will match the texture.

After image

After image

Once you have finished retouching the color and detail layers of your image, you can simply turn off the layer group to see the before and after of your work. (This is also a handy review tactic as you are working, to see how your adjustments are affecting the image.) Because all the retouching you have done are applied to the two new layers, it is completely non-destructive to the original image.  So, if you are unhappy with your first results, you can simply delete the retouched group and start over.

frequency-retouching-2-750

A – Original image B – Air-Brushed look retouching C – Frequency Separation retouching

 

Conclusion

Portrait retouching can be accomplished by using many different methods, and various software and plugins designed especially for that purpose. This article is meant to give you a Photoshop option for retouching and enhancing your portrait photography. The great feature of this method is the ability to separate the detail from the color and tones before retouching. Do you have any tips for portrait retouching?

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The post How to do Frequency Separation Portrait Retouching in Photoshop by Bruce Wunderlich appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Low Frequency, High Amplitude

19 Nov

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about the next step in my weird, one-off career. And this tweet, by a man who I truly admire, summed up my thoughts in just four words.

As a photographer, you could hardly ask for better advice. I’m taking it to heart, both for myself and for Strobist.

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Strobist

 
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Frequency Separation Technique

01 Aug

I uploaded this video by request from users on the www.ModelMayhem.com community to show how to do a frequency separation on an image in this sample I show a brief display on how it can be used to smooth skin or remove blemishes but this technique can be used for multiple things, such as contrast,sharpening,adding texture etc. I want to repeat that the Image I’m working on is 8 bit if you want to use this technique on a 16 bit image the settings will be different on the apply image box but the steps will remain the same. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂 16 bit settings & 8 bit settings below www.modelmayhem.com For a modern and affordable portfolio website go to 4ormat.com Use promo code 74383df0b4
Video Rating: 4 / 5