How to create a watercolor look with Power Retouche plugins

How to create a watercolor look with Power Retouche plugins

Following is an example of how to use several Power Retouche filters to produce a water color like look.

Creating a watercolor look

The "watercolor" ...

and the original image...

1. - Get rid of excess details

Blur with Photoshops Blur More from the menu Filter>Blur>Blur More. Or use
Power Retouche Sharpness Editor.

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How to create a watercolor look with Power Retouche plugins

2. - Posterize
Set Posterization Editor to the following settings and apply:
Value divisions 4
Hue divisions 9
Mode Overlay
If you are not using the tutorial orchid image, then you might want to use other
settings.

3. Create a new layer

Bring out the Layers palette from the Windows menu and create a new layer by
grabbing (point over and hold left mouse button down) over the background, then
drag it onto the icon of a sheet of paper at the bottom of the palette; then let go.
If you want to rename the layer, then rightclick on the layer, select "Layer
Properties..." from the popupmenu and rename.

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How to create a watercolor look with Power Retouche plugins

4. Create edges
Select the new layer.
Invoke Edgeline Power Retouche and set it to:
Method: Soft Multicolor
Clean-up none
Threshold 50
(Black/White or color makes no difference with this method unless clean-up is on)
(Transparent background makes no difference for what we want to do later)
You will get the hideous result shown here...

5. Change mode and opacity

Change the mode to Multiply and set Opacity to 50%
Then apply Blur More to the layer in order to blur the lines...
Merge the two visible layers (Menu Layers>Merge Visible)

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How to create a watercolor look with Power Retouche plugins

6. Sharpen
First we need to sharpen the image.
Invoke SharpnessEditor PowerRetouche
Since we want to preserve the large fluid look, set the sharpener to size 4 and
make sure Fix Edges is at 80 so you don't get any edgelines. Use method
Sharpness Editor.

7. Despeckle
Now we have to get rid of the speckle.
Invoke the Noise Corrector Power Retouche. Set it to:
Method Despeckle
Night or Dark Image on
Filtersize 4.
You will get this fair imitation of a watercolor...

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How to create a watercolor look with Power Retouche plugins

8. Add Paperstructure
If you want to be very convincing, you will need to add paperstructure
Here's an example of a structured surface that resembles watercolorpaper. It has to
be quite high in contrast for our purposes.
Place the paperstructure in a layer above the "watercolor" image.

9. Combine paper and image

Now simply change the blending mode of the paper-layer to Color Burn and set the
opacity to 30%. You will get this ...
You could also use Multiply or Overlay instead of Color Burn.

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How to create a watercolor look with Power Retouche plugins

Here's the original again so you can compare...

Credits

Idea kindly provided by Laurence Acland

Copyright 2001-2004 PowerRetouche.com All rights Reserved.

Graphic design by Power Retouche photo software and photoshop plugins for photo restoration and photo editing.
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