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Apply Image > Frequency Separation "not working"

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
January 16, 2019
7 Antworten
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I was able in the past to create a frequency separation layer, but it no longer works???

Image> Apply Image>Blending:Subtract, Scale:2, Offset:128, and now all I get is a gray completely flat image with zero detail.

I've done this in past a few times with no errors and gray scale images with detail for retouching, but now it no longer works???

Using iMac 2017, OS 10.13.6, Photoshop CC 2017.1.3

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Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

@YamesSaves wrote:

@Stephen_A_Marsh
The original post/question is over a year old, and if you had read though the messages after I updated CC Suite the problem was fixed.

You are correct that this is an old topic thread. Others beside yourself have posted both problems and suggested solutions in this topic thread.

If you had read through the messages you would have seen that both Dave and myself were replying to Doctorawd's post from 2 days ago.

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

I agree with Dave that knowing and understanding how to do this manually is important. I believe that once one has a full understanding of the method – it is more productive, efficient and error-free to automate the process.

With this in mind I have just added a 3rd method to produce a frequency separation style effect:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7sf1xcijtzdygyh/Frequency%20Splitter%20v4%20Conditional.zip?dl=0

Doctorawd, if the action is used correctly and all 3 methods in this action produce a flat grey result, then I believe that something may be wrong with your version or installation of Photoshop.

Please try the action and report back on your findings to help isolate whether this is user or program error.

S

santiagol72740262

Participant

You are not understanding the original post.

I have used this method (Frequency Separation) and saved as Action for almost 5 freaking years!! I can even re-make the manual step over and over again fsom muscle memory.

The thing is, suddenly I have the same issues with original poster that sometimes the Apply Image with Subtract portion doesn't work, sometimes it does!. And yes, I know the Freq Sep method inside out. Like I said this Action I have used for a good 5 years!

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

are dumb or something theyare clearly telling you that its not a steps problem,

This is not an official Adobe feature, but rather something (IIRC) that originally popped up on Model Mayhem of all places. There is no one golden process, you have to get it figured out by yourself.

I've been using on numerous different computers over the last ten years or so since the technique came out and it always works fine.

Daniel E Lane

Inspiring

OK, you are missing all kinds of steps in your setup here. So here is step by step, the set up for a Frequency Separation on an image.

1. Start with a background layer, and make 2 copies of it. In the first image, you can see the 3 layers and the labels as to what they will become.

2. The second layer (labeled Blur), apply a Gaussian blur. Usually around a 5-10 will work good. Though at times it will be even higher. You are basically looking for the blur to basically just remove the skin texture and go just beyond that.

3. Then your top layer is where you go to the drop down Apply > Apply Image and you get a small pop up window. It's kind of a crazy set up in there, but it works. The next image shows the settings in there...

It almost makes the image look like a high pass image. But not exactly. But the settings are as follows...

- Source: This is just the project name of the image you have open.

- Layer: This needs to be set to the blurred layer

- Channel: RGB (because this image is an RGB image. If you were in a CMYK image, set to that...)

- Blending: Set to Subtract

- Opacity: Set to 100%

- Scale: Set to 2

- Offset: Set to 128

Those last 2 numbers are just they way it is. It's some crazy algorithm as to what they mean, but just use them and it will work fine.

Once you have those settings in there, if you have Preview turned on, it should look something like a high pass filter image.

4. Now set the Texture Layer to a blending mode of Linear Light.

And at this point it looks like like a normal image. You have a blurred layer with the texture being added back by the Applied Image layer (labeled as texture layer.)

5. At this point, I typically group those two new layers together just to make everything in my layers panel nice and tidy.

Now is where you can start actually using what you have just set up. What you will basically be doing is evening out the skin tones, removing any blotchiness and what not while preserving skin texture (pores etc) so the person will look good and not like plastic at the same time.

6. Using the Lasso Tool, circle around an area of the face that you want to adjust, say, the cheek. Go with larger areas and have your Lasso Tool set to have a little bit of a feather to the edge, maybe 5 pixels.

7. Now apply a Gaussian Blur to the circled area. You may have to go a little higher to get it to react. It just depends on the skin condition of the person in the image.

And that's it. Go through the skin and clean it up however much you would like. You can also use this technique on some clothing as well to help remove wrinkles. Not all the time for that, But it works more often than not.

A quick job after doing the frequency separation for this tutorial: Before and After.

Not perfect, but you get the idea. Her skin looks much more smooth and even without looking plastic.

YamesSavesAutor

Known Participant

Okay maybe I didn't explain well enough, but I more fully aware of all the step above even before you posted. My issue is when I go though "Apply Image" and create a frequency separation layer, sometimes it works, other times I get a flat gray layer, zero detail. The other day I went over "Apply Image" over and over and it worked on the third try, and it was all though a saved preset, so the same action I did three times worked on my third attempt. I believe it is a photoshop error, I have cleared my cache and reinstalled, but am still getting the same error. Unfortunately I am working on a company computer and do not have admin password to update, hoping the newest version gets rid of the bug.

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

I suspect that its something just on your computer. Try deleting and rerecording the action.

I've been using Frequency Separation since it became public and haven't ever seen that particular issue, where apply image didn't work.

L

Lumigraphics

Legend

The layer you are applying must be blurred and then the grey layer set to Linear Light blending mode.

YamesSavesAutor

Known Participant

I am fully aware of that, that's not the issue. Like said I have done this serval times before, sometimes it works, other times I get nothing, but a gray flat image.

YamesSavesAutor

Known Participant

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

It's not a user error, I had it saved as a preset, worked before than stopped working.

As the topic author, you can mark whatever post you like as “correct”, however marking an obviously incorrect post as correct does not help your cause (nor does it help others with a similar problem/question). A correct answer is a reply that clearly demonstrates the resolution to a problem and is subsequently useful to the topic author (and hopefully other users that may have the same problem). Your “correct” answer does not meet this criteria.

Questions in order to help include:

* What exactly is this “preset”, can you share it via a file sharing site?

* Providing a link to a PSD file and the exact steps required to recreate your problem would also be advisable.

* Your screenshot is missing critical information that would be useful in helping you. The layers panel should be shown with all layers visible/expanded and the document title bar or other panels should be visible to indicate the bit depth of the image (I’m guessing 8 bpc, if it is 16 bpc that is your problem).

* What is the result of running the action that I provided?

* Why is there an irregular shaped area? I would generally advise that the entire image via the 2 layer stack is processed, then masked afterwards.

When correctly performed, the “frequency separation” technique clearly works. I have provided an action to create it and I can also provide a layered file created from the action. As stated, this is generally a case of user error. The onus is on you to show that this is not the case, which you have not yet done. Otherwise how do you expect anybody to help you?

2 Examples of user error:

Frequency separation doesn't work/ apply image & subtruct

Apply Image calculations does not offer the correct options.