Photoshop has some great filters in its arsenal, but the trick is usually tweaking or working with them in such a way as to make it seem less like a canned filter that was just applied with the default settings.

Graphic interpretations of photographs can be a cool solution to a plain photograph that you want or need to spice up for presentation or inclusion into a larger graphic.

In this tutorial I will go over 2 effects that use a combination of a few filters to create a unique look.

I will use these 2 photos.

The vectorized looking, plastic feel

Step 1. Open your photograph and adjust the Curves and Contrast. Give the photo a good range of dark and whites. Make the shadows dark.

Step 2. Go to Filter/Blur/Smart Blur. Set the Radius and Threshold to %100 and the Quality High and the Mode Normal.

Step 3. Duplicate that layer and go to Image/Adjustments/Threshold. Set it so that the blacks in the image retain a bit of the detail, either keep most of black or most white- your choice. I used a number of 137.

Step 4. Set the Layer Mode to Overlay for that duplicate layer and lower the Opacity to about 25 or less.

Final: Make one last adjustment to the Curves and Contrast as well as the Color. You want to image to have a graphic feel so play with the various options and see what works for your specific photograph. I applied another Adjustment Layer for Threshold to both layers and made the Layer Mode Darken.

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The color ink, sketchy look

Step 1. Open your photograph and adjust the Curves and Contrast. Duplicate the layer.

Step 2. Make sure that your Color Palette in the Tools bar is set to the default Foreground/Background B&W colors.

Step 3. With the duplicate layer selected Go to Filter/Sketch/Photocopy. Us the highest Detail setting of 24 and the Darkness to a lower number of 10 or less.

Step 4. Go to Filter/Sharpen/Sharpen More. Apply this a few times.

Step 5. Set the Layer Mode of this layer to Overlay. Lower the Opacity slightly.

Step 6. Flatten the document go to Layer/Flatten Image. Make a duplicate of the background layer and apply a Guassian Blur with a radius of 1 or less. Set the Layer Mode of this layer to Linear Burn and lower the Opacity to less than %25.

Final: Flatten the document or apply an Adjustment Layer for Color Balance to the 2 layers. Adjust the Curves and Contrast one last time. Also you can start again with the steps all over again with this final image for an even more graphical stylization.

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