How to Edit Photos Using the Grunge Look

Images like this are great candidates for grunge photography.

As digital photography advances, this new technology opens avenues that were previously closed to the art of the photograph, creating new possibilities and styles at an exponential rate. Hyper-real images have become the trademark of many photographers, and the polished sheen of digital images has been exploited by advertising agencies and portrait photographers looking for the touch of perfection that digital grants us. At the opposite end of the spectrum, other photographers reject the gloss of digital, creating images that are rough and gritty, cast in raw earth tones and destroyed subject matter. This style is called "grunge," and with a few tweaks you can grunge your own work to perfection.

Instructions

1. Open the image-editing program you most often use. For this assignment, the editor must be capable of creating many layers and blending them in various ways. This requires some high-end graphics software -- ideally, Adobe Photoshop. If your editing program does not have this capability, it will be a real challenge to get the look you're going for, if it is even possible.

2. Select and open the image you want to work with in your image editor. For the best results, the image should be at the largest size and highest quality your camera can produce. If your camera shoots RAW files, use that setting. If you've never worked with RAW, you will find that it's not that much different from editing a normal image. RAW also offers you expanded options and flexibility.

3. Double-click on your RAW image to open it. The image will open in a separate window rather than in the image editor. RAW images must be processed before they can be opened in an image-editing program, and this window is where that takes place. Here you can adjust the image in all sorts of ways, including exposure, saturation, contrast, clipping, color temperature and balance. The best part is that all this editing is not destructive and barely affects the quality of the image. When you're satisfied with your adjustments, click "Open" to move the image to your editing software.

4. Boost the contrast of the image. The best way to do this is by copying the base layer and changing the blend mode to "Hard Light." This setting will darken colors that are below 50 percent gray and lighten colors that are above that point, effectively increasing the contrast of the image while boosting the saturation.

5. Adjust the colors of the image by applying an earth-toned tint. Create a new, empty layer and select two slightly different colors from the color palette. Commonly, a bright color is used for the foreground and a darker hue is used for the background, but feel free to experiment. Change the layer-blending mode to "Overlay" and create a gradient of any style in the empty layer using the "Gradient" tool. If the color comes out too strong, lower the opacity or fill settings for the layer.

6. Add a vignette to the image if you'd like. The easiest way to do this is by opening the "Lens Correction" filter under the "Filters" menu. Under the "Custom" tab, drag the "Vignette" slider to the left to darken the image at the corners.

7. Add noise to the image to give it a tactile feeling of grit. With the tint layer selected, choose "Filter" > "Noise" > "Add Noise." Check the "Monochromatic" box, and adjust the amount of noise until the image looks gritty but still legible. The noise should look good now but a bit too "digital." To give a more "analog" feel, blur the noise using the "Gaussian Blur" tool, which is under "Filters" > "Blur" > "Gaussian Blur." Adjust the pixel slider until the grain looks natural.

8. Feel free to add any other grungy touches to the image. Many images are blended with textured layers that can be downloaded from various websites, and some create patterns using brushes designed for grunge photography. When you're finished, sharpen the image and save it. If possible, save the file as a TIFF. This loss-less image format preserves your layers at the highest quality possible, meaning you can come back to the image to make adjustments whenever you like.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are using Photoshop, you can punch up the image in a unique way. Select "Image" > "Mode" > "Lab Color" from the menu bar. Flatten the image if you are prompted to do so. Then click "Image" > "Apply Image." Under "Blending," choose "Soft Light" and choose "Luminosity" under channel. The strength of this effect is adjusted with the "Opacity" setting.

References

• Tutorial9: Easy Photo Grunge Effect
• Web Designer Depot: 100 Striking Examples of Grunge Photography
• Smashing Magazine: 40 Beautiful Grunge Photoshop Tutorials