How to create a watercolor look with Power Retouche plug-ins

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

Creating a watercolor look

1. - Get rid of excess details

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

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.

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)

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...

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.

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

Credits

Idea kindly provided by Laurence Acland