Gritty, Overprocessed Photo Effect
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Step 4: Duplicate "Layer 1"
Let's bump up the contrast even further. We can do that simply by duplicating our layer, just like we did when we duplicated the Background layer a moment ago. With "Layer 1" still selected in the Layers palette, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose New, and then choose Layer via Copy, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Either method will duplicate "Layer 1", and if we look in our Layers palette, we can see that we now have a new layer named "Layer 1 copy" sitting above "Layer 1". Notice how the copy of "Layer 1" is already set to the same blend mode (Hard Light) that "Layer 1" was set to:
If we look at our image after duplicating the layer, we can see that the contrast has definitely been increased. Certain areas of the photo, especially skin tones, are starting to look rather harsh and gritty, and we're seeing halo effects around some objects thanks to the high Radius value we set with the High Pass filter. The term "halo effect" refers to a noticeable white glow around objects caused by over sharpening an image. In my photo, the white glow is very noticeable now around the man's hair as well as the side of the woman's sunglasses:
Step 5: Duplicate The Layer Again (Optional)
Depending on your image, you may want to increase the contrast even further. If that's the case, simply press Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) to create another copy of the layer. Our Layers palette now shows a second copy, this one named "Layer 1 copy 2", sitting above the other layers:
If, after duplicating the layer a second time, you find that the contrast is too intense even for this effect, simply lower the opacity of the new layer to tone things down a little. You'll find the Opacity option at the top of the Layers palette directly across from the blend mode option. I'm going to lower the opacity of my layer down to about 50%:
Here's my image after duplicating "Layer 1" a second time and then lowering the opacity of the layer to fine-tune the result. I think it's safe to say that the contrast has now reached extreme levels:
