Grainy Desaturated Photo Effect

  1. Choose a mid to dark flesh tone
  2. duplicate the image
  3. Levels - highlight slider to the left for a dramatic lighting effect 
  4. Channels Pallet - Choose the most dramatic ‘channel’ (usually the blue) and duplicate
  5. Levels - shadow slider to the right to darken
  6. Filter > Noise > Add Noise… - don’t add too much [~10 gaussian]
  7. Go back to the Layers Pallet
  8. Duplicate the original image - Layers - bring up the shadow slider and hide layer
  9. Image > Apply Image - channel to the layer you created and blending mode to multiply or desired look, finally adjust the opacity if you would like the effect not so drastic.
  10. hide layer
  11. go back to the dark layer version
  12. repeate step 9, channel to the layer you created and blending mode to ‘Vivid Light’ or whatever looks best.
  13. Now you have 2 options
  14. ‘Solid Color’ adjustment layer with color chosen from the first step. Blend mode to ‘color’ and drop the opacity to bring back a bit of the color.

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