how to create an outline drawing from a photo?

a month or two ago - somebody asked this - about how to turn a normal colour image into a black outline type drawing. If i remember correctly two people replied with the best closest method which when i tried worked great - however I have forgotten the technique (where's your dedication??!!) and can't seem to find the previous post on this topic through the search.

Any help (previous link or method) would be great - thanks!

I assume you're talking about this thread.

http://www.teamphotoshop.com/forum/vbforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2872

mrbogus - thanks for the help !! unfortunately - that isn't the technique (although very similar!!) . The one i refer to was somebody wanting to create an image like as if it had been hand drawn.

I can remember a few features of the technique (hoping to jog someone's memory).

The procedure took about 5/6 steps - open the image , sharpen it (to specific values) - grey scale it, use a picker (don't know where?) to select the background colour - and magically most of the image goes white with just the outlines of most objects. It was crude and left lots of lines of most other things in the image but seemed to do pretty much what was asked!

try this, It will give you a more detailed result.

Further detail on the "line art from photos" deal

-Lets begin

Open the image you wish to work with.


FIlter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask (settings will vary according to the photograph) try these settings:
Amount = 159
Radius = 3.5
Treshold = 0

Click OK

Next....

Filter>Other>High Pass (again settings will vary)
but try somewhere between 1.0 and 2.5

Click OK

Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask (again)
Use the same setting as before.
Amount = 159
Radius = 3.5
Treshold = 0

Click OK

Next....

Image>Mode>Grayscale

Image>Adjust>Levels

In the levels pallet there will be 3 little "eyedroppers" click on the one far right....then click in the Image somewhere in the "Gray" colored area that is the background of the image....

This will move your white point to make the image look like lineart.

You might have to do some tweaking...painting ...erasing and stuff....but thats the way I do it.

Next if I wanted like you said..."consistant" lines...I would take it make a new layer and start making "paths" that I could stroke to give me what I want.

Hope this helps.

hope that helps? tornupinside - thats exactly the technique I was after !!! thanks a million mate, really made my .er ....early morning?!! Now i can go to sleep - damn thing kept me up all night!!

thanks once again, much appreciated!