Creating terrain grayscale image from height field contours

Dear folks at Team Photoshop,

Let me start first by conveying my appreciation and thanks for the tremendous amount of time and energy you gurus have put in to help neophytes like me.

Now to the Photoshop question that I have. I will try to be detailed.

The starting point:
I have a JPG image of a battlefield wherein the height contours in feet are marked as faint lines (like a closed contour line for 390 feet, another for 420 feet, etc etc.)
Please see the attached image.


The desired final product in Photoshop:
A grayscale RAW document that shows the height variations in gray tones.
Low lying troughs need to be darker and higher elevations need to be lighter.
See picture below for example:


Please note that I am ignoring the roads and other features in the battlefield.
All I am interested is the technique of converting the height contours into a smoothly varying grayscale image.

I am a complete Neanderthal when it comes to Photoshop. I do have a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS3 on my PC.
I have been toying around with the package on and off. But nothing useful has come out yet.
I was hoping that the gurus here could help me with some pointers with the above process.

Now to my specific questions

*How do I bring in the height contours into Photoshop? I have tried the magnetic lasso tool and able to trace a height contour with good fidelity.
I am kind of stuck at this point. Do I save the selection to a new layer? Do I thus create one layer for each of the height contours?
Say one layer for the all the 390 feet contours, another layer for the 420 feet contours, one more for the 360 feet contours etc etc?

*Assume that I have somehow brought in all the height contours successfully into a new Photoshop document.
How do I create a gradient effect between the contours?
The lowest height in the map is 300 feet and the highest areas are at 480 feet.
Thus the area enclosed by the 300 feet contour lines needs to be darkest (pitch black) and the area enclosed by the 480 feet contour lines needs to be lightest (pure white).
The areas in between need to go progressively from dark to light shade.
How do I achieve this?

*Assume that I have created now a PSD document that has these smoothly varying grayscales. How do I convert this to a RAW image?

If you could guide me a bit on this I will be very grateful.
Thanks in advance and the very best regards,

Fred

1) Go to Image-Mode and convert the image to RGB Color
2) Duplicate any one of the channels and give a gaussian blur around 4.0
3) Make a new blank layer and fill it with 50% grey
4) On the grey layer go to Filters-Render-Lighting Effects
5) From the Texture Channel drop down box, select the duplicate channel
6) Adjust the lighting to give you the effect you desire

Hawkeye!

Thanks for the prompt response. I tried your stuff. No go. I guess I am doing something stupid.

Will try again and if it still fails, will post a detailed reply.


Thanks and regards
Fred

Hawkeye, hi!

I tried following the step-by-step procedure that you were kind enough to post. But could not get the desired result.

1) Go to Image-Mode and convert the image to RGB Color
2) Duplicate any one of the channels and give a gaussian blur around 4.0
3) Make a new blank layer and fill it with 50% grey
4) On the grey layer go to Filters-Render-Lighting Effects
5) From the Texture Channel drop down box, select the duplicate channel
6) Adjust the lighting to give you the effect you desire

*First of all, the JPG that you posted, is it the final result based on my JPG? If yes, that looks pretty good and it is exactly the type of final output that I am looking for.

*Let me write down the method that I followed so that you could perhaps find out where I am fumbling.

1) Go to Image-Mode and convert the image to RGB Color
*Loaded the image and made sure the mode was set to RGB. See screenie below.

2) Duplicate any one of the channels and give a gaussian blur around 4.0
Duplicated the RED channel and called the duplicate as Red copy. See screenie below.

With the “Red copy” channel still selected, from the top menu selected the following : Filter => Blur => Gaussian Blur => 4 pixels. See screenie below.

The result after the blur operation is as shown:

3) Make a new blank layer and fill it with 50% grey
I went to the top menu, selected Layer => New fill layer => Solid color.
Chose gray for color with 50% opacity. See below.

The result looks like below:

4) On the gray layer go to Filters-Render-Lighting Effects

I am stuck at this point. When I select
Filter => Render
From the top menu, “Lighting Effects” menu item is grayed out. It is not accessible.


What am I doing wrong?


Any help on this greatly appreciated.


Thanks and regards
Fred

As you said in your post "*Assume that I have somehow brought in all the height contours successfully into a new Photoshop document."

That being the case, I used the small grayscale image that you attached as the template. You will need to make an image using black and white to depict the various levels.

The first screenshot here is what I started with. I just used the black brush to paint on a white background. Then I made a copy of the blue channel and blurred it. Went back to the layers palette and made a new layer and filled it with 50% grey. With the grey layer selected, go to filters render lighting effects. The second screenshot shows the settings I used. Note the texture channel is the blue channel copy. Hope this helps.

Hawkeye, hi!

Perhaps it was an overload of information in my previous posts.

Let me keep it very short and simple.

*I have attached a JPG herewith.

*It has 3 contours: outer red, middle purple and inner green.

*The outer red is at 100 feet, middle is at 200 feet and the innermost green is at 300 feet.

*Can you please show me how I can use the gradient tool to make a grayscale map out of this?
Lowest height should be darkest and the highest areas are to be lightest.


Thanks in advance and the very best regards,

Fred

I'd have to know exactly what you are trying to acheive... I made this using the method I outlined for you. If it's the effect you are after, let me know.

Hawkeye, hi!

Sorry for the late response.

I have been doing some search on the web and have basically found the technique that I am looking for.

It involves the use of both Adobe Photoshop and 3DStudio Max ( both of which I have, fortunately).

It goes like this.

*Draw the contour lines manually on the terrain map using different coloured pens for the different heights.

*Scan the map.

*In Photoshop select all the contours of the same height (and same colour) using the colour key.

*Name these contours and save these contours as paths.

*Repeat for contours of all the colours.

*Save all the paths as an Adobe Illustrator (.ai) file. 3DS Max can read these .ai files.

*Import this .ai file into 3DSMax. The paths now will appear as splines in 3DSMax.

*Select splines of the same height.

*Displace in Z direction according to the height of the contour.

*Then use the terrain function in 3DSMax to smoothly create a terrain from these contours.

*****************************************************

I take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and help. May your tribe multiply.


Best Regards
Fred