Extreme Contrast Photo Effect in Photoshop

Step 7: Merge All Layers Onto A New Layer At The Top Of The Layers Palette

With the "Background copy" layer still selected, press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E (Win) / Shift+Command+Option+E (Mac) to merge all the layers onto a brand new layer at the top of the Layers palette, which Photoshop has named "Layer 2":

Step 8: Add Noise To The Merged Layer

With the merged layer selected, go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, select Noise, and then select Add Noise. This brings up Photoshop's "Add Noise" filter dialog box:

When the dialog box appears, enter an Amount value of somewhere between 2-5% depending on the resolution of your image. I'm using a low resolution image for this tutorial, so I've set mine to 2%. If you're using a higher resolution image, which you probably are, set it closer to 5%. Set the Distribution option to Gaussian, and make sure the Monochromatic option at the bottom is checked so we don't end up with color noise. Click OK to apply the noise and exit out of the dialog box.

Here's my image after applying noise:

Step 9: Sharpen The Image To Enhance The Noise

Normally when working on images in Photoshop, we do everything we can to reduce or remove noise, but for this effect, we want to enhance it, and we can do that by sharpening the image. Go up to the Filter menu once again, this time choose Sharpen and then choose Smart Sharpen. This brings up the "Smart Sharpen" dialog box:

When the dialog box appears, enter an Amount value of somewhere around 55-60%, a Radius value of 1 pixel, set the Remove option to Lens Blur, and finally, make sure More Accurate is checked at the bottom. Then click OK to exit out of the dialog box and apply the sharpening.

If you're using a version of Photoshop prior to CS2, you can use the "Unsharp Mask" filter instead by going up to the Filter menu, choosing Sharpen, and then choosing Unsharp Mask. Enter an Amount value of around 150%, a Radius value of 1 pixel and a Threshold value of 0.

Here's my image after applying the sharpening using Smart Sharpen: