Photo Effects: Fast, Easy Pop Art With Lab Color

Step 6: Apply The "Cutout" Filter To The "Lightness" Channel

Click on the "Lightness" channel in the Channels palette to select it. Your image will turn gray again in the Document Window, but at least this time it will look like a normal black and white version of the image. Go up to the Filter menu, select Artistic, and then select Cutout. This will bring up the massive Filter Gallery set to the Cutout filter options:

The Filter Gallery may be huge, but the preview area takes up a third of it on the left, and the actual options for the Cutout filter are on the right, and there's only three of them, as circled in red above. Set the Edge Simplicity option to 0 and the Edge Fidelity option to 1. The Number of Levels option at the top determines how many tonal levels you'll have in your image. The lowest value you can enter is 2, and that will make everything in your image either black or white, with no shades of gray in between. The highest value you can enter is 8, which will give you black, white, and 6 shades of gray in between. Each additional shade of gray gives you a bit more detail in the image.

The value you enter for "Number of Levels" will depend entirely on your image and on what you feel is the right amount of detail for the effect. The easiest way to determine that is to click your mouse inside the "Number of Levels" value box and then use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to raise and lower the value, keeping an eye on the preview area on the left as you do so. You can scroll around inside the preview area as needed by simply clicking and dragging your mouse inside of it. Raise and lower the value between 2 and 8 while watching the preview area until you've found the value that works best. I've settled on a value of 7 for my image. Once you've found the value that works best, click OK to exit out of the Filter Gallery.

Click back on the "Lab" channel to view your full color image after applying the Cutout filter to the "Lightness" channel. Here's my result:

Step 7: Apply The "Smart Sharpen" Filter To The "Lightness" Channel

The effect is now pretty much complete, but it's looking a little soft and could use some sharpening. To do that, click back on the "Lightness" channel in the Channels palette to select it. Then go up to the Filter menu, select Sharpen, and then select Smart Sharpen. This brings up the Smart Sharpen dialog box:

Enter an Amount value of 75% and a Radius value of 1 pixel. Leave Remove set to Gaussian Blur and check the More Accurate option at the bottom to select it.

Click OK to exit out of the Smart Sharpen dialog box, then click on the "Lab" channel in the Channels palette to bring back your full color image.

Step 8: Convert The Image Back To The "RGB" Color Mode

At this point, the effect is done. All that's left to do is convert the image out of Lab color and back to the RGB color mode. To do that, go back up to the Image menu, select Mode, and then select RGB Color:

Once the image is back in the RGB color mode, you're done!

Here's my original image once again for comparison:

And here's the final result after sharpening the "Lightness" channel:

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