# The Dragan Effect - Tutorial



## Forkie (Aug 27, 2014)

I wrote this tutorial of my interpretation of the Dragan effect in another thread, here and a couple of people asked me to make a whole new thread for it so it didn't get lost in the original one. 

The Dragan Effect is a processing workflow popularised by Andrjez Dragan and can be seen on his website here:  Andrzej Dragan PHOTOGRAPHY

I'm not 100% sure of the pronunciation.  It could be _Dray-gun_, _Dra-GAN_, _Dra-Gayn_, but I like to pronounce it _Dragon_, because it sounds awesome.

I use the Dragan effect in almost all my editing workflows to varying degrees to make my images "pop" but the tutorial was written after someone asked me to explain my editing process for the below image, where I have used it rather more ferociously!




Self by Forkie, on Flickr

I would draw your attention to the importance of using layers and masking in this, and all Photoshop workflows. The most important keyboard shortcut you can learn in Photoshop is this: *SHIFT+ALT+CMD+E (Mac) *or* SHIFT+ALT+CTRL+E (PC). *When you have two or more layers in your image, using this keyboard shortcut will merge all the layers together into a new layer without losing the original layers. This way any changes you make to that merged layer can be masked out or deleted altogether and you will still have all the original layers.

Once you have mastered layers and masks (and you will. It will just "click" one day), you will more or less have mastered Photoshop. The rest really is about finesse and how much time you spend on an effect, more than anything.

I've made this tutorial as step-by-step as I can, but if all that layer stuff sounds like gobbledy-gook to you, you might need to do some layers and masking tutorials first as this tutorial may be a little advanced for you.

I hope the tutorial is useful. And if there is a typo that doesn't make sense or a setting you're not sure about, paste your question here and I'll try to help.

Good luck!

*EDIT: *Presumably, there is an attachment limit in posts as all the image attachments have been turned into links.  Click the link to see the image the step refers to. Also, please do not rely on the images for settings or layers information as this tutorial was made after I'd already done everything, so I just switched the layers on and off to get the screenshots - the image are intended to see the effect on the photograph only. 

*EDIT:*  Ok, the images are working again.

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This is my original photo:

View attachment 83050

*1.* The first step was to remove all my blemishes and spots - my face is far from perfect! I always remove blemishes on a *new, blank layer* using the healing brush, spot removal and clone tools. I remove any stray hairs at this point too.  Make sure your Spot, healing and clone tools are set to "Sample All Layers".

View attachment 83051

*2.* Merged the layers up: *Shift+Alt+Cmd (or CTRL on PC)+E*. This merges all layers together into a new layer. I do this after every step. That way if I change my mind about whatever I've done to it, I can mask it off or delete it altogether. 

Now for shading. Added a new blank layer above the merged layer just created and filled it with black. Changed the blend mode of the black layer to "Soft Light", added a mask, inverted the mask and used a brush at 7% opacity to paint the black back in where I wanted to accentuate a shadow. You can do the same step with white to accentuate highlights too - this is my preferred method of dodging and burning.

After dodging and burning, I merged up again: *Shift+Alt+Cmd (or CTRL on PC)+E*. Now I added a Camera Raw Filter (only available on Photoshop CC). In camera raw, I pushed the Clarity slider to the max, and gave the contrast a hefty boost and pushed the shadows slider about 3/4 of the way up and the saturation to 0% so it was desaturated. I hit OK, and now my layer is a very contrasty black and white. Changed the blend mode of that layer to "Luminosity". The contrast stays, but the colour shows through from the layer underneath. 

View attachment 83053

Added a mask to the layer and inverted it. Using the brush tool at 7% again, I painted it back in using a "T" shape over the eyes, nose and mouth. This makes the eyes, nose and mouth "pop" from the rest of the face.  Don't go mental with it.  Subtlety is key.  Switch the layer on and off to see before and after rather than judging it as you go.

View attachment 83054

*4.* Merged up again. Adjusted the colour. I like to use the "Match Colour" tool under _Image>Adjustments>Match Colour_ to fix my colour. It's non-traditional, but it does what I want it to do. It only works on a layer with pixels in it, so always merge up before using it. I pushed up the Luminosity a bit, and pushed the colour intensity right up to the max, then check the "Neutralize" checkbox and push the "Fade" slider up to max, then gradually bring it down again until happy with the colouring using the Preview on/off checkbox to check it.

Once done, I liked it, but it was a bit too colourful, so I brought the Vibrance down a smidge and reduced the reds using the "Colour Balance" adjustment.

View attachment 83055

*5.* Merged up again. I didn't like that the right hand side of my hair stuck out more than the other side, so I used the Liquifier to push it back (open up the above image and the below image at the same time and switch back and forth to see the difference if you can't tell what I did!)

View attachment 83056

*6. *Merged up again. Skin Smoothing. Added a "Surface Blur" to the image and adjust the radius and threshold sliders until the skin looked smooth, but the eyes, nostrils and lips were more or less unaffected. Hit ok, then added a mask to the layer, inverted that mask and again with the brush tool at 7%, I painted the smoothing back in around the skin, avoiding the hair, eyes, nose and mouth. The trick here is to stop before it starts looking like it did before you masked it off.

View attachment 83057

*7.* Dragan effect: Merged the layers up yet again. Added a Camera Raw Filter and pushed the clarity to the max, pushed up the contrast, opened up the shadows and knocked the highlights right out. Once happy with the contrast of the image, making sure I can see pores and hairs and I can see detail in the shadows and highlights, I reduced the Vibrance of the image to dull the colours. About 3/4 of the way down the slider seemed to work. I hit OK. I then reduced the opacity of that layer until there was a nice balance between the colours below and the dull/contrast of the "Dragan" layer.

View attachment 83058

*8.* Merged up. Pushed the saturation, brightness and contrast of the whole image, merged those 4 layers together into one and added a mask and inverted it. And using my favourite brush tool at 7%, I painted it back into the irises of the eyes.

View attachment 83059

*9.* No merge for this one. Added a blank layer and added a black gradient on each side of the image and changed the blend mode to soft light, then added a mask and brushed out (at 100% opacity) where the gradient had bled onto my face.

View attachment 83060

*10. *Merged up. Added an "Iris Blur" (I think maybe only available in Photoshop CC) to give the impression of a shallower DOF as I don't own an ND filter so couldn't open up my aperture wide enough to give me a real shallow DOF.

View attachment 83061

11. Merged up one final time. Changed the layer blend mode to "Hard Light" and added a "High Pass" filter. Adjusted the radius slider so I could just see the outlines of the detail in my eyes and hit ok.

DONE!

View attachment 83062


Enjoy!


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## pthrift (Aug 27, 2014)

Thanks a lot man!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4. probably at work.


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## xzyragon (Aug 27, 2014)

subscribing because I want to try this!  Thanks for the writeup


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## cynicaster (Aug 27, 2014)

Thanks for putting this together.  I learned a few new tricks!

In particular, your dodge/burn technique is something I'm eager to try.  I've been doing mine by creating two curves layers: one each for dodging and burning, which are then "painted on" where desired.


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## Forkie (Aug 27, 2014)

cynicaster said:


> Thanks for putting this together.  I learned a few new tricks!
> 
> In particular, your dodge/burn technique is something I'm eager to try.  I've been doing mine by creating two curves layers: one each for dodging and burning, which are then "painted on" where desired.



That's a perfectly good way - there are loads of ways of dodging and burning - almost all are better than the dodging and burning tools!


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## JohnnyWrench (Aug 27, 2014)

Very cool. And I believe the proper pronunciation is _Dra-GAN.  _That was my grandfathers first name and he was also of eastern european descent.


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## mmaria (Aug 27, 2014)

* carefully choosing words I could post in your thread 

good edit. good tutorial. well done.


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## johngpt (Aug 28, 2014)

Super job Forkie. Thank you.

Just to clarify, when you say you added a mask and inverted the mask, you are creating a mask filled with white, then inverting so that it's filled with black, hiding the pixels of that layer.


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## sscarmack (Aug 28, 2014)

That's how I would interpret it. I do that a lot. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Majeed Badizadegan (Aug 28, 2014)

You're this forkin' beautiful majestic unicorn man who makes these great tutorials.


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## johngpt (Aug 28, 2014)

sscarmack said:


> That's how I would interpret it. I do that a lot.



I generally use the short cut of holding the option key (alt key on PC?) and click the add layer mask icon. Puts a mask filled with black without having to invert it.


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## Forkie (Aug 30, 2014)

johngpt said:


> Super job Forkie. Thank you.
> 
> Just to clarify, when you say you added a mask and inverted the mask, you are creating a mask filled with white, then inverting so that it's filled with black, hiding the pixels of that layer.




Exactly right.  You can then paint the pixels back in using the brush tool with white selected as your colour.


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## vvcarpio (Sep 2, 2014)

Step #2 -- black layer, soft light -- is now part of my workflow. Thank you for posting.


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## MRnats (Sep 2, 2014)

Interested in trying. Subscribed. Thanks!


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