Chi's Dragan Attempt - The Chi-sepian effect

The Dragan effect is a method of photo manipulation using filters, blends and layers in Photoshop. I’m not sure exactly where the style originated, but Photographer Andrzej Dragan took Sepia toning to a higher level, made it unique and attached his name to it.

I remember my dad coming back from the photographic club, and experimenting for weeks in his little darkroom adjoining the garage. He had photos of similar effect, and the hues and tones in his photographs looked almost animated, which, together with the pastel colours gave his photos lots of ‘character’. I imagine it as the first time I saw the Dragan effect without putting a name to it.

Since going digital and ‘discovering’ Photoshop, a night doesn’t pass where I do not try and personalise an effect of some sort. But, with the initial idea originating from another artist or photographer, it can never be true, and so I continue hoping to replicate what I saw in my father’s darkroom many, many years ago. The images are right here in my mind, but I cannot seem to bring forth the character of those photographs onto my ‘canvas’.

Anyhow, eet kreef asked me to post the steps needed to create the Dragan effect. My attempts are by no means truly Dragan, and certainly much is lost in my interpretation of the steps. I will therefore not insult Andrzej by calling it Dragan, but only Chi’s interpretation of the Dragan effect.

The steps are long and require a lot of patience on your part. Also, please understand that you may not get the desired look immediately, and perhaps not even after many tries. It is necessary that you tweak the steps here and there, depending on the photo that you use. Furthermore, try and stay with the same photo until you feel you have mastered the ‘art’ to some degree.

It is possible to manipulate any photo, but I felt ‘soft light’ photos with varying degrees of light (highlights) and dark (midtones & shadows) work the best. Bright daylight photos are not suitable, nor are very dark photos with very little white areas, for contrast.
I will put the steps together in as easy a workable way as possible and post it tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a sample of what Andrzej did.