How to make your images more polarised, without the need of expensive filters.

Hello and welcome to this tutorial.
With only a few steps, you can greatly enhance the look of your images, simulating the use of a polarising filter. Lets begin.

Stock :

1. Duplicate the layer. Ctrl + Shift + U to desaturate, then apply a gaussian blur of 50-70 pixels. I am using 60px.

2. Invert the colours (Ctrl + I) and set the blend mode to overlay.

3. Image> > Adjustments > Levels. Here are the settings I’ve used.

4. Finally, Mask this top layer and, using an abstract/dappled brush with opacity and flow about 50%, set to black, go over the clouds to let them show from the layer below. Mergedown, and thats it.

Result :

Thanks
~ Cof ~

About the author:

I live in Northern Ireland, currently still in school studying to do Sonic Arts at university. Enjoy photography (Nikon D70) and Photoshop (Cs), aswell as playing bass in jazz bands and singing choral/classical works.
Check out my Profile/Gallery for more tutorials and to see my work.