How to I get the Instagram "Lux" effect without using Instagram?

Question

I am kind of fascinated with the new Lux effect of Instagram. I want to "get" the same effect myself, during post processing. This is what I was able to get to, after playing with Levels, Contrast, Saturation and Shadows in iPhoto.

My questions:

1. Is it possible to get such an effect using basic tools like Picasa or iPhoto?If so, how?
2. Is it possible to get such an effect in Photoshop/PS Elements/Lightroom (and the like). If so How?

Original Photo:

With the Instagram Lux effect and "Low Fi" filter:

What I could get: (at best, with my limited knowledge)

Answer 1

So, here's what I got in just a few minutes using two basic tools: Curves, and Unsharp mask:

I used Gimp, but this is basic stuff any decent image editing software will have. Here's all I did. First, I used the curves tool to dramatically increase the black point, increasing shadow contrast:

Then, I pulled the curve upwards to brighten the (new) midtones:

I didn't mess with the color channels at all; this is all the global "value" curve. I made these adjustments by eye, watching the tone of the house as I worked.

Having done that, I resized to 612×612 (the size of your Instagram example here), and then used an Unsharp Mask with a radius of 10 pixels and a very high strength.

This doesn't look exactly like your image, but I think we're in the ballpark.

There's a sort of glow over the lower part of the house that's missing, and I couldn't replicate this with global adjustments without destroying the tones in the sky and the detail on on the tree branches on the left; I suspect that the filter applies a graduated vignette/glow/"light leak" effect somewhere in the pipeline here. If you compare the top half of my attempt to the Instagram output, you'll see they're really close; the difference is in the lower part.

The original has flat lighting; this fake burst is part of what adds dynamic interest, but which also feels a little bit like cheating: Instagram is not just capturing what's there with a funky filter, but altering the reality of the scene.

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Update: this is with just an upsharp mask with radius 100 and strength in Gimp of 2.0 (Photoshop measures strength differently, but basically, about 10× higher than one would normally use if going for a natural looking image).

The curves approach gives a lot more control and it's still what I recommend, but for quick and dirty replication of the effect, this might be all you need.

Answer 2

I borrowed your image and one from another question like it, to try it in Image View plus more 3, which I made myself so I know all the underlying algorithms.

I think this is pretty close, albeit the colours may be a bit different (my weakness as I am colour deficient).

What I did was:

1. Local contrast enhancement. Adobe calls this "clarity". It is similar to the unsharp mask with a very large radius.

2. Boost saturation. My program does this in the Lab space. Other software may do this in other spaces (e.g. HSV) which can result in different colours. It may also be a selective saturation boost like a proprietary "vibrance".

3. Your image seesm to have undergone a bit of contrast boost as well, while hte tattoo image hasn't. This points towards some autolevels.

But I would conclude it is these two operations that is incorporated into "Lux"; a local contrast enhancement, a saturation booster of some sort, and autolevels.

Answer 3

I write the algorithm of Michael Nielsen in Matlab. Only first step: unsharp mask with a very large radius. The result was expected.

code:

 imsharpen(image,'Radius',100)

This answer is only comment to Michael Nielsen's.