Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to transform a photo of someone into a fractured photo portrait effect.
Open a photo of someone that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
Before we begin, if you want to know as soon as I upload new Photoshop tutorials,
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First, we'll separate our subject from its background.
If you're using versions earlier than CC 2020, I'll show you what to do in a minute.
For CC 2020 or later, click the lock icon to unlock the layer.
Then, open the Properties panel.
If you don't see it, go to Window, "Properties".
Scroll down and click "Remove Background".
Photoshop automatically analyzes our image and makes a layer mask of our subject's shape.
If you re using an earlier version, open the Quick Selection Tool and drag it over your subject to select it.
To remove areas of the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
To refine soft edges like hair, go to Select.
If you're using a version earlier than CC 2018, click Refine Edge.
If you're using CC 2018 or CC 2019, click "Select and Mask".
If you prefer to use Refine Edge, Shift-click "Select and Mask".
I did in-depth tutorials on both filters, so if you want to watch them, I provided their
links in my video's description.
There are various view modes from which to choose.
I'll choose "Overlay", but feel free to use any of the others if you like.
Check "Smart Radius".
This detects smooth and hard edges.
To adjust the size of your brush, make sure the CapsLock key isn't active and click the
right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Brush over the edge of the hair and any other soft areas.
Output it to a "Layer Mask".
We'll convert our image into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, click the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
We'll make a new layer below it by Ctrl or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill it with a radial gradient, butfirst, we need to fill it with a color.
Let's check our foreground and background colors.
If they aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
We'll fill it with either of these colors.
To fill it with the foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
To fill it with the background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
I'll fill it with white.
Double-click the layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Gradient Overlay".
The Blend Mode is Normal and the Opacity is 100%.
Check "Reverse" and "Align with Layer".
The Angle is 180 degrees and the Scale is 130%.
Click the Gradient bar and in the Gradient Editor, click the "Foreground to Background"
gradient preset thumbnail.
Make your subject active.
We'll be creating multiple copies of it, so to consolidate them, we'll place them into
a folder by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + G.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Black& White".
We'll be using an additional filter within the Black & White Adjustment layer; however,
we want this filter to affect just our subject layers inside the folder and not our background.
Drag the adjustment layer above the folder.
It's important to understand that an adjustment layer affects all the layers below it in the layers panel.
If we want it to affect just the one layer beneath it, we need to clip or restrict to that layer.
To do this, click the clipping mask icon or go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
In the Presets list, there's a dozen predefined grayscale mixes from which to choose.
Each one adjusts a specific level of grayscale brightness for different colors of the original image.
For this photo, I'll use "Infrared".
Make your subject active.
We'll make numerous copies of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J for each copy.
Make approximately from 7 to 10 copies.
I'll make 8.
Temporarily hide the layers between the top and bottom copies, so the only visible subject
layers are the original subject and the top copy.
Open your Pen Tool and go to an area outside your subject.
Click once to make your first anchor point, release and move your tool to another point.
Click to make your first work path.
If you want to reposition the path, press and hold Ctrl or Cmd as you drag the anchor point to a new location.
Release and place your tool at another location.
Click to make a second work path.
Release and click back on your first anchor point to complete the path.
Place your tool directly on the path and right-click or secondary-click to open the fly-out list.
Click, Make Selection and feather it zero pixels.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
Notice the subject and the layer mask are linked together.
This means that if we reposition or resize either of them, the other will be repositioned and resized, as well.
Open your Move Tool and make sure Auto-Select is not checked.
This prevents the wrong layer to become active in the Layers panel.
Drag the Layer to a new location.
Notice the subject and the layer mask moved together.
That s because they re linked.
If we click off the chain-link icon to unlink them, we can move or resize either of them independently of the other.
Whichever one is active is the one that can be adjusted.
I ll make the subject active.
Notice when I drag that area, the subject moves inside the stationery shape of the layer mask.
I ll press Ctrl or Cmd + z to undo it.
If we make the Layer Mask active, when we drag that area, the Layer Mask moves, and
our subject remains stationery.
I ll undo this, as well.
For this layer, I ll keep them linked.
Keep in mind, the shape layers that are above the others in the Layers panel will be visible
on top of the other shapes on our subject.
Make the layer below it visible and active.
If you want to make a shape circular, open your Elliptical Marquee Tool, and make the
feather radius zero pixels.
Place the tool on your subject and start dragging out.
As you do, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift to snap the selection into a perfect
circular shape from its center.
Click the layer mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
I ll unlink them.
Make the subject active.
Press v to open back your Move Tool and drag the subject.
If you want to make the subject bigger or smaller inside the layer mask,
press Ctrl or Cmd + T to open the Transform Tool.
For this image, I want to increase the size of the subject from the center of the eye.
To do this, I ll drag the axis point to the center of the eye.
If you don t see the center axis point, go to Edit, Preferences, and Tools.
Make sure Show Reference Point when using Transform is checked.
Also, make sure the Reference Point is checked and that the dot is in the center.
Go to a corner.
If you re using CC 2019 or later, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag it out or in.
If you re using an earlier version, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag it.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Continue making new shapes of your subject and layering then under each other using these techniques.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!