Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to transform a photo of someone
into a ghostly image and then, add an ethereal name or word.
The lighting in your photo should
be similar to this one. It should have a dark background and it's best if the subject's
face has deep shadows. I downloaded this particular photo from Shutterstock.com.
Click the Adjustment layer icon and choose Curves.
Click the thumbnail of the background to make it active.
Open your Brush Tool
and make the Hardness 0%. We'll take care of the size momentarily.
Make the Opacity 100%.
If your foreground and background colors aren't black and white, respectively,
press "D" on your keyboard or click this icon. Double-click the Quick Mask icon to open its
Options. Make sure the Opacity is 100%. Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Click the Quick Mask icon again, so we can brush in a quick mask.
To make your brush size larger,
or smaller, press the right or left bracket key.
Now, brush over the irises and make sureyou don't brush over the white of the eyes. Then, press "Q" to convert the Quick Masks
into selections. Click the layer mask to make it active and press Alt or Option + Delete
to fill the selection with black. Notice the 2 white spots in the middle. These are the
shapes that we brushed in over the irises. Any adjustments we make in the Curves panel
will be restricted to the irises because the white areas in the layer mask will let the
Curve adjustments through, while the black areas in the layer mask will hide or mask
out the adjustments. To deselect it, press Ctrl or Cmd + D.
Click the Curves icon.
Then, click this icon.
Click on an area of the iris that has medium brightness. As soon as we
do that, notice a small point appears on the Curves graph. This point represents the brightness
of the spot where we just clicked. By dragging the cursor down or up, it will darken or brighten
that part of the iris. Drag your cursor straight up vertically until it's at the top or close
to the top of the graph. Click the Adjustment Layer icon and this time, choose Hue/Saturation.
Reduce the Saturation to minus 100.
Make a composite snapshot of your image by pressing
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E on Windows or Cmd + Shift + option + E on a Mac.
Make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Name it "motion blur".
Go to Filter, Blur and Motion Blur.
Make the Angle: 0 degrees and
for this image, I'll make the Distance 100 pixels. Keep in mind, the Distance amount
will have different results based on the document's size and resolution. Choose a Distance for
your image that approximates the look of this example. Then, click OK. Next, we'll restore
back some of the subject's face, especially the eyes. Click the Layer Mask icon to make
a layer mask next to the active layer. With your Brush Tool still open, reduce its opacity
to 10%. The, press Enter or Return.
Increase the brush tip size by pressing the right bracket key.
Now, gently brush over
the middle of her face to restore some of it back. Reduce the size of your brush and
brush over the eyes to restore back more. Make another composite snapshot of your image
and name is, "diffuse glow".
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the Distort folder
and click "Diffuse Glow". The Graininess adjusts the intensity of the grain.
The Glow Amount controls how bright the glow is
and the Clear Amount determines how much of the image is
covered by the glow.
For this image, I'll make the Grain: 3 and the Clear and Glow amounts: 10.
Feel free to experiment with the clear and glow amounts to get just the right combination
for your image. Next, we'll give it an other-worldly, color cast.
Click the Adjustment layer and
choose "Solid Color".
Type in 176A23. Then, click OK or press Enter or Return. Change
its Blend Mode to "Color" and reduce its Opacity to 20%.
We're ready to add the text.
First, let's save space in the Layers panel by grouping our ghost layers into a folder. To do this,
make Layer 2 active and Shift-click on the Curves adjustment layer to highlight all the
layers between it and Layer 2. Then, press Ctrl or Cmd + G.
Let's name the folder, "ghost face".
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer. Fill it with black. Since black
is our foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and
pick a font. I'm using MT Matto Script Normal. If you'd like to use it, I provided its link
in the video description or project files. Choose a relatively large point size.
Click the color box and pick white.
Type out out your text. To reposition it, open your Move
Tool and move it.
Let's save it as a Smart Object, so if we decide to edit the word or
even change the font, we can do it quickly and easily without having to redo all the
effects that we're going to add to it.
Click the icon at the top, right corner of the Layers
panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 3 pixels.
Notice the blur is a Smart filter because its attached to
a Smart Object. Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer. Fill it with black and go
to Filter, Render and Clouds.
We want to clip the cloud layer to our text. This way, we'll
see the clouds only through the text. To do this, create a clipping mask by pressing Ctrl
+ Alt + G on Windows or Cmd + Option + G on a Mac. and
Click the Adjustment Layer icon
and click "Levels".
Clip it to the text
and make the Black input: 16, the middle input: .70
and the White input: 146.
Group the text layers into a folder using the same steps that you used earlier.
Name it' "text".
Change its Blend Mode to Screen.
To reduce its size, open your Transform Tool by pressing
Ctrl or Cmd + T.
If you see this warning, click OK.
Go to a corner and when you
see a diagonal, double-arrow, hold down Shift + Alt on Windows or Shift + Option a Mac,
as you drag the Transform in until you're happy with its size. To reposition it, place
your cursor inside the Transform and drag it to a location you like. Then, press Enter
or Return.
Open your text folder and click on the thumbnail of your Smart Object text
to make it active. Go to Filter, Distort and Wave.
Experiment with each setting to get
just the right combination of wave for your text. For mine, I'll make the number of Generators: 3,
the Wavelength: 1 and 225, the Amplitude: 1 and 25 and the Scale is 100%. Type:
Make the Sine and choose "Repeat Edge Pixels".
I think I'd like to angle it, so I'll open my Transform
Tool, click OK and rotate it.
Close the folder and press Ctrl or Cmd + J, twice to make 2 copies of it.
Open the folder and double-click on Gaussian Blur. When you see this warning,
click OK. Increase the blur to 25 pixels.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Close this folder and open the folder under it.
Double-click Gaussian Blur, click OK
and this time, make the blur: 10 pixels.
Lastly, go to Filter, Blur and Motion Blur.
Make the Angle: minus 34 degrees and for this image, I'll make the Distance 400 pixels. Feel free
to experiment with the Distance. If you want to change your text, all you have to do is
double-click on any of your Smart Object texts and when it opens,
double-click the layer to highlight your text
and type out your new word.
To reposition it, open your Move Tool and move it.
Click the small "x" on the right of
the Smart Object tab and when you see this warning, click "Yes" to save the changes.
Instantly, the Smart Object is updated with all the changes you added.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!