Hello everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics
back with another video tutorial for Adobe Photoshop.
Today I'm going to show you a combination of filters that produce distressed halftone
effects, which gives an image a high-contrast, newsprint-style appearance. The main effect
is made of halftone dots, but I'll also show you some additional tweaks you can apply to
produce other pattern effects too.
But first, if you want some new fonts to add to your library, I've managed to get a 50%
discount on my top 5 favourite fonts for Spoon Graphics subscribers. The collection contains
a nice variety of styles, some of which even include multiple variants. If you want to
enjoy my most-used typefaces in your own projects too, check out this special custom bundle
at Design Cuts by following the link in the description.
I'll be using this free image as part of this tutorial, but stick around until the end to
see how this halftone effect can be easily applied to other images after it has been
set up.
Since I'll focusing on just the face of this portrait, I'll quickly straighten it out.
If you're working with a different photo, skip ahead a little, otherwise drag the layer
over the New Layer icon to make a duplicate.
Use the CMD+T shortcut, or CTRL+T on Windows to Transform the image, rotate it to straighten
up the face.
Press CMD+E to Merge this layer down with the Background.
This particular image is pretty large at 4000x5500px, the larger the image, the more detailed the
halftone pattern will be as the dot scaling becomes smaller. Go to Image > Image Size
and resize the image to around 3000px width.
We first need to convert the image to Black and White. The easiest way to do so is to
add a Black and White Adjustment Layer.
All the halftone effects will be applied to a new layer, but this layer needs something
in it for the filters to work. Go to Edit > Fill, then choose 50% Grey
Right click on this layer and choose Convert to Smart Object, so the filter options can
still be edited after they have been applied.
Go to Filter > Filter Gallery and choose Halftone Pattern from under the Sketch menu. The settings
of 2 Size works for this image, but you can increase the figure for bigger dots. Keep
the Contrast at zero. Change the Pattern Type to Dots, but we'll come back to check out
the Lines effect later.
You could use just a basic halftone pattern with clean and crisp circles, but I like to
grunge things up with distressed effects.
Click the New icon at the bottom of the Filter Gallery panel to add another effect. Choose
Torn Edges.
Reduce the Contrast setting to zero, then set the Smoothness to 13. Move the Image Balance
slider to the centre around 25.
To allow this distressed halftone pattern to interact with the tones of the image, change
the blending mode to Hard Mix.
The contrast is to a little too harsh with too much of a bitmap look, so reduce the Fill
amount to allow the underlying image to show through slightly. Around 80% works well.
As a finishing touch, add a Gradient Map adjustment layer. I'm using a preset from my free collection
of Duotone Gradients you can download from Spoon Graphics, but the colour values are
#2a1c33 and #d2bb8f
We can now play around with the filter settings to check out some alternative effects. Double-click
the Filter Gallery effect in the Layers panel.
If you move the Image Balance Slider, you'll notice the tone of the pattern changes after
so many digits. See how the darker halftone pattern produces a darker effect when applied
to the photo.
Conversely, moving the Image Balance slider the other way generates a brighter effect
which might suit your chosen image better.
The other option you can experiment with is the Smoothness value. Maxing it out to 15
doesn't look right at all, but 14 gives a clearer reproduction of the image.
I prefer one step down at 13 to boost the contrast a little.
To customise the effect further, you could add a Twirl effect under the Filter > Distort
menu. Use the default 50 degrees figure to see how it bends and warps the dots, which
produces more of an engraved effect like you see on the back on bank notes.
Turn off the visibility of the Twirl filter in the Layers panel to revert back to the
Halftone effect.
Double click the Filter Gallery again, this time change the Pattern Type of the Halftone
effect to Lines, rather than dots to create yet another version of the effect.
This halftone lines effect can also be made to look like an engraved illustration by applying
a Wave filter from the Filter > Distort menu.
For this scale of image, settings of 79 & 80 for the Wavelength, and 5 & 6 for the Amplitude
work well, making sure you have the Sine option checked.
One of my popular pieces of content on Spoon Graphics is my engraved effect tutorial and
complementary Action, but this is a quicker and easier version of that visual effect.
Since this effect is added to a totally new layer, it's really easy to replace the image.
Simply place another photo within the layer stack underneath the Smart Object layer to
see the effect immediately applied.
The final result is a cool halftone pattern effect with a range of options to customise
its appearance. What's great about this effect is how the Hard Mix blending mode allows the
pattern to conform to the tones of the original photograph, it also makes the dots or lines
appear smaller or thinner over the lighter areas.
The addition of the Torn Edges filter also gives the effect more of a distressed appearance,
rather than an array of perfectly clean and crisp patterns.
So if you enjoyed this tutorial, a thumbs up to help spread the word would be really
appreciated. Subscribe to the channel to stick around for more of my content, and join my
mailing list over at Spoon Graphics to get your hands on my free bundle of design resources.
As always thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.