Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a cool-looking, torn paper portrait effect and how to quickly
replace it with another photo without having to redo the effects.
I provided this royalty-free, Creative Commons image of torn paper, so you can follow along.
Its link is in my video's description or project files below.
Open a sharp, well-lit, close-up photo of someone that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
We want our subject to be over a plain white background as in this example.
If your subject isn't on a white background, you'll first need to separate the subject
from its existing background.
There are many ways to do this and your choice should depend on the characteristics of your photo.
I covered the various methods in many of my previous tutorials, so to save time, I won't
be going over them here.
Once you make a selection over the subject, to refine it, especially around the hair,
go to Select.
If you're using a version of Photoshop earlier than CC, click Refine Edge.
If you're using CC or later, you can either click Select and Mask or if you prefer to
use Refine Edge, press the Shift key as you click "Select and Mask".
This will open "Refine Edge".
I did in-depth tutorials on both Select and Mask and "Refine Edge", so if you'd like to
watch them, I provide their links ,as well.
Click "Smart Radius" and drag the Radius to the right a bit.
We'll brush over the edge of the hair, but first, if you want to adjust the size of your
brush, press the right or left Bracket key on your keyboard.
Brush over the edge of the hair to refine it.
Output it as a "New Layer with Layer Mask" and click OK.
To place your subject over a white background, we'll make a new layer below the active layer
by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill the empty layer with white, but first, if your foreground and background colors
aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since white is your background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete to fill the empty layer with white.
We'll convert our visible image into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively,
as well as replace our subject with another with having to redo the effects.
To do this, Shift click your subject to make it active as well, and click the icon at the
upper, right corner of the Layers panel.
Click "Convert to Smart Object".
Press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag your subject onto the tab of the torn paper document.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
To size and position your subject, first, we'll reduce its opacity, so we can see the torn paper through it.
Open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T. If your Transform Tool's bounding
box goes beyond your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0 to see it all.
Go to a corner a when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press Alt or Option + Shift
as you drag it in or out.
Size and position it, so your subject's eyes are centered inside the hole of the torn paper.
Press Enter or Return to accept it and increase its opacity back to 100%.
Make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Go to the middle layer and drag it below the torn paper.
Make your top layer active, go to the paper layer and Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on its thumbnail
to make a selection of the hole.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection next to the active layer.
Make your top layer active and change its Blend Mode to Multiply.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Black White".
Adjustment layers affect all the layers below them.
However, we want it to affect only the one layer below it.
To do this, we need to make the adjustment layer into a clipping mask.
Either click the "Clipping Mask" icon or press Ctrl + Alt + G on Windows or Cmd + Alt + G on a Mac.
Click the Adjustment layer icon again and this time, click, "Levels".
Clip it
and drag the Input black level a little to the right
and the Input midtones and the Input Highlights to the left.
Double-click the torn paper layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Drop Shadow" to create a shadow under the top of the tear.
The color is black, the Blend Mode is Multiply and the Opacity is 30%.
The Angle is 132 degrees, the Distance is 12 pixels, the Spread is 0 and the Size is 10 pixels.
Then, click OK.
To replace your subject with another, double-click the Smart Object to open the source image.
Go to File and if you're using version CC or later, click Place Embedded .
If you're using an earlier version, click "Open".
Click a different photo and click "Place" or "Open".
"Place Embedded" automatically opens your image with the Transform Tool, however, if
your using an earlier version of Photoshop, open your Transform Tool.
Reduce its opacity and size and position your image to match your other subject.
Then, increase its opacity back to 100%.
As before, make a selection around your subject.
Use Refine Edge or Select and Mask to refine the edges of your subject.
Output it to a "Layer Mask".
Click off the eyeball icon next to your original subject to hide it and close the tab of the Smart Object.
When you see this message, click "Yes" to save the changes.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!