Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to transform photos of faces into classic, Day-Glo, psychedelic portrait posters.
If you'd like to use the same font I'm using, I provided its link in my video's description or project files.
Feel free to use whatever font you'd like.
Before we begin, if you'd like to be notified as soon as I upload new Photoshop tutorials,
click that "Subscribe" button and welcome!
Open a photo of a face you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
The first step is to crop it to a specific size and resolution to ensure that your results will look like mine.
Open your Crop Tool and click the width, height, and resolution .
For its width and height, type in 720 pixels and for its resolution, type in 72 pixels per inch.
Drag the Crop's bounding box in or out and drag your photo as well.
When you re happy with its size and position it, click Delete Cropped Pixels and click the check-mark.
To zoom back into it, press Ctrl or Cmd and the plus key on your keyboard a few times
or to fit it onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
We'll convert our cropped photo into a Smart Object so we can modify it non-destructively
as well as replace it with another photo at any time.
To do this, click the icon at the upper right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Go to Filter, Sketch, and Halftone Pattern.
The Size is 2, the Contrast is 3, and the Pattern Type is "Dot".
Go back to Filter, Sharpen, and "Unsharp Mask".
This filter basically enhances details to create sharper images.
Make the Amount 100%, the Radius: 50 pixels, and the Threshold: 10 levels.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Invert".
Click the Adjustment Layer icon again and click "Levels".
For the input Black, type in 150 and for the Input White, type in 230.
Shift-click the subject to make all the layers active and convert them into one Smart Object.
Make two copies of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J twice.
Temporarily hide all the layers and make the bottom layer active.
We'll make a new layer below it by Ctrl or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Gradient".
In the Gradients Fill window, open the Gradient Preset list and open the "Legacy Gradients" folder.
If you don't see it, go to Window and Gradients.
In the Gradients panel, open the preset list and click "Legacy Gradients".
Back in the Gradients Fill window, open the "Legacy Default Gradients" folder and click
this rainbow-colored preset called "Spectrum".
The Style is Linear, the Angle is 90 degrees, and the Scale is 100%.
Make the bottom subject visible and active.
Change its Blend Mode to "Exclusion".
The white of the subject becomes an invert of the gradient while black in the subject
becomes the original gradient.
Make the middle subject visible and active and change its Blend Mode to Exclusion as well.
Make the top subject visible and active and change its Blend Mode to Multiply.
This Blend Mode shows our original gradient through the white in the subject and keeps the black intact.
Next, we'll add a thin border around the inside perimeter of our document that reveals the
gradient and the halftone pattern through it.
Go to View and if "Snap" isn't checked, click it to activate it.
Click "Guides" and "New Guide Layout".
Uncheck Columns and Rows and check Margins.
Type in 12 pixels in each of the four margin fields.
Open the Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag it from the top corner of the guideline to its opposite corner.
It'll snap in place because we have snap checked.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
Hide the guidelines by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H.
Open the Horizontal Type Tool.
If your foreground and background colors aren't black and white, press "D" on your keyboard.
We want white to be our foreground color so we can see our text easily.
If white is your background color, press "x" to invert them or click this icon.
Open your Type Picker and pick a font.
I'll type in 182 points for its size, but feel free to make it any size you want.
Make its aliasing Smooth and center alignment.
Click on your document and type out your text.
Open your Move Tool and drag it into position.
When it's close to being centered, you'll feel it trying to snap to it.
Make a copy of the text by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Before we reposition the copy, make sure "Auto-Select" isn't active.
This will prevent other layers from becoming active when we click on our document.
Press and hold the Shift key as you drag the copy down.
Pressing Shift kept our text perfectly vertical as we dragged it.
Double-click the large "T" of the text's copy to highlight it and type out your new text.
To increase the space between all the characters known as "tracking",
double-click the large "T" again to highlight it and press and hold Alt or Option and the right arrow key on your keyboard.
To center it, open your Move Tool and drag the text until it snaps to the center.
Ctrl or Cmd-click the large T of either of the text layers to select its shape.
Go to the large "T" of the other text layer and press and hold the Shift key as you Ctrl
or Cmd-click it to add that text's shape.
Hide both text layers and make the layer mask active.
We'll fill the selections with black and since our background color is black, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
Make the bottom subject active and click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask next to it.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!