Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you a quick technique to transform your ordinary photos
into compelling, color images. Open a photo you'd like to use.
Go to "Image", "Mode"
and "Grayscale". If you see this message,
click "Discard". Go back to "Image",
"Mode" and "Duotone". Keep in mind,
only 8-bit grayscale images can be converted to duotones.
The "Duotone Options" window will open.
You can choose Duotone, Tritone and Quadtone.
For this example, I'll choose "Quadtone".
By clicking on the boxes, you can change the colors.
Just set them in descending order: darkest at the top and lightest at the bottom.
Once you pick the colors, Photoshop
ask you to name them in these fields. The blue color I picked
is 0 0 2 A
F F and the
aqua color is 0 0 F
F F 0. When you're happy with your colors,
click OK. Go back to "Image",
"Mode" and revert it back to "RGB Color".
To brighten your image, open your Levels window
by pressing Ctrl + L on Windows or Cmd
L on a Mac. Slide the input white to the left
until your image looks good to you. Make 3 copies of your
image by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J
3 times. Click on the bottom layer to make it active
and click on the New Layer icon to make a new layer
above it. We'll fill it with white. If your foreground and background colors
aren't black and white respectively, click the small, double-box
icon or press the letter "d" on your keyboard.
Since white is the background color,
press Cntrl or Cmd + Delete.
to fill the empty layer with white. Hide the top two layers
and make "Layer 1" active. Reduce its opacity to 70%.
Make the layer above it active and visible.
We'll create a soft, dark vignette
around the edges. Go to "Filter",
and "Lens Correction". The Lens Correction window will
open. Click "Custom"
and slide the "Vignette Amount" all the way to the left.
Then, click OK. If you have a version
earlier than CS6, go back to "Filter",
"Distort" and "Diffuse Glow". If you have CS6
or later, go back to "Filter" and "Filter Gallery".
Open the "Distort"
folder and choose "Diffuse Glow". For this photo,
I'll keep the "Graininess": 0... the "Glow Amount": 3...
and the "Clear Amount": 10. Since each photo has different characteristics,
you may want to experiment with these amounts to achieve similar results
as this. Then, click OK.
Change the Blend Mode
to "Hard Light". Next will blur the outer edges
of the photo. Open your Brush Tool
and choose a relatively large brush size.
I'm making it 500 pixels with a Hardness
of 0%. The Blend Mode is "Normal"
and the Opacity & Flow are 100%.
Press the "F5" key to open your "Brush Tip Shape" panel.
Uncheck all the boxes, but "Smoothing" is OK.
Press "F5" again to close the panel.
Press "Q" to open the Quickmask mode
and brush over the part of your photo you want to bring attention to.
Press "Q" again to revert it into a selection
and go to "Filter", "Blur"
and "Gaussian Blur". Blur to an amount that looks good to you.
I'll blur it 5 pixels. Make "Layer 1"
active and blur it.
Blur it 1 pixel. To delete the selection,
press Ctrl or Cmd + D.
I want the Empire State Building to have a bit less "Diffuse Glow" to it,
so I'll make the top layer visible an active.
I'll click on the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask
next to it. I'll invert the layer mask
by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + I.
I'll reduce the opacity to 50%
and brush once over the building.
Have fun transforming your photos into striking,
compelling, images. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!