Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I’m going to show you how to transform a photo of someone into a comic-style, ink portrait.
Open a photo of a face that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
We'll convert it into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, click the icon at the upper' right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
To ensure that your results will similar to mine, let's adjust its size and resolution.
Go to Image and Image Size.
Make its Resolution: 150 pixels per inch and its Height: 1000 pixels.
Its Width can be any amount.
To fit it back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Next, we'll separate your subject from its background by making a selection around your subject.
There are many ways to do this and your choice should depend on the characteristics of your photo.
For this example, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool.
If you're using this tool as well, I generally find that a radius of 5 to 15 pixels works fine.
Drag your tool over your subject.
To delete areas outside your subject, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag your tool over those area.
To check your selection, press "q" on your keyboard to convert it into a quick mask.
Press "q" again to revert it back into a selection.
For this particular effect, the selection doesn't have to show the soft, wispy edges
of hair, so we won't use Refine Edge or Select and Mask.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
Think of layer masks as stencils.
Black will hide areas of the layer and white reveals areas.
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 active layer with white.
Make a composite snapshot of your image by making the top layer active and pressing
Ctrl +Shift + Alt + E on Windows or Cmd + Shift + Option + E on a Mac.
We'll create a duplicate file of this composite snapshot and use it for a displacement map.
Displacement maps essentially warp textures or patterns around the contours of complex images.
Click the icon at the upper, right and click "Duplicate Layer".
Click "New" and type in "Displacement".
Then, click OK.
Remove all its color by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + U.
Since displacement maps generally look better when they're a bit blurred, go to Filter,
Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 3 pixels.
Go to File and Save As.
Save it to your Desktop as a Photoshop PSD file.
Then, click "Save".
If you see this message, just click OK.
Then, close the tab of the displacement file.
We'll convert our composite snapshot into a Smart Object, in case we want to modify
the filter that we'll be adding to it next.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the Sketch folder and click "Photocopy".
I'll make the Detail:17 and the Darkness:5, however, feel free to adjust these amounts.
Click the eyeball icon next to the subject to hide the layer.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
We'll fill it with 50% gray.
To do this, press Shift + the F5 key at the top of your keyboard to open the Fill window.
Or you can go to Edit and Fill.
Open the Contents list and click "50% Gray".
Then, click OK.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
This time, click "Halftone Pattern".
Make the Pattern Type: "Line", the Size: 1 and the Contrast: 50.
Go to Filter, Distort and Displace.
Make the Horizontal Scale: 0, the Vertical Scale: 50, Stretch to Fit and Repeat Edge Pixels.
Click the "Displacement" PSD file and click "Open".
Immediately, the horizontal lines wrapped itself around the contours of your subject.
Don't be concerned about the empty areas at the top and bottom.
We'll take care of them later.
Change its blend mode to "Color Burn".
To make the outer black edge that surrounds your subject a bit thinner,
drag the layer mask next to the black and white layer of your subject and click the layer mask to make it active.
Click the "fx" icon and click "Stroke".
Make the color: white, the Size: 2 pixels and the Position: Inside.
As I toggle before and after you can see the difference.
Next, we'll create a starburst shape behind our subject.
First, make a new layer below the active layer by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
Open your Polygon Tool and choose Shape.
If your using a Photoshop version earlier than CS6, the Shape icon is here.
Make the Fill color: black and make sure the Stroke is empty, which is designated by this icon.
Make the number of sides: 99 and cick the gear icon.
Check Star and indent the sides by 95%.
Go to the center of the face and drag out the shape past the edges of your document.
To hide the paths, press Ctrl or Cmd + H. Next, we'll make the starburst into subtle dashes.
Make the top layer active and make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Drag the copy down and place it above the starburst layer.
Change its Blend Mode to "Color Dodge".
Next, we'll add a white border or stroke around your subject.
If you're working on version CC 2014 or later, scroll to the top and double-click the word,
"Effects" to open it in the Layers panel.
If you're using a version earlier than CC 2014, I'll show you a work-around in a minute.
Click the plus icon next to Stroke.
Make the Position: Outside and the Size: 10 pixels.
For earlier versions, make the black and white layer of your subject into a Smart Object
and double-click an empty area of the layer to open the Layer Style window.
Click Stroke and as before, make the Position: Outside and the Size: 10 pixels.
Lastly, we'll place our image into a simple, comic-style panel.
Double-click the top layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click Inner Glow.
The color is black, the Blend Mode is Normal and the Source is Edge.
The Choke is 100% and the Size is 51%.
This creates a thick, black border.
Click "Stroke".
The color is white, the Position is Inside and the Size is 53 pixels.
This is Marty from Blue Lighting TV.
Thanks for watching!