Hey! This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to transform a photo of someone into a classic, retro, pop art portrait.
Open a photo of someone that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one and the other from Shutterstock.
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The first step is to separate our subject from its background by making a selection
around our subject.
Let's use the Quick Selection Tool.
If you're using CC 2018 or later, click the "Select Subject" button.
This analyzes the image and automatically places a selection around our subject.
If you're using a version earlier than CC 2018, just drag the tool over your subject
to select it in its entirety.
To remove areas of the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
Click the layer mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
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 and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Next, we'll crop our image so its top, bottom and sides are framed tightly.
To do this, we'll open our Crop Tool and at the top, click "Ratio".
If the Width and Height field aren't cleared, click the "Clear" button.
Drag the top up or down until it touches the top of the head.
Go to the bottom and drag it up or down to a location where you want it cropped.
Continue this for both sides.
Then, click the checkmark at the top.
We'll make a new layer below it by Ctrl or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill the empty layer with white, but before we do, check your foreground and background colors.
If they're not black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since our background color is white, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
Click the New Layer icon again to make a new layer above it.
Open your Pen Tool and make sure "Path" is active.
Click just outside your document just above where the top of the head touches the top of the document.
Release again and continue making paths over your subject to the bottom.
Go outside your document until you click back on your first anchor point to close the path.
Right-click or secondary-click directly on the path inside your document to open the
fly-out list and click "Make Selection".
Feather it 0 pixels.
We'll fill the selection with black and since our foreground color is black, press Alt or Option + Delete.
Then, deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D.
We'll convert this into a Smart Object, as well, by making the top layer active
and Shift-clicking the bottom layer to make all the layers active.
Go to Image, Adjustments, and Threshold.
This filter converts images into high-contrast, black-and-white.
All pixels lighter than the threshold are converted to white; and all pixels darker are converted to black.
We can increase the amount of black by dragging the slider to the right and increase the amount
of white by dragging it to the left.
For now, let's keep it at its default setting of 128.
We can always go back and change it, since it's a Smart Filter.
Make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Double-click Threshold of the copy to open it.
I'll drag the slider to the left to bring out detail like in the hair and microphone.
We'll hide this layer by Alt or Option-clicking the Layer Mask icon to place an inverted layer mask next to it.
Think of layer masks as stencils - white reveals and black conceals.
Open your Pencil Tool.
We want white as our foreground color, so press "x" on our keyboard to invert the colors.
Open your Pencil Picker.
We'll adjust its size in a moment.
Make sure its Hardness and its Opacity are both 100%.
To make your pencil bigger or smaller, make sure your CapsLock key is off and press the
right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Brush over areas you want to see more detail.
This reveals back the lighter threshold layer since we're actually drawing over the inverted layer mask.
To restore back areas of the darker threshold, press "x" to invert your colors and brush
over those areas you want to restore back.
To remove unwanted spots, make a composite Snapshot by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E on Windows
or Cmd + Option + Shift + E on a Mac.
To remove white spots, make sure black is your foreground color and draw over the white spots.
To remove black spots, make sure white is the foreground color and draw over those black spots.
Next, we'll colorize our image.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Gradient Map".
Click the gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.
Click the black and white preset thumbnail.
Right now, our image is black and white because our Gradient Map is black and white.
What's great about using this method is that we can see the colors we pick in real time.
Click the lower, right Stop and the color box.
Click a color in the Color Picker window.
As soon as we release our mouse or pen, that color replaces the white portion of our portrait.
Conversely, if you want to replace the black color, just click the lower, left Stop and pick another color.
Since I already know the color I want, I ll type in its hexadecimal code.
Once you pick the colors you want, press Enter or Return twice to close both windows.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!