Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create stunning, graphic portraits from photos.
Before we begin, make sure you click the small "Subscribe" button at the lower, right corner
to let you know as soon as I upload new Photoshop tutorials!
Open a photo of a face that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
To ensure that your results will look similar to mine, check your image’s size and resolution
by pressing Alt + Ctrl + I on Windows or Option + Cmd + I on a Mac or by going to Image and Image Size.
Make it approximately this size and its resolution: 150 pixels per inch.
The first step is to separate our subject from its background by making a selection around our subject.
There are many ways to do this and I covered them all in my prior tutorials.
I generally use the Quick Selection Tool, but since the background in this example is
a solid color, I'll use the Magic Wand Tool.
If you're using this tool, as well, make sure "Contiguous" is checked.
This ensures that the inside of your subject will not be selected.
If you need to add a selection to another area of the background, click this "Add to"
icon, which adds selections as you click on your image.
I'll click the background to make the selection.
To check your selection, press "Q" on your keyboard to see it as a quick mask.
Press "Q" again to revert it back into a selection.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl + Shift + I on Windows or Cmd + Shift + I on a Mac.
To refine the edge of your selection, go to Select.
If you're using a version earlier than CC 2015.5, click "Refine Edge.
If you're using CC 2015.5 or later, click "Select and Mask".
If you prefer to use Refine Edge instead of Select and Mask, Shift-click "Select and Mask".
I did in-depth tutorials on both filters, so if you'd like to watch them, I includes
their links in my video's description.
I'll click the "Overlay" view and check "Smart Radius", which tells Photoshop to detect hard and soft edges.
I'll drag the Radius to 5 and bush over the edge of the hair.
Check, "Decontaminate Colors", which minimizes the background color from leaching into the
edges of our subject.
Output it to a "New Layer with Layer Mask" and click "OK'.
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, check your foreground and background colors.
If they're not black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since white is your background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
We'll convert our visible image into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, Shift click the top layer to make it active, as well, and click the icon at
the upper, right corner.
Click, "Convert to Smart Object".
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
For now, blur it 6 pixels.
Go to Image, Adjustments and Threshold.
I'll keep its default Level at 128, however, you can adjust your portrait's density by
sliding the level to the right or left.
You can also adjust it by changing the amount of blur.
Double-click Gaussian Blur.
If you see this message, it's just letting us know that we won't see the Threshold effect
until we’re done with Gaussian Blur.
I'll increase the Blur Radius to 10 and click OK or press Enter or Return.
As you can see, my image filled in more and became denser.
I'll undo the last step by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + z.
Conversely, it we were to decrease the blur radius, our image would fill in less.
I'll revert it back to the original blur of 6 pixels and the Threshold of 128 levels.
As before, convert your image into a Smart Object.
Next, we'll create a gradient background.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
Fill it with any color for now, since we'll be replacing it with a gradient overlay.
I'll fill it with my foreground color, which is black.
Double-click the layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Gradient Overlay".
The Blend Mode is Normal and the Opacity is 100%.
Make sure "Reverse" is unchecked and make the Style: "Radial".
The Angle is 90 degrees and the Scale is 150%.Click the gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.
Click the "Black, White" box and the lower, left Stop.
Click the box and pick a light color for the center of your gradient.
Since I already know the color I want, I'll type it into the hexadecimal field: D3F3FF.
Then, click OK.
Click the lower, right Stop and the box.
Pick a darker color for the outer areas of your gradient.
I'll type in: 002871.
Once you pick your colors, click OK on the Color Picker and the Gradient Editor to close them.
We can reposition the gradient by dragging it.
I'll drag it up a wee bit from the center.
Convert it into a Smart Object.
Make a new layer and temporarily hide the gradient.
Open your Channels panel.
If you don't see it, go to Window and Channels.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the RGB thumbnail to make a selection of channel's shape.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I.
Open back the Layers panel and fill the selection with black by pressing Alt or Option + Delete.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Make the Gradient visible again and double-click
the top layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Color Overlay" and the box.
In the hexadecimal field, type in 31, three times to give us a dark grey color.
Click OK.
Click "Inner Shadow".
The color is black, the Blend Mode is Multiply and the Opacity is 50%.
The Angle is 90 degrees, the Distance is 12 pixels and the Size is 8 pixels.
Convert it into a Smart Object and go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the Texture folder and click "Texturizer".
The "Texture" is "Canvas", the Scaling is 200%, the "Relief" is 3 and the "Light" is from the "Top".
Once again, Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the face to make a selection of it.
We're going to create an inverted layer mask of the selection next to the gradient.
Make the gradient active.
Alt-click or Option-click the Layer Mask icon.
Click the "fx" icon and click "Bevel and Emboss".
The Style is "Inner Bevel" and the Technique is "Chisel Soft".
The Depth is 50%, the Direction is "Up" and the Size is 5 pixels.
The Angle is 90 degrees and the Altitude is 50 degrees.
The Highlight blend mode is "Linear Dodge" and its opacity is 25%.
The Shadow blend mode doesn't matter, since its opacity is 0%.
Next, we'll add a starburst pattern behind our subject.
Make a new layer.
Open your Polygon Tool and choose "Pixels".
If you're using Photoshop version CS5 or earlier, the Pixel icon is here.
Go to View and make sure "Rulers" and "Snap" are both checked.
If they're not, just click on them to make them active.
Go to the ruler at the top and drag down a guideline to the center.
It'll snap in place because we have Snap checked.
If you don't see the guideline, press Ctrl or Cmd + H. Go to the ruler on the left and
drag across a guideline to the center, as well.
Give it 99 sides and click the gear icon.
You can ignore the Path options, since we chose "pixels".
Check "Star" and indent the sides by 80%.
Go to the center of the guidelines and drag out your tool until the shape goes beyond the corners.
Then, release.
Reduce the Fill to 0%, which makes the layer invisible, but it’ll retain the visibility
of any effects we add to it.
Double-click the star to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Bevel and Emboss".
The Style is Inner Bevel, the Technique is "Chisel Soft" and the Depth is 50%.
The Direction is "Down" and the Size is 2 pixels.
The Angle is 90 degrees and the Altitude is 50 degrees.
Make the Highlight opacity anywhere from 50 to 70% and the Shadow opacity: 100%.
We can remove the guidelines now by going to View and "Clear Guides".
Next, we'll remove the star pattern inside the face.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to the star layer.
As soon as you made the layer mask, your foreground and background colors inverted.
Invert it back by clicking this icon or by pressing "x" on your keyboard.
Open your Pencil Tool and Pencil Picker.
We'll adjust the size in a moment.
Make its Hardness and Opacity both 100%.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To make your brush bigger or smaller, press the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Brush over areas inside of the face to remove the star pattern.
Lastly, we'll crop off the bevel along the top edge of our document by first making a
composite snapshot of our visible image.
To do this, make the top layer active and make a new layer above it.
To make the composite snapshot, press Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E on Windows or Option +
Cmd + Shift + E on a Mac.
Open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
At the top, next to the Transform's width and height, make sure the chain-link icon is active.
This links them together, so whatever we type into one will be applied to the other, as well.
Type in 102%, which should be enough to crop off the bevel at the top.
Then, press Enter or Return, twice.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!