Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create the look of paper money engravings from photos.
I provided this engraving texture that we'll use in this video.
Its link is in my video's description or project files.
Before we begin, if you want to know as soon as I upload new Photoshop tutorials,
smash that "Subscribe" button and please remember to click "Like".
Open a photo you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
The first step is to separate our subject from its background by making a selection around the subject.
There are many ways to do this depending on the characteristics of the photo as well as
the version of Photoshop you're using.
If your subject contains dark tones that are very close to the background as in this example,
I'll show you a tip that'll make it easier for Photoshop to differentiate the subject from the background.
If your photo doesn't have this issue, you can skip the next few steps.
Make a copy of the photo by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Open Levels by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + L.
Drag the Input highlights to the left until you can clearly see the darkest
tones of your subject against the background.
Open the Quick Selection Tool.
If you're using CC 2018 or later,
click the "Select Subject" button which automatically selects your subject.
On earlier versions, drag the tool over your subject to select it.
To remove areas of the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
Now that we have the selection, we can drag the brighter layer to the trash.
If there are soft or feathery areas on your subject, we'll refine them.
Go to Select.
In versions earlier than CC 2015.5, click "Refine Edge".
In later versions, click "Select and Mask".
If you prefer to use Refine Edge, Shift-click "Select and Mask".
I did in-depth tutorials on both filters, so if you want to watch them, I provided their links, as well.
Check "Smart Radius".
This detects smooth and hard edges.
To make your brush bigger or smaller, make sure the CapsLock key is off and press the
right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Brush over the edge of soft or feathery areas.
Feather it approximately 2 pixels and Shift the edge in approximately minus 12%.
Increase the Contrast approximately 22%.
Check "Decontaminate Colors" which helps to prevent the background tones from leaching into the edges of our subject.
I'll keep the default amount to 50%.
Output it to a "New Layer with Layer Mask".
The layer mask masks out the background surrounding the subject.
Think of layer masks as stencils.
White reveals and black conceals.
We'll convert our visible image into a Smart Object so we can modify it non-destructively
and allow us to replace our subject without having to re-do most of the effects.
To do this, click the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag your subject onto the tab of the engraving texture.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
To resize and position it, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T. Go to a
corner.
If you're using CC 2019 or later, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag it in or out.
On earlier versions, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag it.
Then, press Enter or Return or click the checkmark at the top.
Unlock the background texture and drag your subject below it.
Hide the texture.
We'll make a new layer below the subject by Ctrl or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill the empty layer with a dark gray color.
Click the foreground color to open the Color Picker and for its brightness, type in 30%.
Its hexadecimal code is 4D4D4D.
Notice our foreground color is the color we just picked.
To fill the empty layer with our foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete.
Make your subject layer active and go to Image, Adjustments, and Shadows/Highlights.
For now, let's keep its default shadows amount of 35%.
This basically brings out more details in the shadows of our subject.
Go to Filter, Blur, and Surface Blur.
This filter blurs an image while preserving edges.
Make the Radius 40 pixels and the Threshold 10 levels.
Radius specifies the size of the area sampled for the blur and Threshold determines how much the tonal
values of neighboring pixels must be before they become a part of the blur.
If we click the Preview window, we can see the before and after.
Make the texture visible and active and change its Blend Mode to "Hard Light".
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Gradient Map".
Click the Gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.
Click the lower, left Stop and the color box.
In the hexadecimal field, type in 234E2F.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Click the lower, right Stop, the color box, and type in D6DBDA.
Then, press Enter or Return twice.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon again and click "Levels".
This panel shows a histogram of our image's tonal range.
It allows us to adjust the intensity levels of the shadows, midtones, and highlights.
For the Input Shadows, type in 160, the Input Midtones: 1.5, and the Input Highlights: 210.
Make your subject active and convert it into a Smart Object.
Go back to Image, Adjustments, and Shadows/Highlights.
Click "Show More Options" to open the entire window.
It's important to note that every photo has its own characteristics of brightness and
contrast within their shadows, midtones, and highlights, so the amounts I ll be using for
this image, may not work well for yours.
Feel free to use whatever amounts look best for your image.
I'll make the Shadows amount and the Tone 70% each, and the Radius 180 pixels.
I'll make the Highlights amount 5, the Tone 50, and the Radius 30.
Under Adjustments, I'll make the Color and the Midtone both 0.
I'll make the Black Clip 1% and keep the White clip 0.01%.
The black and white clips basically allow us to push the darkest and lightest tones
to produce an image with greater contrast.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!