Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to transform photos into powerful abstract expressionist portrait paintings.
Open a photo you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
I provided a folder in which I've assembled 10 abstract expressionist textures that I
gleaned from Brusheezy.com that you can use for this project.
The folder's link is in this video's description or project files.
The first step is to crop our photo to a size and position we like.
Open your Crop Tool and the crop presets.
Click the width, height, and resolution.
It can be any size you like, however, if we want it cropped to a specific width or height,
just type it into the respective field and leave the other field empty so we're free paintings.
Make its resolution 150 pixels per inch, so you can use the same filter setting amounts I'll be applying in this video.
Drag the corners of the crop's bounding box in or out.
Drag your photo to position.
When you're happy how it looks inside the bounding box, make sure "Delete Cropped Pixels"
is checked and press Enter or Return or click the checkmark at the top.
To zoom into your image, press Ctrl or Cmd and the plus key on your keyboard or press
Ctrl or Cmd + 0 to fill your canvas with it.
To see your image at 100%, press Ctrl or Cmd + 1.
Before we continue, if you'd like to be notified as soon as I upload new Photoshop tutorials,
click that "Subscribe" button and welcome!
Next, we'll separate our subject from its background.
Open the Quick Selection Tool
and click the "Select Subject" button which automatically places a selection around our subject.
This was first introduced in CC 2018.
If you're using an earlier version, just 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 unwanted areas.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut and copy your subject onto a new layer.
Hide the background.
We'll remove the color from our subject by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + U.
Go to Filter, Sharpen, and Unsharp Mask.
This filter works by adding clarity and contrast to the photo.
It automatically detects what it believes are edges within the picture and increases
their contrast which produces a sharper-looking image.
Make the Amount: 100%, the Radius: 10 pixels, and the Threshold: 10 levels.
Go to Filter, Stylize, and "Oil Paint".
Make the Stylization: 4, the Cleanliness: 2, the Scale: 10, and the Bristle Detail:10.
Make sure "Lighting" is unchecked.
As I click the preview window off and on, we can see the difference in our image with
and without the oil paint effect.
Go to Image, Adjustments, and Posterize.
Make it 4 levels.
We'll make three copies of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J three times.
Name the top copy: "Black", the next copy: "Dark", the next one "Medium", and the bottom one: "White".
Temporarily hide the bottom three and make the top layer active.
Go to Select and Color Range.
Make the Fuzziness: 40, and tick "Image".
Click any black area and click OK.
This selects just the black shapes of our image.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
Make the layer below it visible and active.
Go back to Select and Color Range.
Tick "Image" and click any area that's dark, but not black.
As before, click the layer mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
Make the Medium layer visible and active.
Go to Select and Color Range.
Tick "Image" and click the next lightest area.
Make a layer mask of the selection and repeat the same steps for the White shapes of your subject.
Make the top layer active and go to File and "Place Embedded".
Navigate to the Textures folder I provided, or you could use your own textures if you like.
Click the texture you'd like to use for the black areas of your subject and click "Place".
Go to a corner and press and hold Alt or Option as you drag it out.
Then, press Enter or Return.
We want the texture to show through the white areas of the layer mask directly below it.
To do this, we need to make the texture into a clipping mask.
There are a few ways to do this, but for now, go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
You could also press Alt + Ctrl + G on Windows or Option + Cmd + G on a Mac.
Since this texture is replacing the black areas of our subject, we want it to be the darkest of all the textures we use.
We can adjust the color, brightness, tones, and contrast of any of the textures if we want.
There are a number of adjustment layers that we can use alone or in combination with others.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon.
For this texture, I'll click "Color Balance".
It s important to know that Adjustment Layers affect all the layers below them in the Layers Panel.
If we want an adjustment layer to affect just the one layer below it, we'll need to clip or restrict it to that layer.
Click the Clipping Mask icon or go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
I'll open the Tone list and click Shadows.
Since I want the shadows of this texture to be bluish-green in color, I'll type in minus 100 for the Cyan and Red.
For the Magenta and Green, I'll type in 82 and for the Yellow and Blue, I'll type in 35
Feel free to adjust the colors for your texture.
I'd like the Midtones to be bluer, so I'll type in minus 100 for the Cyan and Red and
I'll type in 100 for the Yellow and Blue.
If you want to adjust the brightness and contrast of the shadows, midtones and highlights within
the colors, click the Adjustments tab.
If you don't see it, go to Window and Adjustments.
Click the "Levels" icon.
Clip it to the layer below it.
For the Input Midtones, I'll type in point 72 and for the Output white level, I'll type in 178.
The further we drag the output white slider, the darker our image appears.
This is because the white output level controls how light the lightest tone in the image can be.
In this instance, I m restricting the lightest tone to be grey.
Conversely, the further we drag the output black slider, the lighter our image appears.
As with any of the adjustment layers, feel free to play with the amounts to get the look you want.
We'll place the top four layers into a folder by Shift-clicking the "Black" subject layer
to make all the layers active and pressing Ctrl or Cmd + G. Name it "Black".
Make the "Dark" subject layer active and go to File and Place Embedded.
Click a texture you'd like to use the dark tones of your subject with and click "Place".
Drag out the texture and press Enter or Return or click the checkmark.
Clip this texture to the layer directly below it.
Since this texture is filling the dark tones of our subject, I d like to darken it.
Keep in mind, if you choose texture that's consistently dark throughout, you won't have
to add an adjustment layer to darken it.
I'll click the Adjustment Layer icon, click "Levels", and clip it to this texture.
I'll make the Output white level: 196.
Shift-click the "Dark" subject to make it and the texture active as well and group the 3 layers into a folder.
Name it, "Dark".
Make the "Medium" layer active and go to File and Place Embedded.
Click the texture you want to use for the Medium tones of your subject and click "Place".
Fill your subject with the texture and clip it to the "Medium" subject layer.
I'll click the Adjustment layer icon and click Levels.
I'll clip it to the texture and make the Output black level: 116 to lighten this overall texture.
Keep in mind, we can always reposition, rotate, or resize any of our textures.
Just make that texture active and open the Transform Tool.
Play with its angle, position and/or size.
Place those three layers into a folder and name it, "Medium".
Make the White subject layer active, place a texture over your document and clip it to
the white tones of your subject.
I'll add a Levels adjustment layer and slide across the Output Black level to make that texture lighter.
Lastly, we'll add the background texture.
After you group the layers that comprise the white tone into a folder, make the background active
and place another texture onto your document.
Size it up and as with all the textures, feel free to adjust its color, brightness, contrast, and tone.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!