Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to transform photos into the look of spray-painted, stencil portraits with text.
I provided a PSD file so you can follow along.
Its link is located in my video's description or project files.
It includes 2 layers: a tiled wall, which we'll place our stenciled portrait onto and
a semi-transparent layer of the tiles' grout, which we'll place on top of our portrait.
Before we begin, I want to mention that I'll be going a little faster in this tutorial
for more advanced users.
Open a photo of someone that you'd like to use for this project.
If you'd like to use this public domain photo of Marilyn Monroe, I provided its link, as well.
To place you image onto the tiled wall background, drag it onto the tab of the background and
without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down onto the image and release.
To resize and position it, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow,
press and hold Alt or Option +Shift as you drag out your photo in or out
leaving enough room for your text.
Next, we'll make a selection around our subject, so we can cut it out from its background.
There are many ways to do this and your method 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, drag it over your subject.
To remove areas of the selection, press Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
Once your subject has a selection surrounding it, click your Refine Edge Tool or if you're
working on version 2015.5 or later, click "Select and Mask".
You can also go to Select and Select and Mask or Refine Edge.
I did in-depth tutorials on both tools, so if you'd like to watch them, I provided their links, as well.
I'll make the View Mode "On Black" and click "Smart Radius".
I'll drag my brush over the edge of the hair and output it to a "New Layer".
Then, click OK.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the new Layer icon to make a new layer below the active layer.
We'll fill the empty layer with white, bur first, if your foreground and background colors
aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since white is the background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete to fill the layer with white.
Make the top layer active.
We'll convert it into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively,
as well as allow us to replace it with another photo without having to redo all the effects.
Click the icon at the upper right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Go to Image, Adjustments and Threshold.
The Threshold level defaults to 128.
For most images, this should be fine, but feel free to adjust the amount depending on
the characteristics of your photo.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the Artistic folder and click "Cutout".
Make the number of Levels: 2, the Edge Simplicity: 5 and the Edge Fidelity: 1.
Then, click OK.
Next, we'll paint out areas that we don't want in our stencil and add black around white
areas, so we can ultimately see those white areas.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to our subject.
Open your Pencil Tool and Pencil Picker.
We'll adjust the size in a moment with our Bracket keys.
Make sure its Hardness and Opacity are both 100%.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Adjust the pencil size and draw over areas of black that you don't want in your portrait.
To add black around the white areas, make the white layer active, adjust your Pencil size
and draw angular shapes around white areas of your subject.
To remove unwanted black areas, press "x" on your keyboard and draw over those areas.
You can also make a layer above your subject to paint in white over those unwanted black areas.
Continue to finesse your image until you're happy with your stencil.
We'll make the two layers that comprise our portrait into one Smart Object.
Shift-click the top layer to make it active as well, and Convert them into a Smart Object.
Make 2 copies of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J twice.
Hide the top 2 layers and make the bottom subject active.
Go to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Blur it 10 pixels and click OK or press Enter or Return.
Make the next layer visible and active
and change its Blend Mode to Lighten.
Make the top layer visible ands active and change its Blend Mode to "Dissolve".
Reduce its opacity to 20%.
Presently, your image doesn't look much different until you make the bottom subject active
and with your Move Tool, drag it a bit up and to the left.
Shift-click the top layer to highlight all 3 subject layers and convert them into one Smart Object.
We're ready to add text.
If you want to reposition your portrait to make room for your text,
you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move your portrait.
Don't be concerned when you see the tiled background behind it. It's temporary.
Open your Type Tool
and pick a stencil font.
I'm using "Vinca Stencil Regular". If you'd like to use it, I provided its link, as well.
I'll make its size: 166 points, Sharp, Center Alignment and the color is black.
Click on your document and type out your text.
To reposition it, open your Move Tool and move it.
To add another line of text, press "T" to open back your Type Tool,
click on your document and type out your text.
As before, open your Move Tool to move it.
If you want to angle the text, open your Transform Tool,
go to a corner and when you see a curved, double-arrow, rotate it.
Drag it to a location you like and press Enter or Return.
Make the text layers into one Smart Object
and make a copy of it.
Change the Blend Mode of the copy to Dissolve".
Go toFilter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
Change the Radius to 5 pixels.
Make the bottom text layer active
and press Ctrl or Cmd +F to repeat the last filter, which was a Gaussian Blur of 5 pixels.
Drag the text layer to the right a bit. Next, we'll make our text look more like it was spray-painted.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to the active layer.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
Make the Hardness: 0% and the Opacity and Flow both 100%. Then, press Enter or Return.
Adjust your brush size and loosely brush over your text.
Make the top text layer active and click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to it.
Reduce the brush's opacity to 50% and loosely brush over your text.
Shift-click your portrait to highlight it and your text layers and convert them into a Smart Object.
Change its Blend Mode to Multipy
and drag the layer between the "Tile Bevels" layer and the "Tiled Wall" bottom layer.
If you want to angle your stenciled image, open your Transform Tool and rotate it.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!