Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to convert a raster image into vector shapes, which will retain
perfect sharpness no matter how small or large you make it.
This technique works particularly well on portraits and can be applied to graphics and logos, as well.
Open a photo that you'd like to use.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
The first step is to check its size and resolution.
Go to Image and Image Size.
Make its resolution: 150 pixels per inch and its Height: 1000 pixels.
Its Width can be any amount.
To fit it back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0 or to you can zoom in or out incrementally
by pressing Ctrl or Cmd and the plus or minus key on your keyboard.
If the background isn't white, we'll need to make a selection around the subject, so
we can ultimately replace its backgrounds with white.
Even though this photo already has a white background, I'll show you how to make
a selection in case the background in your photo isn't white.
There are many ways to do this and I covered them all in my tutorials.
For this example, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool.
Starting in CC 2020, Adobe introduced an automatic way to make a selection around your subject
by clicking the "Select Subject" button.
You can check the selection by pressing "Q" on your keyboard to see it as a quick mask.
In most cases, it does a pretty good job, however, you still may have to use your
quick selection tool to correct some areas it may have missed.
Press "Q" again to revert it back into a selection.
If you're using a version earlier than CC 2020,
drag the Quick Selection tool inside your subject to select it.
For this particular example, I'd like to make a vector portrait of just the subject's head
without his neck and shoulders.
To remove areas of the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
To refine its edges, 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 of these filters, so if you want to watch them, I provided their links, as well.
Check, "Smart Radius".
This detects sharp and feathery edges.
I'll drag the Radius to approximately 16 pixels.
To adjust the size of your tool, press the right or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Drag over the edge of soft or feathery areas like hair.
Output it to a New Layer with Layer Mask.
We'll create 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 aren't black and white, respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since white is our background color, press Ctrl or Cmd + Delete.
We'll convert the two layers into one 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.
Click "Convert to Smart Object".
Go to Filter, Blur and Surface Blur, which essentially blurs an image while preserving edges.
Make the Radius: 10 pixels and the Threshold: 10 Levels.
Go to Image, Adjustments and Threshold.
This converts grayscale or color images into high-contrast, black-and-white images.
All pixels lighter than the threshold are converted to white; and all pixels darker are converted to black.
I'll make it 116, but feel free to adjust this amount based on the characteristics of your photo.
Go to Filter, Stylize and "Diffuse".
Tick "Anisotropic".
Go back to Filter, Sharpen and "Smart Sharpen".
Make the Amount 100%, the Radius: 3 pixels and Reduce Noise 0%.
We'll remove the Gaussian Blur.
Open the channels panel. If you don't see it, go to Window and "Channels".
Click the circular icon at the bottom, which makes a selection of the all the tonal values of your image.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I.
Open back the Layers panel and make a new layer.
Open any Marquee Tool and right-click or secondary-click on the selection.
Click "Make Work Path".
Make the Tolerance: 2 pixels.
If you don't see the work paths, press Ctrl or Cmd + H. Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Solid Color".
This icon lets you know that the layer is made of vector-based shapes.
The Color Picker will open as soon as you click "Solid Color".
Pick any color you'd like.
I'll pick black.
Make a new layer below our vector portrait and fill it with white.
Hide the work paths by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H. To test out how sharp our portrait looks
at a much bigger size.
Make the vector portrait active and open the Transform Tool.
Make sure the chain-link icon is active.
This links the Width and the Height.
In either field, type in 1000%.
Drag your image to see its razor-sharpness.
To save your vector portrait, first, let's reduce its size back by typing in 100%.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + 0 to see the Transform's entire bounding box
and drag it down onto your document. Then, press Enter or Return.
Press Ctrl or Cmd +0 to fit it back onto your canvas.
Click the icon at the upper, right and click "Duplicate Layer".
Make the Document, "New" and name it whatever you'd like.
To save your vector image and be able to open it back up as a vector shape, there are a
few ways you can do this.
One way is to go to File and "Save As".
I'll save it to my Desktop for easy access.
I'll name it and save it as a Photoshop PDF file.
You can also save it as a Photoshop EPS file to open it in Illustrator.
Whatever format you choose, it\rquote s always a good idea to save your entire document including
all its layers as a Photoshop PSD file.
Then, click "Save".
If you see this window, just click OK.
If you want to be able to edit your portrait, check "Preserve Photoshop Editing Capabilities".
If not, uncheck it.
Click "Compression".
Under Options, click, "Do Not Down Sample" and click "None".
Then, click "Save PDF".
If you see this window, just click "Yes".
Your Photoshop PDF file will be saved as a vector shape that you can re-open in Photoshop.
Another way to save it is to right-click your vector portrait layer in your original Photoshop
file to open the fly-out list and click "Export As".
Next to "Format", save it as a SVG.
This is a vector graphic format based on XML and is used to display a variety of graphics
mostly on the Web. Then, click "Export".
Save it to your Desktop for easy access and name it whatever you like.
Then, click "Save".
To open it back up in Photoshop, create a new document by going File and New.
Pick any size and resolution, but make your background white, so you can see your vector shape over it.
Then, click "Create" or "Open".
Go to "File" and "Place Embedded".
When your Desktop opens, click the Internet Explorer icon that has the name you typed
in for your vector portrait and click "Place".
To check that it's indeed a vector shape, at the top,
type in a huge percentage.
Then, press Enter or Return twice.
Drag your image into the window, so you can see its razor sharp edges.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching.