Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a stipple portrait, similar to the Hedcut style of drawing
associated with The Wall Street Journal's half-column portrait illustrations.
Before we begin, If you haven't already subscribed to my channel, click that "Subscribe" button
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.
The first step is to crop our subject.
Open your Crop Tool and click the "Clear" button.
This clears out the Width, Height and Resolution.
In the Height field, type in 870 pixels and for the Resolution, type in 150 pixels per inch.
This will ensure that your results will look similar to mine.
Go to each of the sides and drag them in or out until you're happy with its cropping.
Then, click the checkmark at the top.
To fit it back onto your screen, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Next, we'll make a selection around our subject, so we can separate it from its background.
There are many ways to do this, but for this example, let's use the Quick Selection Tool.
If you're using CC 2018 or later, click the "Select Subject" button.
This automatically detects the subject and makes a selection around it.
If you're using an earlier version, drag the tool inside the subject to select it.
To remove areas of the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
Click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask next to our subject.
Make a new layer below it by Ctrl or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill it with white, but before we do, 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 our visible image into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, Shift-click the subject to make it active, as well and click the icon at the upper, right.
Click "Convert to Smart Object".
Click the Adjustment layer icon and click "Black and White".
Next, we'll brighten the darkest areas of our subject, so we can see more detail in them.
Make the subject active and go to Image, Adjustments and "Shadows/Highlights".
Right now, we'll only be adjusting the Shadows, however, if you want to see the Highlights
and Adjustments, as well, check "Show More Options".
Make the Amount: 30%, the Tone: 30%, and the Radius: 10 pixels.
As I toggle the Shadows/Highlights off and on, you can see how it brightened the details
in the darkest tones of our subject.
Go to Filter, Artistic and Paint Daubs.
Make the Brush Size: 1, the Sharpness: 30 and the Brush Type: Simple.
To see your image at 100%, press Ctrl or Cmd + 1.
Make a copy of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Click the eyeball icon next to the Paint Daubs of the copy to hide this filter.
Double-click "Shadows/Highlights".
If you see this message, it's just letting us know that the Smart Filters will be temporarily
turned off while we adjust the filter.
Make the Shadows amount: 80%, the Tone: 20%, and the Radius: 20 pixels.
Make the Highlights amount: 25% and the Tone: 100%.
Change the Blend Mode to "Darken".
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Levels".
Make the Input Highlights: 100 and the Input Midtones: point 3.
We'll make a composite snapshot of our visible image and make it into a separate document.
To do this, make the black and white adjustment layer active and press Alt + Ctrl + Shift
+ E on Windows or Option + Cmd + Shift + E on a Mac.
Click the icon at the upper, right and click "Duplicate Layer".
Open the Document list and click "New".
For its name, I'll type in "Stipple portrait", but you can name it whatever you like.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Notice, it saved our image as a brand new document.
Go to Image, Mode and Grayscale.
If you see this message, click "Discard" and go back to Image, Mode and Bitmap.
Click OK to flatten it.
Use "Diffusion Dither" for the Method.
For this example, I'll make the Output: 150 pixels per inch to match our original document's
resolution, however, if you type in a lower amount such as 100 pixels per inch or 72 pixels
per inch, it'll make your portrait have less dots giving it a more simplified look.
Go back to Image, Mode and Grayscale and keep its size ratio: 1.
Lastly, go back to Image, Mode and RGB Color.
If you want, you can add color to your portrait.
One way is to open the Adjustments panel.
If you don't see it, go to Window and "Adjustments".
Click the "Gradient Map" icon and click the gradient bar.
You can click various gradient presets or create your own custom gradient map.
Another way is to click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Gradient".
Open your Gradient presets and click one for now.
Then, click OK.
Change its Blend Mode.
For this example, I'll pick Linear Dodge, but feel free to choose other blend modes.
Double-click the gradient thumbnail to open the Gradient Fill window.