Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to transform a photo
of someone into the look of a beautiful, colored pencil and pastel drawing. I'll also show
you how as how to quickly apply the effects to different photos.
I provided this pencil lines file for you to download. Its link is located in my video's
description of project files. Open a photo of a person you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one and the others from Shutterstock.com. The first step is to make
a selection around the subject. There are many ways to do this, however, for this example,
I'll use the Quick Selection Tool. If you're using this tool as well, its brush size should
depend on the size and resolution of your photo. Generally, I find 4 to 20 pixels works
well. Drag your cursor over your subject to select it. If you want to remove areas of
the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
Click the Refine Edge button or go to Select and Refine Edge.
I did an in-depth tutorial on Refine Edge,
so if you're not familiar with it, you should watch that tutorial. I provided its link,
as well. . Drag the Radius to the right and check "Smart Radius".
Drag your brush over edge of your subject , especially the hair.
Your quick mask doesn't have to be perfect,
since we'll be blending and blurring the image later.
I'll increase the Smoothness a bit
and output it to a "New Layer with Layer Mask".
Then, click OK.
Before we place our subject into the pencil lines document,
click the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel
and click "Convert to Smart Object". You know a layer is a Smart Object" if this icon is
at the lower, right corner of its thumbnail. The reason we converted the subject into a
"Smart Object" is that it allows us to modify or change the filters that we'll be adding
whenever we want. It also allow us to change the subject without having to redo all the
effects. Press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag your subject onto the tab of the
pencil lines document. Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down onto the image
and release. To adjust its size, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
If your subject is too large to see the Transform's entire bounding box, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt or Option
+ Shift as you drag it in or out. To reposition it, go inside the Transform and drag it. Then,
press Enter or Return. To fit it back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
Make a copy of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Rename it "Soft Light" and change its
blend mode to Soft Light.
Reduce its opacity to 50% and hide the layer. Rename the other layer, "Hard Light"
and change its blend to Hard Light.
Go to Filter, Blur Gallery and Iris Blur.
This filter, along with Field Blur and Tilt-Shift were first introduced in version
CS6. The Iris Blur window will open in the Blur Gallery. Make sure Preview is checked
in the Options Bar. When we go inside the outer ring, we see a center pin which has
a circular dial surrounding it. By rotating the dial, we can adjust the amount of blur
within the outer ring. This automatically moves the Blur slider in the Blur Tools panel.
Conversely, by manually dragging the Blur slider, it will automatically rotate the center
dial. The 4 dots between the center pin and the outer ring control the transition area
of the blur. The blur begins at these four dots and grows progressively stronger as we
move outward, however, for a more subtle transition, move the dots closer to the center point.
Surrounding the outer ring are four dots and 1 square icon. Dragging the square icon inward
makes the outer ring appear to be more of a rectangle with rounded corners. By dragging
any of the dots, you can adjust the overall shape and rotation of the blur by dragging
the curved line. This adjusts its elliptical shape and rotation angle. We can move the
blur to a different area of the image simply by clicking inside the ring and dragging it
to a different spot. Lowering the Focus amount will add blurring to the normally protected
area, but for this example, I'll keep it at 100%. When you're happy with the blur, click
OK. If you want to reposition your subject, Shift-click on the top layer to highlight
both layers. Then, just move it. The Iris Blur filter will move with your subject. To
replace your photo, double-click on the top Smart Object to open it.
Go to File and "Place Embedded".
Find the replacement photo in your computer and click it. Then, press "Place".
Go to a corner and resize and reposition it.
As before, make a selection around your subject to ultimately separate it from its background.
Hide the original photo that's under your
new photo by clicking off the eyeball icon next to it. Close the tab of this file and
when you see this warning, click "Yes" to save the changes.
The Smart Object is now updated with your new image.
All we have to do at this point is to resize and reposition
it and then, adjust the Iris Blur. Shift-click the bottom photo to highlight both layers
and open your Transform Tool. If you see this message, click OK.
See your Transform's entire bounding box
and resize and reposition your subject.
Accept the Transform and fit it back onto your canvas.
Double-click the Blur Gallery filter and adjust your Iris Blur for this
particular photo. Then, click OK.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!