Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you a quick and easy technique
to create powerfully-compelling, HDR-style, photographic portraits from ordinary color
photos and then how to quickly replace your subject with another.
This is an update of a tutorial I did on an earlier version of Photoshop.
The first step is to convert your photo into a Smart Object,
so we can modify it non-destructively as well as allow us to
adjust the effects that we'll be adding to it at any time. Smart Objects also allow us
to replace our subject with another without having to redo the effects.
Click the icon a the upper, right of the Layers panel
and click "Convert to Smart Object".
This portrait effect works best when your photo is cropped tightly around your subject's face. If you
want to crop your photo, open your Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag it over your subject's face.
Go to Image and Crop. Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. To fit it back onto
your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0. Make a copy of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Go to Filter, Other and High Pass. I'll make the Radius 2 pixels, but you may want
to adjust this amount between 1 to 4 pixels depending on your document’s size and resolution.
Your High Pass image should look like this example. Then, click OK.
Change its Blend Mode to Overlay.
Make a copy of the layer to intensify the effect. Copying the layer actually
has different result than just increasing the original High pass Radius. Click the Adjustment
layer icon and click "Vibrance".
I'll make the Saturation: minus 40, however, feel free to adjust this amount.
Click the Adjustment layer icon again and this time, click "Exposure".
Exposure increases or decreases the brightness throughout the image, but it effects the shadow
areas far less than the highlights. "Offset" does just the opposite - it darkens or brightness
the shadows without affecting the highlights too much. Finally, "Gamma Correction" primarily
affects the midtones. For Exposure, I'll type in point 5
and for the Gamma Correction, I'll type in point 6, however,
since each photo has its own characteristics, feel free to
adjust these amounts. As I toggle back and forth from the original photo, you can see
the difference. Next, I'll show you how to replace your subject with another without
having to redo the effects. Double-click on any Smart Object to open its source image.
Open another photo. Press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag the new photo onto the
tab of your source image. Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
To re-size 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 it in or out. To reposition it, go inside the Transform and drag it. Then, press Enter or Return.
Click off the eyeball icon next to the original photo to hide the layer
and close its tab. When you see this message, just click "Yes" to save the changes.
Then, open your portrait document. Immediately, the Smart Object updated the effects with
your new photo.To resize and/or position it in the document, go to your Layers panel,
scroll up to the top Smart Object and make it active. Scroll down to the bottom layer
and Shift-click on it to highlight all the layers that comprise your portrait. Press
Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool. If you see this message, it's just telling
us that the Smart Filters will be temporarily turned off while we use the Transform Tool. Click OK.
To see the Transform's entire bounding box, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0. Drag it into position
and press Enter or Return. To fit it back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!