Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create exquisite portraits filled with text of the person’s name.
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Open a photo of someone that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
The first step is to create a new document by going to File and New.
Make its Width: 1550 pixels, its Height: 870 pixels and its resolution: 150 pixels per inch.
The Color Mode is RGB and 8 bits per channel.
Its background color is irrelant since we're going to fill it with a custom gradient.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Gradient".
Click the Gradient bar and click the "Black to White" gradient preset.
Click the lower, left Stop and the color box.
Pick a color you like.
Since I already know the color I like, I'll type it into the hexadesimal field: 82FEFF.
Then click OK on both windows to close them.
Make the Style: Radial, the Angle: 90 degrees and the Scale: 300 %. Check "Reverse" and click OK
Open your Horizontal Type Tool.
If your foreground and background colors aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Black should be your foreground color.
Open your Font Picker and pick a bold font.
I'm using Arial Bold.
I'll make its size: 20 points and the anti-aliasing: Sharp.
Click on your document and type out your subject's name.
We're going to make the text into a Custom Brush.
First, temporarily hide the two layers under your text and go to Image and Trim.
Tick "Transparent Pixels" and make sure all the boxes are checked.
Go to Edit and "Define Brush Preset".
Type in the name of your subject.
Open the History panel.
If you don't see it, go to Window and History.
Click the bottom "Modify Gradient Fill Layer" to revert your document back before you it. trimmed
It'll also keep the new custom brush that you created of the name.
To check it, open your Brush list.
At the bottom of the panel, you'll see the custom brush of the name you typed out.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
Name it "Large Text".
Press the F5 key at the top of your keyboard to open your Brush Settings.
Another way is to go to Window and "Brush Settings".
In the "Brush Tip Shape" window, make the Size: 700 pixels and the Spacing: 500%.
Check "Shape Dynamics".
Make the Size Jitter: 40%.
The Controls are "Off" and the remaining amounts are 0%.
Check "Scattering".
The "Scatter" amount is 50%, the Controls are "Off", the "Count" is: 1 and the "Count
Jitter is 0%.
" Check "Smoothing".
Close the panel and brush over the center part your document until it fills it with
approximately this much of your text.
Make a New Layer and temporarily hide the large text layer.
Reduce the size of your Brush by making sure your CapsLock key is off and pressing the
left bracket key on your keyboard twice.
The size should be 500 points.
If it isn't, just type it in.
As before, brush over the center part of your document until it's filled with approximately
this much of your text.
Make a New Layer and temporarily hide the layer under it.
Reduce its size to 300 points.
As before, brush over the center of you document until it's filled with approximately this much of your text.
We'll convert each of the text layers into Smart Objects, so we can add filters to them non-destructively.
To do this, click the icon at the upper, right corner and click, "Convert to Smart Object".
You know a layer is a Smart Object when you see this icon at its lower, right corner.
Make the middle text visible and active and and convert it into a Smart object, as well.
Repeat this with the bottom text layer.
Hide the middle and top text layers.
Click the "fx" icon and click "Color Overlay".
Click the color box and pick a color for your largest text.
I'll type in 002BCC.
Go to Filter, Blur and "Gaussian Blur".
Blur it 7 pixels and click OK.
Reduce the Opacity to 45% Hide the layer and make the middle text layer visible.
Double-click an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Color Overlay" and the color box.
Pick a color for the medium-sized text.
I'll type in: 00BCAD.
Go back to Filter, Blur and Gaussian Blur.
This time, blur it 4 pixels and reduce its opacity to 85%.
Hide the layer and make the top layer visible.
As before, double-click an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Color Overlay" and the color box.
Pick a color for your smallest text.
I'll type in 003E16.
Name the top layer, "Smallest Text".
To save space, collapse the effects.
Name the middle text layer, "Medium text" and collapse its effects.
Make the rest of the text layers visible and collapse the effects of the "Large Text".
We'll group all the text layers into a folder by clicking the top layer and Shift-clicking
the bottom text layer.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + G.
Name the folder, "Text".
Click the Layer Mask icon to create a layer mask next to the folder.
We'll be adding some text onto the Layer Mask later, which will show through all the text
layers within the folder.
Click the tab of your subject to open it.
We want to separate our subject from its background by making a selection around our subject.
For this example, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool.
If you're using this tool, as well, drag the tool over your subject.
To remove selections outside your subject, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
To check your selection, press "Q" on your keyboard to see it as a quick mask.
Note any areas that may need correcting.
Press"Q" again to revert it back into a selection and make any necessary corrections.
If you want to refine your subject's edges, go to Select.
If you're using version 2015.5 or later, click "Select and Mask", however, if you prefer
to use "Refine Edge", press and hold Shift as you click it.
If you're using an earlier version of Photoshop, just click Refine Edge.
I did in-depth tutorials on both Select and Mask and Refine Edge, so if you'd like to
watch them, I provided their links, as well.
Check Smart Radius.
This enables the tool to detect which edges of your subject are hard and soft.
To adjust the size of your brush, make sure your CapsLock key is off and press the right
or left bracket key on your keyboard.
Drag the tool over the soft edges of your subject like the hair.
Check "Decontaminate Colors".
This prevents "color fringing", which are colors that may be leaching into the edges
of your subject from the background.
I'll drag it to 100%.
Output it to a New Layer.
To place your cut-out subject onto your text, press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag
it onto the tab of your text document.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
To resize it, press Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool.
If you don't 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 bounding box and drag your subject.
Then, press Enter or Return twice.
To zoom back out, press Ctrl or Cmd and the "+" sign on your keyboard.
Next, we'll mask out areas of your subject with text.
Click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask next to your active subject.
Open the text folder and Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of the "Smallest Text"
to make a selection of it.
Press Ctrl + Shift as you click the thumbnail of the Medium Text to add its selection to
the existing selection and repeat this for the Large Text.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I. Collapse the folder.
We'll fill the selection with black and since black is your foreground color,
press Alt or Option + Delete.
Notice since your layer mask is active, the black fills the layer mask.
Delete the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Convert your subject with its layer mask
into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
Make a layer mask next to it because we're going to add text onto the layer mask later.
But first, we're going to add text to the layer mask next to the text folder.
Make the Text layer mask active and press "B" on your keyboard to open back your Brush Tool.
Click your mouse or pen each time you want to place the text over your image and
feel free to adjust its size using the bracket keys.
Make the subject's layer mask active.
We'll brush in text over the face through the layer mask, but first, we'll reduce the
brush's opacity to 30%.
Brush over the face, which masks out the areas inside the text through the layer mask.
Make a copy of the layer by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Change its Blend Mode to "Hard Light".
Make the bottom subject active and reduce its opacity to 50%.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!