Stone Portrait Tutorial
Give you portraits a dramatic look with this cool affect! This tutorial may be a little difficult for beginners so if you need extra help or tips consider this website
1. Start with any image of your choice – it can be whatever you want, however I advise that it’s cropped relatively close to the face.
2. Desaturate the image by clicking “image” in your toolbar, scroll to “adjustments” and select “desaturate”.
3. Now using the pen tool (and making sure it is set to path by checking the icon in the upper left corner), trace the subject. Don’t worry so much about the hair; we will be eliminating much of it later on
4. Now select the path you have just created using the path palette in on the left side. You can select the path by right clicking and scrolling to “make selection”, or if you’re using a Mac, simply click on the path while holding down the command key. Both methods will give you the “dancing ants” affect once you’ve made your selection. Now copy your selection and past it to another layer. Turn off the original layer, and name your new layer “subject”.
5. If you feel like your image is suffering from low contrast, you may want to adjust it at this point. But don’t overdo it; you may want to make more adjustments after you bring in the textured layer. You can use curves, levels, or even the brightness/contrast palette – whatever you prefer. Add a new layer beneath your subject layer and fill it with black.
6. You may notice at this point some harsh lines around the subject that are more prominent since changing the background. We will be softening these lines using the brush tool. Create a new layer on to of the subject layer and name it “shadow layer 1″ (or something along those lines), select the brush tool and set the color to black and hardness to 0. Set the diameter to your liking, and carefully guide the brush around the edges so that the subject image blends nicely with the background.
7. Now bring in you texture layer. (If you haven’t chosen one for yourself, you can access the one used in this tutorial by clicking here – copy it and paste into the document, or save the image and place it… once again, whichever method you prefer). Name the textured layer “texture”.
8. Make sure the texture layer is placed on top of the subject & shadow layer. Right click the texture layer and select “blending options.” this should pull up a separate window where you will be making your blending adjustments. Under “general blending” in the layer style palette, change the blend mode to “multiply” and click “ok”.
at this point, you should have something that looks similar to this:
9. Now we’re going to eliminate the pupils using the clone tool. With your texture layer still on, select the subject layer. Select the pen tool and create a path around one of the eyes, and select the path once it’s created. Now access the clone tool, and select a lighter area on the face to clone over the path around the eye. (If you’re a beginner and need tips or instruction on using the clone tool, click here). Repeat this step with the other eye.
10. Now you’ll probably have to re-touch the shadows after this step to blend the values. You can do this using the brush tool set to a lower opacity and diameter to your liking (and the color black), The placement for light and shadow depends on the portrait your working with, so use the existing light and shadow as a guide (Make sure that you’re working on another layer above the texture layer while doing this) Eventually you’ll end up with something like this:
11. Now add two more layers to your document and fill them both with 50% gray. You can do this by clicking “edit” in the top toolbar and scrolling to fill. In the window that pops up, change the color in the drop down menu to 50% gray. Once you’ve done this for each layer, change the style to “soft light” for each layer by selecting the drop down menu in the layers palette. Name on of the layers “white” and the other “black.”
12. You will be using these two layers for adding light and shadow with the brush tool to add contrast and depth to the photo. Adjust the opacity of your brushes accordingly, and color over the dark areas of the photo with the black brush to bring out the shadows, and white brush over lightest areas to bring areas forward. If you’re finding that even with the black brush set to 100% opacity you STILL cannot get the area you need dark enough, create another layer without the 50% gray fill and use the brush on that layer. (This is especially useful for blending hair into the black background, or other shadows that you want to bring out or create).
And now you’re done! Step back and admire your finished product:
