How to Use Clipping Groups in Photoshop

The first part is a quick primer on how Clipping Groups work, then we will do the lighting effects,

We are going to select the shirt on the photo.

Choose the Object Selection tool.

Make sure the mode is set to Lasso at the top.

Make a rough selection around the shirt. With this AI tool, you aren’t really making the selection, you are telling Photoshop what you want selected.

Photoshop will make the selection for you. (You can use the lasso or other selection tools to improve the selection if needed).

Press Ctrl/Cmd+J to copy the selected shirt to a new layer. (Normally I’d use a mask, but I’m just demonstrating clipping groups here and want to keep it simple, we will use a mask in a moment).

Here I added a graphic to put on the shirt. (I dragged it from the Library, you can see on the video).

If I hide the background, you can see just the shirt and the graphic.

I want the graphic to fit INSIDE the shirt, and not show outside.

Move you curser between the 2 layers in the Layers panel.

Hold down Alt/Option and you will see a square arrow.

Click to add a clipping group.

Notice the top layer displays as indented

Notice the graphic is now contained within the shape of the shirt.

A clipping group constrains the visibility of the top layer to the pixels (or shape) of the layer underneath.

If I turn the background back on.

You can drag the top layer around and reposition, or resize it and it will stay constrained to the shape. (Alt/Option Click to ungroup it again).

I changed the color of the graphic and changed the blend more to make it look better. Learn About Blending Modes here. | Add a displacement Map to wrap to the wrinkles

Ok, onto the tutorial

Making Clipping Masks in Photoshop

In this image, we are going to make a clipping mask in the shape of our singer in the photo, so we can add some nice lighting to her.

Start by duplicating the layer. Cmd/Ctrl+J

Choose the Object selection tool

Click the options arrow in Select Subject

Choose Cloud as the option, if you are connected to the internet. (This makes a better quality selection than Device)

Click select subject and you will get a selection around the woman

Click the add mask button in the layers panel. (We are doing this instead of cutting out our subject. A mask allows modifications to the edges and is non destructive).

In this screen grab I hid the background, so you can see the transparency. (You don’t need to hide the background.)

Click on the foreground picker at the bottom of the tool bar.

Choose a golden color

Grab the gradient tool

Choose foreground to transparent option (in Basics)

Choose linear Gradient

Apply the gradient to the image by dragging.

Notice the gradient covers the background and the person. We just want it on the person

Just like we did with the shirt example, lets make a clipping group.

Hold your pointer on the line between the masked layer and the gradient layer in the layers panel.

Hold Alt/Option, wait for the square arrow, click

You can move the gradient around and notice it stays constrained to our person. This is our clipping Mask.

Change the blending mode of the gradient to Soft Light and reposition it to add a more subtle effect on the edge.

You can also adjust the gradient layer opacity if you like.

Here we repeat on the left side, but with a blue gradient

Hold the Alt/Option key and move it between the 2 gradient lAyers and click.

Notice we can stack layers above each other and they can all share the same mask as long as they are clipped. See the indentation and arrows to indicate they are in a clipping group.

This time I used an Overlay blending mode. Just use the Blending mode that looks the best for each color, there is no rule, but I find I use Overlay, Screen and Soft light a lot when Lighting.

Using Adjustment Layers with Clipping Groups

Ok, let’s do some custom lighting now.

Choose the New Adjustment Layer in the Layers panel

Grab Curves

Let’s increase the brightness by dragging up in the Curve in the Properties panel.

We are going to change the color too. Choose Red in the top of the Curves

Drag up to add Red

I want Orange, Red+Yellow= Orange

We now need yellow. You will find Yellow by dragging down the the Blue channel. How to use Curves for Color in Photoshop (Curves are super powerful and can do a LOT. I made a course on Photoshop Curves here)

We have our colored light, but it’s everywhere. Lets contain it.

As before, move your cursor between the 2 layers and hold Alt/Option and click to make a clipping mask.

Now the curves can only appear within our person.

But we want to hide the lights and only paint them where we want them.

Click on the mask on the Curves layer (White rectangle)

Press Ctrl/Cmd+I to invert our mask.

It now shows as Black and the effect is hidden.

Grab a Brush (B key)

Set the foreground color to White

Drag on the right edge of our person. Notice it now lights up with the orange light.

The beautiful thing about the Clipping Mask, it’s impossible to paint outside the shape of our person.

This makes it easy to add a Rim light, or paint on the edges.

Here I added a Blue light on the other side, following the same steps.

Here you can see the before and after of this effect

I hope this tutorial was helpful for you! Let us know in the comment.

Great to see you here at the CAFE

Colin

Browse the other free photoshop tutorials here at the cafe

Download 100s of dollars worth of Photoshop adds on for free here at the Vault.

Also follow me on Instagram, Tik Tik, Threads and Twitter.  for shorts and reels.

The post How to Light photos with Clipping Masks in Photoshop appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Previously I made a very popular tutorial on how to use Lighting effects to relight photos in Photoshop. I had many people tell me they weren’t aware this tool ever existed and were really happy with the results. It’s a tool I have loved and used for many years, but sadly, due to Adobe moving away from certain technology. mainly Open GL, they are retiring the 3D tools in Photoshop, and this includes our beloved Lighting Effects (even though it was a precursor to 3D in Photoshop). (see this tut on how to keep using these features as long as possible)

I used Lighting effects are far back as the 90’s to create a series of photo realistic illustrations entirely in Photoshop (it made PhotoshopCAFE very famous in the 2000s) , such as the guitar here. See more of my illustrations here

At one point, Adobe updated the Lighting effects to use 16-bit channels, but it never worked right, and they went back to 8-bit, but with the newer interface. I wish someone would patch the original lighting effects (8-bit application which no longer works) which didn’t use GPU and get it working. Anyway, it’s an end of an era. So I have taken the new tools and adapted them to use for lighting photos. (It won’t Create the bump on a channel for me to make illustrations though).

2.0 version of Colin’s Lighting photos in Photoshop Tutorial.

Ok, here goes.. it doesn’t give you as much control as we used to have, but I have figured out how to make the new tools produce a similar result.

Pay special attention to the 2nd part of the tutorial. which is adding edge texture. I don’t know of anyone else who does this in Photoshop, but it sure makes a difference.

This is the starting image. The same one I used in the original tutorial on this, a few years back.

Let’s set the ambient light, making everything darker.

Click the new Adjustment Layer icon

Choose exposure (Curves or LUTs work too, but this is easiest for tutorial purposes).

Move exposure down the darken the image

Every adjustment layer comes with a mask. Click on the mask.

If we add black to the mask, it will hide the adjustment and allow the original to show through, giving the impression of light.

Press the D key to reset foreground and background colors. *(Black as foreground)

Choose Gradient, grab foreground to background.

Choose radial as the gradient type.

Drag on the image to create a spot light. (If it doesn’t work, try turning on reverse for the gradient options).

You will see a new addition in the form of a point on the outer circle. Depending on when you read this, it’s currently only in the Beta version of Photoshop. How to get the beta. 

Drag the point to change the circle to an oval

See the diamond on the line? Drag it to the outside to reduce the fall off.

Move it closer to the center to increase the light fall off, for a more natural feather of the lights edge.

As you se, it produces a nice light effect.

Texture Boost

These is something missing though. When you light an object from the side it increases the appearance of the textures.

If you front light, it’s usually flat and conceals details, which is why a lot of glamour and beauty photography utilizes flat, front lighting. We want the texture boost.

Choose the Channels panel

Click on the Red channel. (Because red is the dominant color. in this image).

Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click on the thumbnail.

This will load the luminance (brightness) from the red channel as a selection.

Click on the words RGB to restore the channels. (Not the thumbnail)

Make sure your panel looks like this before proceeding.

All the channels are active and all are selected in light gray. (This is the default value).

Choose the background layer.

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy the selection to a new layer.

Change the blending mode to Overlay

Don’t worry if the colors look over saturated suddenly, that will be fixed in the next step.

Lets make the texture pop

Choose Filter>Other>High Pass

As you increase the Radius, you should see the texture become more pronounced.

Choose an ampunt that you like, usually between 1-4 depending on the resolution of your image.

Here is our final result. I hope you like it!

Thanks for checking out this tutorial. See you next week with a new one!

Colin

Drop a comment and let me know if this was helpful.

Browse the other free photoshop tutorials here at the cafe

Download 100s of dollars worth of Photoshop adds on for free here at the Vault.

Also follow me on Instagram, Tik Tik, Threads and Twitter.  for shorts and reels.

See you next time!

Colin

The post New way to Light photos in Photoshop with Texture boost appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

The new gradient tool makes it really easy to do things that were difficult before. I figured a rainbow is a good way to explore these features and I have a few tips to throw in too.

Adding more hidden gradients

We will be using Legacy gradients. These are additional Libraries that are in Photoshop but hidden. Lets load them now.

Choose Window>Gradients to open the Gradients panel.

Choose the top Right menu and select Legacy Gradients. This will load the gradients.

Making the Rainbow

First of all, select the Gradient tool and choose radial.

Drag on your image to create a circle.

Click the arrow by the Gradients to choose a new gradient.

Go under Legacy and select the spectrum preset.

You will see colored concentric circles.

Choose the Properties panel and drag the colors closer together on the left side of the Slider.

We want to make then even closer, but notice how bunched up they stops are. We need more space to work.

Grab the tab of the Properties panel and tear it off.

Drag out the panel until it stretches the bars. Look at that! Way better.

You will see a transparency bar.

Drag the points sway from the bar to remove them.

Get rid of all of them except the 2 end white ones and the 2 black ones on the left

Drag the Right-white slider to the left. As you slide it, notice in expands a transparent area over the center.

Remove the gray slider, so we just have 2 white ones and a black on in between.

Adjust until you have a narrow band around the circle’s edge

Move the colored sliders until you are happy with the spacing.

Dock the properties panel.

Adjust the size to resize your rainbow

Drag the center point to reposition

We need to fade the edge into the horizon.

In the layers panel, Click the layer mask on the gradient layer

Choose a black to white linear gradient

Click and drag on the end of the rainbow  to face the end (no pot of gold here).

If you want to make it more subtle, change the Layer blending mode to Screen

If you want to soften the rainbow you can add a blur.

Right-Click on the layer name and choose Convert to Smart Object

Choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the amount that you like

I hope you found this tutorial useful. I actually made this a 2 part tutorial on the new Gradient tool. Check out the addition tutorial on creating the floating head effect used on movie posters

Drop a comment and let me know if this was helpful.

Browse the other free photoshop tutorials here at the cafe

Download 100s of dollars worth of Photoshop adds on for free here at the Vault.

Also follow me on Instagram, Tik Tik, Threads and Twitter.  for shorts and reels.

See you next time!

Colin

The post How to create a realistic rainbow in Photoshop appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

We have all seen the floating heads effect on posters, magazine and album covers, you name it. We combine different pictures and seamlessly blend them into the background.

While experimenting with the updated gradients tool in Photoshop, it occurred to me, this might work well on faces and heads. So I tried it and immediately, I knew I had stumbled on the perfect use for this tool. I’m excited to share this discovery with you now.

The first thing we need to do, is get all the images into Photoshop, but in layers in a single document.

Choose File>Scripts>Load Files Into Stack

Click Browse and choose your images. Tip: If you have already opened the images in Photoshop, choose Add Open Files, and they will be stacked together.

Click ok

All the images will be added to layers in a single document.

Turn off the layers except the background by clicking the eyeballs in the Layers panel

One at a time, resize and position the images of the faces. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T for free transform. Drag to position. Drag the corners to resize.

We will do the following steps for each image.

Choose the layer and make it visible. (eye icon)

Click the new Layer mask to add a mask

Choose the Gradients tool (G Key)

Choose Radial and Foreground to transparent

Make sure the forgeround color is black,

Make sure REVERSE is checked it the top bar. Alternatively use a black to white gradient. (The Transparency option allows to use multiple gradients on 1 mask). 

Making sure the mask is selected in the layer, not the image..

Drag out from the center. Notice it creates a beautiful vignette effect and blends the image into the background.

In the Properties panel, drag the center point under opacity control. This will change how the edges feather. (You should be able to do this with the diamond on the overlay, but that appears to be broken at this time).

If you want to do manual touchup on the mask it’s easy.

Grab a brush. Paint with black to hide areas and white to show them. Be strategic with the manual painting as you can easily ruin the smooth blend if you aren’t careful.

I hope you found this tutorial useful. I actually mad this a 2 part tutorial on the new Gradient tool. Check out the addition tutorial on making a rainbow to master some of the other features, as well as a killer tip I came up with.

Drop a comment and let me know if this was helpful.

Browse the other free photoshop tutorials here at the cafe

Download 100s of dollars worth of Photoshop adds on for free here at the Vault.

Also follow me on Instagram, Tik Tik, Threads and Twitter.  for shorts and reels.

See you next time!

Colin

The post How to Seamlessly Blend faces into background in Photoshop using new radial gradients appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Hey, everyone. I’m excited to show you Adobe’s new AI application, Firefly.

Let’s explore what it can do, discuss it, and see where Adobe is headed with it in the future. On the homepage, there are several things coming up, but we will  focus on the two live features: text to image and text to effects.

Text to image is image-based generation. By simply typing in a phrase like “close-up of a bee on a flower,” Firefly generates images based on the text you provide.

One of the biggest criticisms about AI image generation is the use of copyrighted material, but Adobe sources all its images from within Adobe Stock to train its ai. Its doesn’t reproduce the images, but rather learns fro all the different images and then creates art based on what it has been trained on, like a machine version of inspiration. Adobe is also discussing a form of compensation for Adobe Stock contributors.

It’s much easier to use than other similar programs like mid journey since we can simply click on things. We can choose the content type of graphic art or photo, and set different parameters like style, movement, theme, and technique to get the desired result. We can even choose materials, color and tone, lighting, and composition to create unique and realistic images.

Once we find the image we like, we can download it. But, it will have a watermark on it and content credentials saying that it was created by AI. At this point, the images are only for testing and not for commercial use. However, when the program is officially released, we will be able to use it commercially in different ways.

Overall, Firefly is a new AI application that has a lot of potential for generating unique and high-quality images and it will be incorporated into Adobe products in different ways..

How to Get Firefly

You can sign up and join the wait list, they will contact you when its your turn to get in.

There is nothing to download as its web based.

Learn all about it in my video

Firefly is here

See what I think about all this ai stuff (Will artists and photographers be replaced by ai?)

The post Adobe made an ai art Generator, Adobe Firefly ai appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Download Source Files Here. 

In a Nutshell. (This is a new thing I’m trying. Adding a quick reference at the top. Let me know in a comment if this is useful or not).

• Step 1. Cut out screen
• Step 2. cut out  and mask photo
• Step 3. Combine images
• Step 4. Put the Original image at the bottom of the layer stack and extracted image on top (sandwich the screen layer)
• Final: Reposition and add a shadow

How to Create the 3D pop out effect in Photoshop: AKA Out Of Bounds Effect

Step 1, cut out the screen

Choose the Polygon Lasso tool

Click on each of the 4 corners of the screen. On the last corner, you will see a circle indicating this is the start/finish point.

When you click, the selection will be complete

You will see the marching ants selection is active,

Notice, the hand is overlapping. We need to fix it.

Choose the Quick Selection tool

Hold down Alt/Option to turn it into minus or subtract mode. You will see the + turns into a – in the center of the cursor.

Drag on the area to remove.

After you have applied the tool, it will make the selection.

To cut out the selection, we will add a layer mask, but wait.

We want to hide the selected area, so hold down Alt/Option as you click on the layer mask button.

We have transparency on the screen. Perfect!

In the next step, we will prepare the subject that will jump through the screen.

Step 2: Cut out the Subject from the background

Combine the 2 Images into the same document.

The key to the image choice, that will be extruded, is having an area that will stick out beyond the screen once we have removed the background 

Choose File>Open

With the move tool (v) drag the image into the tab of the image that contains the screen. (how to combine images in Photoshop)

Don’t let go yet, the second image will pop open. Drag your cursor into the center of the image and then release your mouse button (or lift your pen if using a tablet).

You will see the 2 layers on the same document.

Let’s remove the background from the dog.

Choose the Quick Selection tool

At the top (if you have the option) by select subject, choose Cloud. If you don’t see this option, this will still work, just not quite as well.

Click Select Subject

You will see a selection around the subject (the dog).

Let’s make the fur selection edges look better,

Choose Select and Mask

Grab the Refine Edge Brush (it will be selected by default).

Drag the brush around the edges of the fur. Make sure the brush is positioned 3/4 outside the subject for the best results as you paint (at least this 3/4 seems to work best for me)..

On the bar on the right of Select and Mask, click Decontaminate colors. This will reduce the colored fringes.

Choose New Layer with Layer mask as output.

Click ok

Step 3: Arrange and Position the cutout

You will see something like this. Do NOT reposition or scale anything yet!

Make sure all layers are visible, by clicking the eyeball.

Drag the Original dog layer to the bottom.

You screen should now be sandwiched between the extracted dog layer and the original dog layer.  The original layer will show through the hole in the screen, but the extracted layer is on top, so it can overlap.

The key is to make sure the 2 dog layers are always selected together.

Hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key and Click on the name of the other dog layer in the layers panel

Both Dog layers should be selected as shown. (I added the blue boxes to show the layers).

Press Ctrl/Cmd+T (Ctrl+T Windows / Cmd+T Mac).

You can now drag to reposition the layer, or grab the handles to resize or rotate the layer.

The next step is optional depending on the image. But usually, this will make it look better.

Step 4: Add a shadow

Choose the top layer

Choose fx in the layers panel

Select Drop Shadow

A shadow will appear

Change the size to soften the shadow and opacity

Drag on the shadow in the image to reposition it

Click ok to apply

The shdow work on the screen because it makes it appear to come off the screen. But we need to remove it outside of the iPad boundaries. Shadows don’t float in the air.

Click on the word effects in the layers panel

Right-click

Choose Create Layer

You will see the shadow has been converted to a regular layer and is no longer an effect,

Click on the mask button to add a layer mask to the shadow layer. We will use this mask to paint away the shadow where we don’t want it.

We can use a previous selection as a stencil to help us with our masking.

With the Shadow mask still the active layer; hover over the thumbnail for the iPad screen mask. You will see a dotted square.

Click to load the selection.

See the selection on the image.

Choose a brush (B key)

Set the foreground color to Black.

Set opacity and flow to 100% at the top of the screen.

Paint on the top of the image to remove the shadow from the top of the dog.

(If nothing is happening, try inverting the selection. Select>Inverse)

And here is out 3D pop out effect.

For the thumbnail, I added some water splashes. For this I just used a brush. See other tutorials on Custom brushes. 

Thanks for joining me on this tutorial. I hope it was easy to follow (watch the video at the top) and that you had fun!

Share your creations with us on our Facebook community. 

Drop a comment and let me know.

Welcome to the CAFE

Colin

I also have some free Photoshop extras ($250 value) to give you as part of the Photoshop Vault. (If you are on our mailing list, you already have access and don’t need to sign up again look near the bottom of each newsletter for a direct link to download all the goodies)

The post How to make 3D pop out effect in Photoshop in 4 simple steps appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to combine images together to make a composite. I will show you a tip that helps automatically isolate faces to make posters and things, you can also use this for retouching.

This is how you make images like the one I quickly threw together here.

1. Combine 2 images into one document. Here is a simple tutorial to combine images

See the face on the layer above the background

2. Lets isolate the face

Choose the Channels panel

Hold down Ctrl/Cmd and click on the red channel.

3. This will load a selection of the reds. It will grab all the reds, which exist in some degree in every skin tone.

4. In the layers panel

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy the selection to a new layer

step 5

If I hide the other layers, you can see what we copied from the red channel.

In some instances, you will get the opposite result. If this is the case, go back to the selection step 3 and press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+I to inverse the selection.

step 6

Turn back on the face layer and background and hide the duplicated face layer (Layer 1)

Click on new layer mask for the original face layerm you will see a nmask.

step 7

Choose the gradient tool and black to white as the gradient.

Set it to linear and Normal blending mode

Drag the gradient through the face

You will see a nice even blend

Turn on the top fac layer and it will add some opacity to the face, whicle keeping the smooth blend on the rest of the image

Using the same technique, I created this fake poster

I hope you found this useful. Check out the quick video at the top for more detail and tips.

Thanks

Colin

The post How to blend Layers in Photoshop and select faces with masks appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

I have created a few tutorials on Sky replacement in Photoshop already. I’ll add a list at the bottom of this tutorial.

One thing you may have noticed, the edges sometimes have a hazy glow around them. These is a tool, that very few people know exist, let alone use and that’s the sky brush. This short video tutorial and written step by step Photoshop tutorial shows you how to replace a shy and fix the edges.

To change the sky choose Edit>Sky Replacement

Choose a different sky to change the sky (full tutorial on sky replacement here)

The haze looks good on the horizon, but it doesn’t look good up against the sides of the house.

If you look at the Sky Replacement panel, you will see the sky Brush on the top left

Run it around the edges where you want to remove the haze.

You can see how it affects the edge here. Press the [ or ] keys to resize the brush.

What about areas such as the post? We need to do the opposite.

Rather than paint in sky, we want to remove the sky overlay from these areas.

To remove sky, hold down the alt/option key and paint in the image.

The brush has color detection, so keep the central cross hairs in the areas you want to effect.

Here we have painted around the image and cleaned it up.

Photoshop uses a mask and remembers the mask you edited.

Choose other skies and notice you mask is remembered and you don’t have to use the brush each time you change the sky

When you apply the sky, you will see a layer stack. This is the mask we have been brushing on.

After a little color adjustment, here is our final sky swap.

Here are links to more of my sky replacement tutorials that go more in depth in the settings and also how to load and find more skies etc.

Sky Replacement Basics

Sky replacement in Photoshop, getting free skies

Ultimate sky replacement tutorial 

I also have some free skies to give you as part of the Photoshop Vault. (If you are on our mailing list, you already have access and don’t need to sign up again look near the bottom of each newsletter for a direct link to download all the goodies)

Thanks for checking out this tutorial

Colin

The post Sky Replacement in Photoshop- fixing edges with Sky Brush appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Blend if, or Advanced blending is somewhat of a secret weapon in Photoshop. It’s really easy to use and it’s been in Photoshop forever. (Well, at least as long as layer styles.) In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how blend if works as well as how to use it on the top layer, the bottom layer and both combined. This tutorial is small excerpt from my new course on Layers in Photoshop.

We will start with a document that has 2 layers. There is a Woman and on the second layer there are some birds. These are both flat photographs, no preparation work has been done on them.

You could use selection tools, but instead, let’s do it this way.

Choose new Layer style and click blending options at the top.

You will see the layer style box, with Blend if at the center bottom.

There are 2 layers:

This Layer: If you move the sliders, it will hide parts of the top layer

Underlying Layer: If you move these sliders, it will punch parts of the background through above the top layer. 

Let’s take this layer (most commonly used)

If you drag the white triangle to the left, it will hid the light tones on the top.

If you move the black slider to the right, it will hide the dark tones on top.

Let’s cut out the birds.

Take the white triangle on the right and drag it to the left until the background disappears.

Look at that, one quick slide and the background is gone!

Let’s make the edge transition better.

Hold down Alt/Option and drag one side of the triangle, it splits and creates a smoother transition.

The birds are now flying in front of the woman.

What if I want the birds to fly behind the woman, and still hide their background. Impossible without changing the layer order? Nope.

This time, take the black slider from the underlying layer and drag it to the right. Notice the darks on the woman are now above the birds. (Remember the underlaying layer punches through to the top).

Hold down the alt/Option key and split the triangle to get a much better result.

The woman is coming through now, but the background on the birds is still there a bit.

The trick is to combine the sliders

Slide the white slider from “this layer” (the top one) to the left to hide the background of the birds, like we did at the beginning. We can use both of the sliders together. I’ve heard from lots of people that they have never seen the 2 sliders use together before, but as you see it works extremely well.

And you can see the result is much better.

I hope you found this little tutorial useful.

If you liked it and you don’t yet have my Layers course, check it out here. 

► Colin’s new Layers Course: http://photoshopcafe.com/shop/learn_…

Thanks for joining me here at the CAFE

Colin

Consider joining our mailing list so you don’t miss any of my tutorials.

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The post How to use Blend if in Photoshop – Remove backgrounds without selections appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

The double exposure is a great digital art technique and it’s very popular, because you can get really high end looking results with a small amount of effort. I’ve made more than a few of these over the years for magazine covers and editorials. Where a lot of double exposures fall short is with a boring silhouette. In this Photoshop tutorial I’m going to show you how to create a custom brush that will make the edges of your double exposure way more interesting. Of course I will show you how to create a double exposure along the way. We are using Photoshop 2022, but this will work in any version of Photoshop.

Start with a photo. A profile picture is a good way to start.

Now we will select the person in the image

Choose the Object Selection tool

Click on Select Subject to load a selection around the woman.

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J (Cmd mac / Ctrl Windows)  to copy the selected area to a new layer

Now we will add a solid white layer between the original and the cut out

Choose new Adjustment layer and Solid Color

Select white for the layer and drag it underneath the cutout layer.

Choose an image that we are going to use to overlay with our person. I am using a photo of a tree. Choose FIle>Place Embedded to get the second image, or dig it in from another window or library (How to combine images in Photoshop)

If the image is underneath out person, drag it to the top of the layer stack.

i

To fit the image inside the cutout, we will make a clipping group.

The your curser inbetween the 2 layers in the Layers panel, hold down the alt/Option key. You will see an arrow. Click to clip the top layer into the one under it.

This is what it should look like with the top layer clipped to the shape of the cutout.

Let’s blend the layers together.

Top layer selected, Choose Normal and change it to screen on the layers panel.

In screen mode you will see the 2 images blend together.

Screen blending mode produces a result like shining 2 projectors with different images at the same screen.

Press Ctrl/Cmd+L to open levels.

Move the white triangle on the right towards the center. As you do this, you will notice the brighter areas turn white and make the effect look even better.

As you can see the blend looks really nice. However the edges are a little dull. Let’s spice them up by adding tree branches all the way around.

Making a Brush in Photoshop

To add the cool looking twigs or branches, we will make a brush out of a photo.

Find a photo of a tree

Press Ctl/Cmd+L to open Curves

Make the white slider to lighten the bright areas.

Use the black slider to make the shadows darker.

The more contrast the better when you are making a brush.

Press ok

Now we need to blend out the bottom. Those hard edges won’t work well on a brush.

Choose White as the foreground color.

Choose the gradient tool

Select foreground to transparent as the gradient type and linear

Create a new layer

Apply the gradient to blend out the bottom

Grab the rectangular marquee tool

Make a selection around the area we are going to turn into a brush.

Choose Edit>Define Brush

A new brush will be created and added to your brushes library.

The brush will also be active in the brush tool.

Create a new layer just above our cutout layer. We will be painting onto the new layer.

Before we paint we need to unclip the new layer from the cutout and clip the top tree layer to the new layer. (move curser between layers and alt/option+Click) This will allow us to see whats happening as we create the new edges.

The screen effect won’t show on the woman right now, but it will show on the new brush strokes we create, we will easily fix that that later.

If any part of this is confusing, please watch the video at the top as its quite a simple process once you see it.

Your layers panel should look something like this. Note: The levels adjustment shows because the tree layer is a Smart Object. If it wasn’t a smart object, you won’t see levels, either way will work the same for this tutorial. If you don’t see Levels, it doesn’t matter..

Make sure the bush tool is active and set the color to black, although the color won’t really matter much.

We are going to be changing the brush a bit and painting on the edges. Here are some shortcuts to help you with the brush.

Use the arrow key to rotate the brush, so the branches are pointing out from the middle. If you don’t see the brush overlay, use the [ ] bracket keys to change the size of the brush.

As we paint with the edges of the brush we will see the branches start to appear around the edges of the image.

This type of brush shouldn’t be dragged. Click to stamp with the brush.

Open brush settings and use Rotation, flip X, Y and size to vary the brush stokes so they don’t look too repetitive.

Here we have painted all the way around. It’s a bit more repetitive than I like on the arm, but it will work. (If the size had been varied, it would look even better,)

Notice the screen effect is working on the edges, but not the woman. Let’s fix that now.

Hold Down the Shift key and click on the woman layer in the Layers panel.

Both layers should now be selected (the edge and the woman)

Right click and choose Convert to Smart Object

The 2 layers will now appear as one and the screen effect should be working correctly.

If not, make sure you clip the top layer to the woman layer.

We now have the basic double exposure.

If you want to color it, create a new solid color Adjustment Layer on top. Change to color blending mode

Adjust the opacity for effect. This is all shown in the video at the top.

Here is what the final result looked like after I added a few more elements and did a bit of masking.

Of course, there are so many directions you can take this.

Thanks for checking out this weeks tutorial.

If you like this kind of tutorial, this is actually an example taken from my brand new course I released today!  Photoshop Layers, is all about using Layers and masks in Photoshop to create digital art, design, collages, composits and more. There are introductory lessons on the basics and then we jump into several projects to make the learning experience practical and fun.

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More info here.

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