1. Select “Gradient Map” from layer pallet

2. Select gradient from black to white

3. Add layer mask into the adjustment layer, “Gradient Map” layer.

4. Hide the “Gradient Map” layer and select “Background” layer. Then select “Magnetic Lasso Tool” for the tool pallet in order to make selection. I set tool parameters as follows: Feather 0 px, Width 10 px, Edge Contrast 5% and frequency 57.

5. Draw selection around a selected object. This tool will help you create the selection because it will create the selection based on contrast along the edge of the object. Let’s try play with that.

6. Go back and open “Gradient Map” layer. Select layer mask in the “Gradient Map” layer.

7. Press Alt+Del to fill black into the layer mask.

8. Zoom into your photo so you may see some details on the edge of object are not smooth enough. Select brush, adjust size and hardness that match with area you need to correct. Paint back onto areas where you want to show color and paint white onto areas where you want to show back/white.

This step is take time and effort because you need to zoom and look around your object in order to make detail correction. From this example, you will see that I have details on the edge and details on the head of the robot to correct

9. After finishing correction, you will see the result like this.

10. Moreover, you may try to change color of “Gradient Map” layer in order to change background color.

1. Copy background layer. You drag your “Background” layer over the new layer icon in order to duplicate “Background” Layer. You will get “Background copy” layer over the “Background” layer.

2. Change the mode of “Background copy” layer from normal to overlay in order to increase contrast of overall photo.

3. Flatten image.

4. Create new layer by just simply click a creating new layer from the layer pallet (see the photo below). You will get “Layer1” over “Background” layer.

5. Select foreground from the tool pallet. For this step, you can pick any color as foreground because it will used as a guideline for painting so I pick yellow.

6. Press Alt+Del in order to fill foreground into the Layer1 and change its opacity to 50%.

7. This step is very important. Select “Art History Brush” from the tool pallet. Then go to History Pallet and select the step called Flatten Image. The reason why we need to assign our “Art History Brush” to “Flatten Image” because the history brush will use the photo from the history, “Flatten Image” in this case, to create texture.

8. Adjust brush parameters as follows: Size 30 px, Opacity 100%, Style: Tight Short, Area 20 px, Tolerance 0%. Then paint into “Layer1” painted with yellow. I paint only the face area because I select small brush size.

Note: The brush size is adjustable and the parameter in this step is just only guide line.

9. Adjust brush parameters as follows: Size 100 px, Opacity 100%, Style: Tight Curl, Area 20 px, Tolerance 5%. Then paint into “Layer1”. I paint only the body area because I select bigger brush size than step 8.

10. Adjust brush parameters as follows: Size 200 px, Opacity 100%, Style: Tight Curl, Area 20 px, Tolerance 5%. I select bigger brush size than step#9. I paint only the background area because I select bigger brush size than step 9.

11. This step is optional. After applying big brush size (step#10), you can see that some details on the singer face and hair are lost due to bigger painting over them. You can fix this problem easily. The basic idea is to use small brush size to paint over the damaged areas. Adjust brush parameters as follows: Size 20 px, Opacity 100%, Style: Tight Curl, Area 20 px, Tolerance 5% then paint over the areas where the details are destroyed such as hair, face and microphone area.

12. Duplicate “Background” layer by just simply dragging “Background” layer over the new layer icon.

13. Apply “Find Edge” filter: Filter>Stylize>Find Edge

14. Desaturate this layer: Image>Adjustments>Desaturate

15. Move this layer to the top. Change mode from Normal to Multiply and reduce opacity to 60%. After completion of this step, you will see that your photo has pencil line created around.

16. Select “Eraser Tool” from the tool pallet in order to delete some rough edge areas.

17. Change the eraser style. I select the style that looks like sand painting.

18. Delete some rough edge areas. For this case, I use the eraser tool to delete some areas of her hair, nose, hand, etc.

19. Moreover, you can increase facial detail of this singer. Select Layer1, select eraser for this case I still use the eraser style as same as step#16 but I reduce size of eraser to 20 px and opacity to 20%. More opacity you select, you facial detail will show.

20. Apply eraser tool over her face so that some facial details are recovered.

You may see that there are a lot of steps but some steps can be skipped depending on you. Let’s try and have fun with it.

1. Copy background layer. You drag your “Background” layer over the new layer icon in order to duplicate “Background” Layer.

2. Select Gaussian Blur filter from Adobe Photoshop Filter. Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur

3. Adjust Radius to 70. You can try to change this parameter until you are satisfied with it.

4. Change mode to Screen Mode.

5. Adjust brightness with Curve Adjustment. You can select the curve adjust from layer pallet. Please see the image below.

6. Adjust the curve until you like how brightness of your photo is.

That is !!!. It’s so simple, isn’t it?

Please feel free to give me comments so I can improve my post again next time.

Ps, according to this post, I used Adobe Photoshop CS2; therefore, the interface may be different from new version of Adobe Photoshop such as Adobe Photoshop CS3 or CS4 but the concept is the same.

Please see the before and after shot as shown below.

I use this photo for this example.

1. Hold and drag “Background Layer” over the new layer icon in order to duplicate the “Background Layer”. After duplicating, you will see “Background Layer Copy” on top of “Background Layer”

2. Select Radial Blur (Filter>Blur>Radial Blur)

3. Input 100 for amount

Blur Method is zoom.

Quality is Good.

Moreover, you need to move the Blur Center to where your light origin is. For this example, I move the blur center to NW a little bit. Then click OK.

4. You will see your photo after applying the radial blur filter. If you think that the radial blur is not enough for you, you can apply this filter until you are happy with the result.

5. Go to a layer pallet and change a layer style from Normal to Lighten and adjust layer opacity to 90%.

6. Click a layer mask icon to create a new layer mask

7. Select brush from a tool pallet and ensure that you select black as foreground color.

8. Change brush size according to your area in a photo.

9. Paint black to mask undesired areas. For this photo, I mask the bottom part of the photo. If you don’t like masking that you just do, you can change foreground color to white and paint on the area you want to recover details.

10. Look better, doesn’t it?

11. Hold and drag a “Background Layer Copy” over the new layer icon in order to duplicate the “Background Layer Copy”.

12. Change a layer style from Lighten to Vivid Light and adjust layer opacity to 20%. This step is for increasing the contrast of light.

That is : )