Digital SLR Photography - UK (2019-07)

Adobe Photoshop CC

Etch your sketch

CAROLINESCHMIDTSHOWS YOUHOWTOBLEND

YOURARTWORKS TO G E T H E RI NSIXSIMPLESTEPS

N

OWYOUHAVE yourportraitandsketchsorted,thisis theeasy

part.It’sassimpleasretouchingyourshotsandblending

themtogether.You may need to do more editing depending

on how well you’ve captured your images, as you will need both the

portraitandsketchagainsta purewhitebackground,butthisis

relativelysimpleusinga CurvesorLevelsadjustmentlayerasyou’ll

seesoon.Youcanrepeatthistutorialasmanytimesasyou like to

addmultiplesketchestoyourportrait– havesomefunwith it!

40 Digital SLR Photography July 2019

SUBJECT

ILLUSTR

ATION

1

SCAN YO U RS K E TC H If you’ve a flatbed

scanner then use this to scan in your

sketch at 300dpi – make sure your scanner is

clean or you’ll be doing a lot of work with the

Clone Stamp Tool to get the file ready. These

days there are lots of apps that let you scan

documents from your phone or tablet – here

I’ve used Photomyne. Make sure when you

scan the sketch the paper is evenly lit.

4

EDITYOURPORTRAITOpenyourportrait

fileandrepeatstep3. Toextendthe

backgroundgotoImage>CanvasSize and

increasethedimensionsasneeded– you

cancroptheimagelatertosizesogolarger

thanyouneed.SelecttheMarqueeTooland

thetop,orsides,of thebackgroundthenthe

MoveTooland drag the selection to fill the

canvas. Go to Select>Deselect when done.

2

EDITYOURSKETCHOpenthesketchin

youreditingsoftwareandconvertit to

black& whitebyaddinganadjustmentlayer

(Layer>NewAdjustmentLayer>Black&

White) togetridof anycolourcasts.If you

needto,rotatetheimage(Image>Image

Rotation) andusetheCropTooltoisolatethe

sketch.AlsousetheCloneStampTool, ona

newlayer,togetridof anymarksonthepage.

5

ADDYOURSKETCHClickonthe‘sketch’layer

andtheCtrlkey,selectDuplicateLayer

andpickyourportraitlayerastheDestination

toaddthesketchtoyourimage.Holddown

theShiftkeyasyouusetheboundingbox

toresizeyoursketchproportionallyandthe

MoveTooltoreposition.ChangetheBlend

ModetoMultiply to eliminate the white

paper, leaving the sketch’s outline.

3

ADJUSTBRIGHTNESSIf yourpagelooksmore

greythanwhite,adda Levelsadjustment

layer(Layer>NewAdjustmentLayer>Levels).

MovetheWhite slider to the left to brighten

the midtones, then the grey and black slider

slightly to the right to darken the sketch

outlines.Finda balancebetweenretaining

sketchdetailand‘blowingout’thewhite

page.Next,gotoLayer>FlattenImage.

6

MAKEFINALTWEAKSIf there’s a tonal

difference between the sketch and

portrait’sbackground,adda LevelsorCurves

adjustmentlayerbutthistimelinkit tothe

sketchlayerbyclickingthealtkeyandtheline

betweenthemin theLayer’spalette.Adjust

the settings until the blend looks seamless.

Use a Layer Mask to remove any areas of the

sketch that overlap with the subject.