High-Key B&W Portrait Effect


Our tutorial this time will show you how you can achieve high-key effect in a Black and White portrait with only 4 easy steps in photoshop.

Here are our before and after portraits..

high key technique

Step 1.) Desaturate your portrait with image>adjustment>desaturate or simply by pressing shift+ctrl+u

high key technique

Step 2.) Apply image adjustment curve to your portrait

high key technique

Step 3.) Duplicate the layer, and add gaussian blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), change the layer blend mode to overlay

high key technique

Step 4.) Add layer mask, Set your foreground color to black, and start brushing over the eyes, nose, and lips. You might want to use the burn tool to burn the background layer around the eyes, nose, and lips.

high key technique

Originally posted: 02/10/06


See also: Photoshop Tutorials

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7 Comments »

Comment by Abby
2006-06-13 23:35:32

I would like to no what program it is to change the color of your picture so if you could email my soon as posibale that would be great thank
you
Abby

 
Comment by Ort
2006-11-25 07:00:16

No way. Something is not right in this tutorial… I tried with my picture, and effect is completely different. So I tried with the picture above, I did what You wrote, but the effect wasn’t the same. Something is wrong. It may be blending, You didnt write anything about it… (Sorry for my english:))

 
Comment by spiker26 Subscribed to comments via email
2007-09-30 14:30:43

Sorry folks, it is not working for me either. Entered the same values and tried to change opacity etc. but could not make it work. More and better detail steps required in future tutuorials.

 
Comment by Dphotojournal com
2007-09-30 16:55:38

Hey guys.. after you apply the gaussian blur, don’t forget to change the layer blend mode to ‘overlay’..

 
Comment by irone Subscribed to comments via email
2007-10-01 12:47:32

thank’s for this tutorial, this time work for me and very helpful, i always want to make photo like your. love it. And after i follow this tutorial, i still can ajust bright & contrast without losing skin tone.

thx
irone

 
Comment by photoshop-user
2007-10-01 22:54:48

Very good tutorial! I like that soft yet detailed look

IIP

 
Comment by giv
2008-05-02 09:49:12

your tutorial is ok but how about when you print it? I work in an offset printing environment and based on your work I noticed that the picture has K:0% meaning when you print it there are portion that are black cuz there is no tone.

 

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