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..
Step 1.) Desaturate your portrait with image>adjustment>desaturate or simply by pressing shift+ctrl+u
Step 2.) Apply image adjustment curve to your portrait
Step 3.) Duplicate the layer, and add gaussian blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur), change the layer blend mode to overlay
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.
Originally posted: 02/10/06
See also: Photoshop Tutorials
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
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:))
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.
Hey guys.. after you apply the gaussian blur, don’t forget to change the layer blend mode to ‘overlay’..
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
Very good tutorial! I like that soft yet detailed look
IIP
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.
You can find a little explanation (in french) of the lighting in studio for a high key shooting at this url
High Key from the lighting to the final picture. You can download a lightroom preset to make your own High Key Pictures. I hope this post can help visitors to create good high key pictures. Good Luck
Worked fine for me. Chk out the image at my flickr.
nice one…………
Very nice, the is a style i use quite a bit. http://www.linendoll.com/2009/01/bw-portraits/
nice tutorial
Thanks …nice..easy..:)
hi…….. the tutorial is working perfectly. Nice job. And it’s very easy, thank you.
I like it this tutorial. this is very easy and good job.. thanks
What do you do after you add the mask..How do I complete it? Sorry, not very good at photoshop…thank you, Kathy
What do you do after the last step? Sorry, I’ve had photoshop for years but never use it….This is the reason why..I never know what to do next…thank you, Kathy
Something doesnt work right for me, IS the layer mask set separate from the layer with the blur?,
what setting for the layer? Hide all?.
A bit confusing for beginners.
umm… what should the burn tool’s setting?? should it be set to shadow, midtones or highlights??
I tried this out and the effect is amazing! Had long been looking for a way to do this.
Thanks!
its cool I like it
Nice color effecting tutorial. Thanks.
High-key image from body art photosession. Photoshop CS5 post production.
http://photologs.net/portfolio/body-art-high-key-lighting/
I tried this with very good results. This is fast and easy and the results are quite amazing. Thanks for this great B/W tip.
nice tut
Cool thanks for posting gonna try it out
Cool gonna try it out, thanks for posting