Hello 
everyone this is Chris from Spoon Graphics,
welcome back to another video tutorial.
This time we're going to play around in Photoshop
to create a Double Exposure effect, which
is originally a Photography technique using
nothing but cameras to blend and merge two
separate photos together by exposing the film
twice in two completely different photos.
The style of this effect has also become popular
with digital artists, who can use Photoshop
to mimic the double exposure effect to create
a surreal image.
Popular examples are the True Detectives TV
show intro, or if you're a bit of a Taylor
Swift fan, you might recognise this effect
from her latest music video.
Common subjects that are often combined are
portraits or profiles and scenes of nature,
such as mountains or trees.
The example we'll be creating in this tutorial
uses a side profile of a female and a snowy
mountain scene, which are blended together
so the landscape fills the silhouette of the
portrait.
Begin by opening up your chosen portrait image
in Photoshop.
Ideally the image will have a nice clean solid
colour or white background like this.
I'm lucky enough to have a Shutterstock subscription,
but you can also find some quality free images
on the web.
The link to the images I've used are down
in the description.
First we need to separate the subject from
the background.
One of the quickest and easiest methods of
doing this is with the Channels.
Find the channel with the most contrast, then
duplicate it by dragging it into the New icon.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels, then move
the midtones and shadows sliders towards the
right to dramatically darken the image.
Go as far as you can without expanding the
black outline too much, as you can see if
the sliders are moved too much.
Select the brush tool and set up a hard tip
with a black fill, then paint over any remaining
highlights in the centre.
Click on the RGB channel layer to return back
to normal, then CMD+Click on the duplicated
channel to load the selection, followed by
Select > Inverse.
Return back to the Layers panel and ensure
the background is selected, then Copy and
Paste the clipping onto a new layer.
Fill the original background with white.
Next, find a landscape image and paste it
into the Photoshop document.
Move it to the top of the layer stack.
CMD+Click the thumbnail of the portrait layer,
then apply a Layer Mask to clip the landscape
image.
Un-link the mask with the layer by clicking
the chain icon.
Then select the landscape layer thumbnail
and go to Edit > Transform to scale and position
the image independently to find the best composition.
-------Select the original portrait layer
and press CMD+J to duplicate it.
Move it to the top of the layer stack then
go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate to
transform it to black and white, then change
the blending mode to Multiply.
Apply a Layer Mask to this layer, then set
up a large soft brush with a black fill.
Paint around the edges of the portrait to
erase away everything except the facial features.
Press X to switch the colours between white
and black to toggle between erasing and restoring
the image to find the perfect result.
Reduce the opacity of this ghostly portrait
layer to around 70%, so the features are just
subtly visible through the landscape.
-------Deselect the mask, then use the eyedropper
to choose a colour from the image, then brighten
it up by adjusting the colour picker.
Fill the background layer with this colour.
------Paste in another copy of the landscape
image, which should still be in your clipboard.
Move it to the top of the layer stack then
go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and alter
the radius to 250px.
Apply a layer mask, then erase away this layer
so the portrait can be seen again, leaving
a vignette style effect around the edges.
Reduce the opacity of this layer so the vignette
is hardly visible, but it produces some subtle
changes in tone.
Finish off the effect by applying a Levels
adjustment layer.
Tweak the highlights and shadows to increase
the contrast to bring out the details of the
image.
The final result is a cool blend of two images
to create a surreal piece of art which is
perfect for posters or album covers.
The big advantage of doing this in Photoshop,
as opposed to the traditional photography
technique, is you can experiment with different
images to find the best mix.
So I hope you enjoyed this Photoshop tutorial.
If you did I'd really appreciate a thumbs
on YouTube up to help spread the word.
Don't forget you can subscribe to see more
video tutorials for Illustrator and Photoshop,
or visit my website at http://spoon.graphics
for free design stuff.
So thank you very much for watching and I'll
see you in the next one.
