Creating An Effective Two Colour Star Wars Background - Photoshop Tutorial

Hey

I sort of stumbled across this effect while playing about with the layers in Photoshop. It quite cool and doesn't take long to complete and it can be applied to any image. I've made a couple Star Wars wallpapers, these are located at the bottom. You can at any point click on the images to see the full versions. We are trying to aim for a similar effect to the one on the right using only the layer blending options within Photoshop.

For this tutorial you will need:

• Photoshop
• A Star Wars image (included)
  

Step 1) The first step is to create a canvas, i've chosen a size of 1440 x 900 pixels to match my desktop background. Pick any size you want.

Step 2) The second step is to prepare your background. This can be any colour you want. I've chosen a tan/brown colour. I've chosen a radial gradient. The darker colour is "A7885A" i've picked a lighter colour from the menu and applied as so.


Step 3) Find a picture you want to use. I've picked Yoda. You can click the following image for the full size.


Step 4) Place Yoda into your canvas. I've positioned mine in the bottom left hand corner. Place yours where every you want.


Step 5) Desaturate the image by going Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. The idea behind this is to create an image which is only black and white, and then to use the blending options in Photoshop to create the effect we are after.


Step 6) The next step is to change the threshold of the image. Go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. Slide the values up or down until you get an image where most of the outline is one colour. This could be Black or White depending on the image. Use the following image as an example


Step 7) Touch up the photo by removing any erroneous pixels. You can either use the eraser or a colour brush.


Step 8) The next step is to Select screen mode from the Layer Blending options. Screen removes all of the black parts of the image and leaves only white behind. Alternatively if your image was the other way around and you wanted to remove the white parts you would use the Multiply option.


And you are done. The image below is the final with a couple of retouches and a final export.


You can do this with any coloured background and any photo. Darth Vader anyone?


You can choose to go the other way and have the image as black. This uses the Multiply blending mode instead of Screen.


Please leave a comment and links to your creations.