With all the issues Flash site come with, I was somewhat hesitant to invest the time to learn how to make one but seeing that so many people still use Flash for site design, I thought I’d better give it a try and it turned out to be lots of fun. I can’t wait to do more. Anyway, though I’m not a photographer by trade, I thought it’d be a fun way to put some of my photos to use. It’s simple, but it’s a start.
http://typecase.us
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to make smoke in Photoshop. Here is an example of what this process will produce:
Smoke with a color overlay.
1. In Photoshop, Go to File -> New.
You’ll need two layers; a black background to help you see and a transparent one where you’ll put the smoke.
The Layers Panel
2. Click on Layer 1 to make it active.
3. Click on the brush tool. Press x to make white the foreground color. Select a brush. Something basic is fine. You can experiment with different brushes.
4. Draw a line or lines in white on Layer 2. The line width and angle are up to you.
Basic White Line
5. Go to Filter -> Distort -> Twirl. Play with this setting, too. I like to really crank it up.
After using the Twirl filter.
6. Go to Filter -> Distort -> Wave. A dialog box will come up. Click randomize until you see a satisfactory gesture in your line. Click OK.
The Wave filter dialogue box.
7. Go to Edit -> Fade Wave. Play with the slider – I have found between 50% and 80% are effective. Here I used 80%.
The Wave filter faded to 80%.
8. Go to Filter -> Liquify. This is where the fun starts. On the bottom right, turn on Show Backdrop and select Use All Layers so you can see better. Drag the cursor to liquify the image. Sometimes you may want to vary the brush size. As you drag the cursor to shape the smoke, think about the gesture of smoke – the way it curls and rises very gently. Use this same energy as you reshape the image. Click OK when you’re done.
Liquify applied to image.
9. Go to Edit -> Fade Liquify. Choose the opacity that looks best. Here I chose 53%.
Liquify faded 53%.
10. Now it’s just a matter of distorting with the Wave filter or Liquify and then Fading the distortions until you’re happy with how it looks. I recommend making a keyboard shortcut for Wave. I used Command+/.
At this point consider taking a more hands on approach with the Wave filter and adjusting the minimum and maximum settings for wavelength, etc. rather than just clicking randomize. You need to control the shape a little bit to avoid too many angles. Go back to Liquify to smooth out any straight edges that appear. Command+z is your friend here.
You’ll also need to blur the image but take it easy – keep the setting around 1-2 pixels (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur). If you blur too much it’s hard to come back from if you change your mind later on. Fade the blur, too.
Once you’ve tried this a few times, you should be able to make some pretty good smoke in maybe 15 minutes.
You might find that the more you do the harder it is to see the smoke. If this happens, simply create an adjustment layer to increase the brightness and decrease the contrast a little by going to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Brightness/Contrast.
End result after using Twirl, Wave, Liquify and Fade repeatedly.
Once you’re finished you can add a gradient, a glow or a color overlay. At the bottom of the layers panel, click on the fx button. Next, experiment!
Our final product with a gradient applied.
Here are a couple of other examples to give you ideas:
Smoke with color overlay.
Smoke with a gradient.
As you make more type portraits in Photoshop, you may not need to read all the instructions from the 4 part tutorial, so here are some keywords to help jog your memory and speed up the process. I recommend this summary for someone who has used my full tutorial or for an intermediate Photoshop user. If you’re a beginner you’ll have more success using the expanded tutorial and then using this summary. Each section links to respective part of the full tutorial. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
These tips are a follow up to my 4 part Typographic Portrait tutorial.
Start with a strong photo
When making a typographic portrait, there are some things you might want to consider. I have found that high contrast photos work best, such as the zebra image from my tutorial, and black and white photos such as the one I worked into the Ava Gardner portrait. It was a professionally lit image with an even spectrum of grey values which offered plenty of midtones, highlights, and shadows. If you start with a strong photo, you’ll have an easier time creating your type portrait.
The portrait below was actually fairly difficult in that though the contrast seemed ok at first, the dog, my schnauzer, is grey without many strong contrasts in her coat and the midtones turned out to be a little muddy. So, I had to struggle a little with it to bring out the shading. Eventually I resorted to a gradient to help out and painting some details on the vector mask. In the event you find yourself having trouble, step back and reconsider your original photo.
Poster for my very curious dog starring in her own movie. The original photo proved less than ideal.
Try a variety of subjects
Another idea is to try a variety of subjects. Portraits don’t have to always be of people. And really, you don’t even have to keep your images in the realm of portraiture. Try landscapes, still lifes and abstracts.
Experiment
Experiment with different settings in Photoshop. I found in the Ava Gardner portrait, that a feather of about 10 pixels on lasso tool was just right. I felt that that soft edge reflected the photography and aesthetics of glamour Hollywood.
I used a feather of about 10 px when I selected the original image which softened it. It's most obvious around her hair.
Consider the end product
When you’re creating your portrait, consider how it’s going to be used. Websites, ads, posters, t-shirts, greeting cards and package design will all have different specifications. If it’s destined for print, be sure to talk to the printer to make sure you provide them with exactly what they need. If it’s for the internet, you need to save for web in Photoshop so your file is as small as possible while retaining its visual integrity. If you’re designing for a t-shirt and want a colored background, make sure you know what color t-shirt the image will be printed on.
The four parts in this tutorial are:
You could go further and add some random words outside the mask. If you do, create a new, transparent layer on top of the Paint Layer and name it Random Text.
I like to turn off Shape Dynamics here (in the Brushes Panel – Window -> Brushes) and rotate the brush manually because I want more precise control. Here I just added a few words in places where there were gaps in the stripes. I want people to be able to read the word Zebra rather than just have filled in all the lines with black.
Random Text layer all by itself.
There was a small detail that was bothering me, so I went into the Vector Mask and fixed it. Where the two noses meet, I drew, with the Vector Mask selected, a one pixel wide black line to help separate their noses. Black on the vector mask means the pixels on the Paint Layer are masked, or won’t show through.
There's a very fine line drawn outlining the nose of the foremost zebra. Though it appears white here, it is black on the Vector Mask.
In this case, because zebras are black and white, I think the white and black is appropriate, however, you could do color and gradient variations. So, here’s one potential finished version:
Basic, black and white typographic portrait.
Make sure your Paint layer is selected in the Layers panel. Next, click on the fx button at the bottom and select Gradient Overlay from the menu that pops up. Try the various gradients and experiment with the settings until you find something you like. If you don’t have many gradients, click on the little circle to the right of the drop down panel and on the menu that appears, you should see a list of things at the bottom like Color Harmonies 1 & 2, Metals, Neutral Density, etc. These are all collections of gradients, just append them to your current collection when prompted.
Once you’re happy with your gradient, you’ll notice that the Random Text layer still needs the same gradient applied. Hold down the Option key as you drag the effects from the Paint layer to the Random Text layer. This creates a copy and attaches it to the layer it’s dropped on. If by chance the gradient doesn’t match up somehow, double click the gradient effect under the Random Text layer and uncheck Align with Layer. It may take a little tweaking and adjusting, but it usually falls right in line.
Gradient applied.
Select your White layer and click on the fx button at the bottom of the Layers panel. Select Color Overlay (make sure it’s checked) and click on the color swatch to the right of Blend Mode. Select your color and click OK.
Color overlay applied to basic black and white image.
By making the gradient and color overlay changes as effects, you can easily turn them on or off without destroying your file.
Congratulations!! You’ve done it!
Now that you’ve got a little experience under your belt, read up on some tips for making type portraits.
From Wikimedia Commons, taken by Saad Akhtar.
Airstream by Nick Curtis
Foo by Ray Larabie
Gilligans Island by Mark Riddle
fontdinerdotcomsparkly by Stuart Sandler, Font Diner
Yippy by West Wind Fonts
PortogalITC TT – shipped with CS5
All fonts, with the exception of PortogalITC were downloaded from dafont.com.
I would like to thank Layers Magazine for having their tutorial online. I found it very helpful when I was learning how to do this myself.
And last but not least, you, the reader who (hopefully) have tried my tutorial. Please let me know if you need anything clarified, see room for improvement or just want to say hi! 
