Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Trendy
Desaturated
This is just about the hottest Photoshop portrait technique out there right now,
and you see it popping up everywhere, from covers of magazines to CD covers,
from print ads to Hollywood movie posters, and from editorial images to billboards.
It seems right now everybody wants this effect (and you're about to be able to de-
liver it in roughly 60 seconds flat using the simplified method shown here!).
Skin Look
Step One:
Open the photo you want to apply
this trendy desaturated portrait effect
to. Duplicate the Background layer by
pressing
Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J)
.
Then duplicate this layer using the same
shortcut (so you have three layers in all,
which all look the same, as shown here).
Step Two:
In the Layers panel, click on the middle
layer (Layer 1) to make it the active layer,
then press
Command-Shift-U (PC: Ctrl-
Shift-U)
to Desaturate and remove all
the color from that layer. Now, lower the
Opacity of this layer to 80%, so just a little
color shows through. Of course, there's
still a color photo on the top of the layer
stack, so you won't see anything change
onscreen (you'll still see your color photo),
but if you look in the Layers panel, you'll
see the thumbnail for the center layer is
in black and white (as seen here).
