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help converting photo to stencil-style image

2823 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  chonkymonky, 
C
hey all. i have a client (ok ex-girlfirend) that wants an image of a person printed on a black shirt. she said she wanted an image similar to the "obama-hope" tees that were very popular during the elections. im guessing this type of image is considered a "stencil"? i made one for her about two years ago with a different image and it came out great. problem is that i cannot remember how i did it and can't find the tutorial i used for it. i have tried every other tutorial i could find and nothing is really giving me good results. i'm using photoshop 7.

is there anyone here that could give me tips or maybe a method or perhaps even a website that will convert the photo for me? ive included the picture..just in case someone would like to take a whack at it..hehe. thanks guys.

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You need to do this in illustrator, draw out paths for different skin tones to get a clean image. There are generators out there, but they run the same settings for every image making them look bad.
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I guess there's a few ways to do this. Try:
Open the picture and edit to suit.
Drag it down to Create New icon layer to create another layer the same.
Create a blank layer.
Drag the picture copy up to above the blank layer.
Delete all layers except the picture and the blank layer that's below it.
Select the picture layer.
Do Image/Adjustments/Threshold and adjust so you can see as much detail as you need.
Select the blank layer.
Paint colours onto the blank layer.
That might get you the Pop Art Obama effect. Maybe.
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F
I knew I'd make a mistake - missed out a stage. this is it:
Open the picture and edit to suit.
Drag it down to Create A New Layer icon layer to create another layer the same.
Create a blank layer.
Drag the picture copy up to above the blank layer.
Delete all layers leaving just the picture and the blank layer that's below it. (2 layers)
Select the picture layer.
Do Image/Adjustments/Threshold and adjust so you can see as much detail as you need.
Do Select Colour Range and select the white area. Delete the white areas and then deselect.
Select the blank layer.
Paint colours onto the blank layer.
That might get you the Pop Art Obama effect. Maybe.
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C
thank you both for replying.

@ pyrophire -i dont have illustrator so i was looking for a way to get it done in photoshop.

@ fauxfax -i forgot to mention that she wants it done in foil. so i just need it to be one color one color. ill give your method a try and see what results i get. thanks again.
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If you just need one color, open up the image, convert to grayscale, then convert to bitmap at 50% and youll be set
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RatedOG
I have done something similar using this tutorial. I think it is a mix of photoshop and illustrator, but maybe you can wing it a bit to not use illustrator. Or at least just to get an idea of what you will need to do.

Create an Inspirational Vector Political Poster | Vectortuts+

Another option might be to use the cutout filter in photoshop. I have used in the past and it worked great, but that was for 7 colors.
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Convert image to "black and white" then adjust "contrast/enhancement"
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hey guys. i tried all the different methods you all suggested but still i cannot get the results i want. either one side of the face is too dark or the other has no detail. im thinking its the quality of the picture. well ill keep fiddling with the different settings and see what i get. if i do finally figure this out ill let you all know. thanks again.
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The Professor
Do you have a larger version of this image? If not, I suspect your difficulties may lie with the small image size. The image above just doesn't have enough pixels to pull off that effect convincingly.
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ok quick update. i messed with it a little and came up with this (see pic). its not great but she liked it. this is what i did...i desaturated the pic then lightened it up a little. then i applied the photocopy effect and set detail and darkness all the way up. i then cleaned it up some with the brush set to white and left only the really dark lines. then i selected all the white in the pic with the magic wand tool and deleted it. i then selected all the dark in the pic by using ctr+right click on the layer and then filled it with black. like i said its not great but she likes it and thats all that matters right? hehe. i figured i would share this with anyone else trying to get a similar effect. thanks again guys.

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