Awesome Double-Exposure Portraits In Photoshop

On this video Marty Geller from Blue Lightning TV shows you how to create a cool looking double exposure portrait image using Photoshop.

Open a photo (portrait in this case) and drag and crop the section of the portrait that you want to use. Select only the subject and separate it from the background (we have many videos on this subject – this is one place to start) to check your selection press Q (to see the selection and press Q again revert back to the selection). Now invert the selection by ctrl+shift+I and click the layer mask icon to make it into a mask.

Make a white layer below the current layer. fill this layer with white (ctrl + delete with white color selected). Click the layer with your subject and create an adjustment layer called” black white” (and in the preset list and choose “high contrast blue filter”). Create another adjustment layer and choose levels. In the input white field Geller choose 142.

Now make the white layer active and bring it behind the subject layer (copy it using ctrl c). Change the blend mode to overlay. You can change the position of the “background” by dragging the the mask to the background layer and unlink the layer mask from the layer by ctrl T and drag it.

We have already covered how to create double exposure in the past both in Photoshop and other software and in camera.

You can find many more Photoshop video tutorials on LensVid’s Photoshop section.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.