Colorsplash Sign

Alright, so we all know that colorsplashing is a ridiculously popular thing to do with pictures nowadays. Black and white, just a little color, and BAM!, you've got one colorsplashed picture on your hands. But how do you make it stand out, and really make it unique? Hopefully, this tutorial will help.

For this tutorial, I will be using this photo of Jemi: click here.

Adjusting the Picture

To start, I followed my Simple Retouching Tutorial to prep the picture a bit. Instead of setting the final layer to soft light, however, I set it to Screen and adjusted it to make it brighter. This is the result.

After that, I must get it ready for black-n-whiteification. To do this, I adjust the brightness and contrast (by going to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Brightness and Contrast), to make it brighter. (Screenshot.) Next, I make a new layer and fill it with this pattern. I set it to soft light and adjust the opacity until it looks right.

Next, it's time to black and white the picture. To do this, I reccommend going to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Gradient Map. You can see the settings here.

Selectively Coloring

Now, you have to pick what you want to be colored. In this example, I'm going to color part of Demi's dress and Joe's tie. To do this, create a new layer, set it to color, and place either a solid color or gradient over the parts you want colored (by selecting around them first, then placing the color/gradient on it). (Screenshot.)

Now, you can see that it's quite a mess. To clean up the coloring, simply use the eraser and erase the parts you don't want colored. This is my product after erasing. Now simply merge all the layers, and you're finished coloring!

Now, you can either choose to stop and add text now, or continue to spice things up a little bit.

Final Touches

Alright, so now we've got a lovely colorsplashed sign, but it's a bit bland. To spice it up, I'm going to put a zebra patterned gradient in the top left corner. To do this, create a new layer, and fill it with any gradient you want. Then go to Blending Options >> Pattern Overlay and select any pattern. For this tutorial, I'm using a zebra pattern from Obsidian Dawn. Set the overlay to screen, and close the blending options. Your layer should look something like this.

Now, to apply it to only the top left corner, create a shape on a new layer that takes up everything but the top left corner of the image. This is best done by combining a circle or ellipse with a square or rectangle. It should look something like this.

Rasterize this shape layer, and select the part that isn't black. Now, on the photo layer, delete just that top corner part. Delete the shape layer, and drag your photo foward. If you wish, you can add a border and a drop shadow. (Screenshot.)

When you're finished, your layer settings should look something like those to the left.