Photoshop Tutorials: Bourne Ultimatum Color and Motion Blur

Here's the image I'll be using for this Photoshop Effects:

The original image.

And here's the same image after applying the "Bourne Ultimatum" color and motion blur effect to it:

The final result.

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

As is often the case with many of our Photoshop tutorials (and also a good habit to get into), the first thing we want to do in creating this effect is duplicate our Background layer. Photoshop's Layers palette is currently showing us that we have only one layer, the "Background" layer, which contains our original image:

The Layers palette showing the original image on the Background layer.

Let's duplicate the layer using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). When I look in my Layers palette now, I can see that Photoshop has copied my Background layer and has named the copy "Layer 1". The copy is also above the original Background layer:

Press "Ctrl+J" (Win) / "Command+J" (Mac) to duplicate the Background layer.

Step 2: Set The Color You Want To Colorize The Image With As Your Foreground Color

We're going to use a "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer to colorize the image in a moment, but to make things easier, let's choose the color we're going to use first by setting it as our Foreground color. This way, we won't have to fumble around with any sliders in the Hue/Saturation dialog box trying to find the color we want. To do that, click on the Foreground color swatch in the Tools palette:

Click on the Foreground color swatch near the bottom of the Tools palette.

When you click on it, Photoshop's Color Picker will appear. You're of course free to use whichever color you want for your effect. I've gone ahead and sampled a color directly from the movie poster, so if you want to use the same color I'll be using, look on the bottom right side of the Color Picker for the RGB options and enter 48 for the R value (which stands for Red), 94 for the G value (Green), and 116 for the B value (Blue):

Use the Color Picker to choose the color you want to colorize the image with.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box.

Step 3: Colorize The Image With A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Now that we've selected the color we're going to use to colorize the image, this next step is going to be easy. Click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon.

Then choose Hue/Saturation from the list that appears:

Choose "Hue/Saturation" from the list.

This will bring up Photoshop's Hue/Saturation dialog box. Since we've already chosen the color we want to colorize the image with, all we need to do here is select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner of the dialog box:

Check the "Colorize" option.

As soon as you check the option, Photoshop goes ahead and colorizes the image using our chosen Foreground color:

Photoshop colorizes the image with our chosen Foreground color.

Click OK to exit out of the Hue/Saturation dialog box.

Step 4: Select Your Brush Tool

In the movie poster for the "Bourne Ultimatum", the entire image is colorized except for Matt Damon's face and hands, which have some of his original flesh tone showing through, and we can do the same thing with our image very easily. First, we need the Brush Tool, so either select it from the Tools palette or press B on your keyboard:

Photoshop Effects: Select the Brush Tool.

Step 5: Set Your Foreground Color To Black

In order to bring back some of the color from the original image, we're going to use our brush to paint with black on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer's layer mask. Anywhere we paint with black is going to hide the effects of the adjustment layer and bring back our original color. In order to paint with black, we need black as our Foreground color, and we can get that easily by pressing D on the keyboard, which resets Photoshop's Foreground and Background colors, making black our new Foreground color (white becomes the Background color). We can see this if we look at the Foreground and Background color swatches in the Tools palette:

Photoshop Effects: Reset the Foreground color to black by pressing "D" on your keyboard.

Step 6: Lower The Opacity Of The Brush To About 30%

We only want to bring back a subtle amount of color, so we need to lower the opacity of our brush before we begin painting. To do that, with the Brush Tool selected, go up to the Opacity option in the Options Bar at the top of the screen and lower the opacity of the brush to around 30%:

Photoshop Effects: Lower the opacity of your brush to around 30%.

This way we'll only be bringing back 30% of the original color rather than the full amount.

Step 7: Select The Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer's Layer Mask

As I mentioned, we're going to paint with black on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer's layer mask, rather than on the image itself, so let's select the layer mask by clicking on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette:

Photoshop Effects: Select the layer mask by clicking on its thumbnail in the Layers palette.

You'll know that the layer mask is selected because it will have a white highlight border around the thumbnail, as we can see in the image above.

Step 8: Paint On The Image To Bring Back Some Of The Skin Tone

We have our Brush Tool with our Foreground color set to black, we've lowered the opacity of the brush to 30%, and we've selected the layer mask for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in the Layers palette. All we need to do now is paint over any areas where we want to bring back some of the color from the original image. I want to bring back some color in the skin tones of both people in my image, so I'm going to paint over their faces and hands to bring back some skin color. To resize my brush as needed, I'll use the left and right bracket keys on my keyboard. The left bracket key makes the brush smaller and the right bracket key makes it larger. Here' I'm painting over the guy's face and you can see that his skin tone is showing through:

Photoshop Effects: Paint with black to reveal some of the original skin tone.

If you accidentally paint over an area you didn't mean to paint over, simply press X on your keyboard to switch your Foreground color to white and paint over the mistake, then press X again to switch back to black and continue painting.

Photoshop Effects: The image after bringing back some of the skin tones.

At this point, we're done colorizing our image. Next, we're going to add the motion blur effect.

Step 9: Apply The Motion Blur Filter To The Background Copy Layer ("Layer 1")

We're going to add our motion blur effect to the image, and we'll use Photoshop's classic and appropriately named "Motion Blur" filter to do it. We want to apply the motion blur to the copy of the Background layer that we created back at the beginning of this tutorial, so click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it. You'll know it's selected because it will appear highlighted in blue:

Click on "Layer 1" in the Layers palette to select it.

Now that we have the correct layer selected, let's go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Blur, and then choose Motion Blur. This will bring up the Motion Blur filter's dialog box. Set your Angle to around -40°. Then drag the slider at the bottom to adjust the Distance of the motion blur. The value you set this to is going to depend a lot on the size of your image. I'm using a small image for this tutorial, and for me, a value of about 35 pixels gives me roughly the same effect used in the Bourne Ultimatum movie poster:

Set the "Angle" to -40°, then adjust the blur distance with the slider at the bottom.

If you're using a large, high resolution image, you'll want to set your Distance value higher. Use my image below as a guide for the blur distance you're aiming for:

The image after applying the Motion Blur filter.

Step 10: Add A Layer Mask To The Motion Blur Layer

What I'm going to do next is allow the two people in the image to show through the motion blur effect, and I'm going to once again use a layer mask for that. With "Layer 1" still selected, I'm going to click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Click the "Layer Mask" icon.

This adds a layer mask to our motion blurred layer, and it also adds a layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette. I can tell from the white highlight border around the thumbnail that the layer mask is already selected for me:

The Layers palette now showing the layer mask thumbnail on "Layer 1".

I can now use this layer mask to hide the motion blur from in front of the two people in my image, which I'll do next.

Step 11: Paint With Black On The Layer Mask To Hide The Motion Blur

With black still as my Foreground color and the layer mask on "Layer 1" selected, I'm going to use my Brush Tool again to paint over the areas in the image where I want to hide the motion blur, which in my case is in front of the two people. I want to use a soft-edged brush for this, so I'm going to hold down my Shift key and press the left bracket key on my keyboard a few times, which will give me a nice soft edge for my brush. Before I begin painting, I'm going to go back up to the Options Bar and set the opacity of my brush back up to 100%:

Set the opacity of the Brush Tool back to a full 100% in the Options Bar.

Once again, I'm going to resize my brush as needed using the left and right bracket keys, and I'm simply going to paint with black over the two people in my image, allowing them to show through the motion blur. As I approach the edges of the people, I'm going to keep my brush just inside the edge to give me a nice blend between the people and the motion blur around them. If I make a mistake and accidentally paint over an area I didn't mean to, I can simply press X on my keyboard to switch my Foreground color to white, just as I did when painting on the Hue/Saturation layer mask, and paint over the mistake. Then I'd press X again to switch back to black and continue painting away the motion blur:

Paint with black over areas to hide the motion blur.

I'm going to continue painting over the guy until I've removed all of the motion blur in front of him, leaving a nice effect around the edges:

The image after painting away the motion blur effect in front of the guy.

And here's my image after painting away the motion blur effect in front of the woman behind him as well:

Both people are now showing through the motion blur.

Step 12: Add A New Layer At The Top Of The Layers Palette

At this point, our effect is pretty much complete. We've colorized the image, brought back some of the original skin tone, added our motion blur, and then painted away the motion blur in front of the two people. Let's finish things off by adding a little grunge to the image. First, click on the Hue/Saturation layer in the Layers palette to select it so we can add a new blank layer above it. Then click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Select the Hue/Saturation layer in the Layers palette, then click on the "New Layer" icon.

Photoshop will add a new blank layer at the top of the Layers palette, and will name it "Layer 2":

A new blank layer is added to the top of the Layers palette.

Step 13: Fill The New Layer With White

We need to fill this new layer with white, and since white is currently our Background color, we can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac), which tells Photoshop to fill the layer with the Background color. The image will now appear completely filled with white.

I won't bother showing a screenshot, since a white image on a white background wouldn't look very interesting.

Step 14: Apply Photoshop's "Add Noise" Filter To The Layer

Go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, choose Noise, and then choose Add Noise. This brings up the "Add Noise" filter's dialog box. I'm going to use the slider to set my Amount value to around 100% or so, giving me quite a bit of noise. You may want to set yours even higher if you're using a high resolution image. Also, make sure that the Gaussian and Monochromatic options are both selected at the bottom of the dialog box:

Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise to bring up the Add Noise dialog box.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. Your image will now be filled with noise:

The image after filling the top layer with noise.

Step 15: Change The Blend Mode Of The Noise Layer To "Color Burn"

Our image is filled completely with noise, which isn't what we want. Let's blend the noise in with the image by first changing the blend mode of the noise layer. Go up to the blend mode options in the top left corner of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal" and change the blend mode to Color Burn:

Change the blend mode of the noise layer to "Color Burn".

Step 16: Lower The Opacity Of The Noise Layer To 10% Or Less

The noise is now blending in with the image but it's much too intense. To fix that and complete our effect, go over to the Opacity option in the top right of the Layers palette (directly beside the blend mode option) and lower the opacity of the layer all the way down to 10% or less. I'm going to set mine to 8%, leaving the noise barely visible but enough to add a little "dirt" to the image:

Lower the opacity of the noise layer to 10% or less so the noise is just barely visible.

Once you've blended in your noise with the image, you're done!

Here, for comparison, is my original image once again:

The original image once again.

And here is the final "Bourne Ultimatum movie poster" color and motion blur effect:

Photoshop Tutorials: Add Transparent Type To An Image

Here's the image I'll be using throughout this Photoshop tutorial:

Photoshop Tutorials: The original image.

And here, after we look at the fast and easy way to make text transparent in Photoshop, is the more interesting result we'll be working towards:

Step 1: Add Your Text To The Image

Before we can worry about making our Photoshop text transparent, we first need to add it, so let's do that. Select your Type Tool from the Tools palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Type Tool.

You can also quickly access Photoshop's Type Tool by pressing T on your keyboard. I want white as my Foreground color, so I'll press D on my keyboard, which resets Photoshop's Foreground color to black and its Background color to white, and then I'll press X to swap them, making white my Foreground color.

With your Type Tool selected and white as your Foreground color, go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen and choose your font. Your choice of fonts will of course depend on which fonts you currently have installed on your system. I'm going to choose Helvetica Black Condensed for my font. You can also set your Font Size in the Options Bar if you wish, but it's often easier to adjust the size after you've added the type using Photoshop's Free Transform command, as I'll be doing in a moment. So for now, I'll go ahead and add my type. I'm going to type the words "SCUBA DIVING" (even though technically, the people in the photo are snorkeling, but I'm sure they'll be going scuba diving later):

Photoshop Tutorials: Add your type to the image.

Click the checkmark in the Options Bar to accept your type when you're done:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click the checkmark in the Options Bar to accept the type.

Step 2: Resize And Reposition The Type As Needed With Free Transform

Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to bring up Photoshop's Free Transform box and handles around your text. Move your text into position by clicking anywhere inside the Free Transform box and dragging the text around on the screen (don't click on the little target icon in the center though or you'll move the target, not the image). To resize the text, hold down Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac) and drag any of the corner handles. Holding "Shift" tells Photoshop to constrain the width and height proportions of the text as you drag so you don't distort the look of it, and holding Alt/Option tells Photoshop to resize the text from the center. I'm going to stretch my text vertically a little as well, so once I've moved it into position and resized it with the corner handles, I'm going to hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) again and click on the top center handle and drag it upward to stretch the text. Once again, holding down Alt/Option stretches the text from its center:

Photoshop Tutorials: Move and resize the text as needed with Photoshop's Free Transform command.

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to accept the transformation.

With our text added, we'll look at the absolute easiest way of making it transparent next.

Step 3: Lower The Opacity Of The Type Layer

The quickest and absolute easiest way to make your Photoshop type transparent in front of an image is to simply lower the type layer's Opacity value. If we look in our Layers palette, we can see that we currently have two layers, with our original image on the bottom "Background" layer and our text on the layer above it:

Photoshop Tutorials: Photoshop's Layers palette showing our two layers.

To lower the opacity of the text and allow the image underneath it to partially show through, simply go up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette and lower its value. The lower you set the opacity value, the more transparent the text will become. I'm going to lower mine to about 50%:

Photoshop Tutorials: Lower the opacity of the Photoshop text layer to make the text more transparent.

And here's my image after lowering the transparency of my text:

Photoshop Tutorials: The text now appears semi-transparent after lowering its opacity value.

The text now appears semi-transparent, and if I was to lower its opacity value even further, it would become even more transparent. Here's the image with the text's opacity lowered to 35%:

Photoshop Tutorials: The text now appears even more transparent after lowering its opacity down to 35%.

Of course, if I was to lower the opacity all the way down to 0%, the text would become completely invisible, which isn't really what we want. Generally speaking, an opacity value of somewhere between 30-50% works well with most images.

So that's the fastest and easiest way to make text transparent over an image, but it's certainly not what I would call the most interesting way, so let's look at a different way to go about it. Before we do that though, I'm going to set my opacity value back to 100%:

Photoshop Tutorials: Setting the opacity value of the text back to a full 100%.

Step 4: Lower The "Fill" Value All The Way Down To 0%

A minute ago, we saw how lowering the opacity value of the type layer can make it transparent. The more we lowered the value, the more transparent the text became. If you look directly below the Opacity value option in the top right corner of the Layers palette, you'll see the Fill option. The difference between "Opacity" and "Fill" has to do with any layer styles that have been added to the layer, and understanding this difference opens up an entire world of possibilities in Photoshop, so it really is important that you know the difference. Currently, I don't have any layer styles applied to my type layer, so if I was to lower the Fill value, the result would be exactly the same as if I lowered the Opacity value. The lower I set the Fill value, the more transparent the type would become. In fact, let's do that now. Lower the Fill value of your type layer all the way down to 0%:

Photoshop Tutorials: Lower the "Fill" value of your Photoshop type layer down to 0%.

Your text will completely disappear in your image, which is exactly what would have happened if we lowered the Opacity value down to 0%:

Photoshop Tutorials: The text has disappeared inside the image.

Step 5: Add An "Outer Glow" Layer Style

The difference between "Opacity" and "Fill" is that if we had lowered the Opacity value down to 0%, not only would the type itself be completely transparent and hidden from view but any layer styles we tried to add to it would also be completely transparent as well, which means we wouldn't see anything no matter what we did to the type, which means this whole thing would be kind of pointless, really. But, by lowering the Fill value down to 0% instead, the type still becomes transparent but any layer styles we add remain fully visible! Click on the Layer Styles icon (the icon that looks like an "f") at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose the Outer Glow layer style from the list:

Photoshop Tutorials: Add an "Outer Glow" layer style to the Photoshop type layer.

This brings up the Layer Style dialog box set to the Outer Glow options in the middle column, and already, if you look in your image, you'll see the glow around the outside of your type. Again, if we had lowered the Opacity value to 0%, the layer style itself would also be hidden from view, but since we lowered the Fill value, only the text becomes transparent while the layer style remains visible.

By default, the Outer Glow color is yellow, so let's change it to something that fits in better with our image. In fact, let's sample a color directly from the image and use it as our Outer Glow color. To do that, click on the color swatch directly below the word "Noise":

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the color swatch to change the color of the Outer Glow.

This will bring up Photoshop's Color Picker but just ignore it or slide it out of the way if needed, since we won't be using it. Instead, move your mouse over the image and as you do, you'll see your mouse cursor change into the Eyedropper icon. Click anywhere inside the image to sample a color, which will become the color of your Outer Glow. As soon as you click inside your image, you'll see the Outer Glow around your text change to the color you just sampled, so feel free to click on different areas of your image to preview what that color looks like. I'm going to sample a light blue from the top left corner of my image and as soon as I do, my glow color around my text changes to the same light blue color:

Once you've sampled a color to use for your Outer Glow, click OK in the top right of Photoshop's Color Picker to close out of it and return to the Outer Glow options in the middle column of the Layer Style dialog box. Increase the Opacity of your Outer Glow all the way to 100%, then increase the glow Size to around 20 pixels:

Photoshop Tutorials: Increase the Opacity of the Outer Glow to 100% and increase the Size to around 20 pixels.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box. Here's my image so far:

Photoshop Tutorials: The Photoshop text after applying the Outer Glow layer style with the color sampled from the image.

We could end here if we wanted, since we now have our transparent text effect and it does look more interesting than if we had simply lowered the type layer's Opacity value as we did back near the beginning of the tutorial, but let's take things further.

Step 6: Set The "Fill" Value Back To 100%

Go back up to the top right corner of the Layers palette and set the type layer's Fill value back to a full 100%:

Photoshop Tutorials: Set the Photoshop type layer's Fill value back to 100%.

This is going to temporarily fill your text with white again:

Photoshop Tutorials: The text is now filled with solid white once again.

Step 7: Change The Type Layer's Blend Mode To "Overlay"

Another way to make text transparent in an image is to change its blend mode. By default, a layer's blend mode is set to "Normal", which basically means "nothing special". The type layer is just sitting there and not really interacting with the image below it in any way, but we can change that. Go up to the Blend Mode options in the top left corner of the Layers palette, directly across from the Opacity option. Click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal" and choose Overlay from the drop-down list that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Change the blend mode of the Photoshop type layer from "Normal" to "Overlay".

Now look at the image. The text has become transparent once again but it's also picking up the colors from the image below it and making everything brighter, giving us a really nice effect:

Photoshop Tutorials: After changing the type layer's blend mode to "Overlay", the text becomes transparent once again and the image underneath it becomes brighter and more colorful.

If you find that the Overlay blend mode is too intense with your image, try "Soft Light" instead, which gives the same yet much more subtle effect.

Again, we could stop here, but let's finish things off by giving our transparent type just a bit more definition.

Step 8: Add An "Inner Glow" Layer Style To The Type

Click back on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and this time, choose Inner Glow from the list:

Photoshop Tutorials: Add an "Inner Glow" layer style to the Photoshop type layer.

Once again, Photoshop will bring up the Layer Style dialog box, this time set to the Inner Glow options in the middle column. Just as we did with the Outer Glow, let's sample a color from the image to use for our Inner Glow. Click on the color swatch directly below the word "Noise":

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the color swatch for the Inner Glow to change its color.

Photoshop's Color Picker will appear and again we're going to ignore it, since we're going to sample a color directly from the image. Move your mouse cursor over the image and you'll see it change into the Eyedropper icon. Click on a dark color in the image to sample it. We want a dark color because we're going to be changing our glow into a shadow, so make sure you sample a color that's nice and dark. I'm going to sample a dark blue color from my image:

Photoshop Tutorials: Sample a dark color from the image which will become an inner "shadow".

Once you've sampled your color, click OK in the top right corner of the Color Picker to exit out of it and return to the Inner Glow options in the Layer Style dialog box. To change our Inner Glow into an Inner Shadow, all we need to do is change its Blend Mode at the top of the options from "Screen" to Multiply by clicking on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Screen" and choosing "Multiply" from the list. As soon as you change the blend mode, you'll see the shadow appear just inside the edges of your letters. Lower the Opacity value of the shadow down to about 40% so it's not so intense, and finally, increase the Size of the shadow to around 18 pixels:

Photoshop Tutorials: Change the options for the Inner Glow (Shadow) as circled above.

Once you've changed the options, click OK to exit out of the Layer Style dialog box, and you're done!

Here, after adding a little more definition to my transparent type with an inner glow, is my final effect: