Design a Colorful Illustration Using Patterns and Shapes

This tutorial is simple to follow and will give you some great techniques and results. We'll be using simple techniques to create elaborate 3D shapes to decorate our image with. There will also be some simple coloring techniques as well as some patterns used.

To start yourself off you will need to find 2 essential stock photographs to use in this illustration. The first thing you will need to find is a good background, for these types of illustrations a paper texture, or a concrete one should work well.

You want something simple that will not overpower what you will have going on over it. We were given permission from Bashcorpo to use one of his amazing stocks located here on the DeviantArt page. So feel free to look through the portfolio and grab one of the many amazing background textures.

The final step in preparation is to get the main stock images you will be using. Bram and I both chose this stock from SXC. The reason we chose this stock is because you have enough of the body visible in the picture, the face isn't covered and it will make for an overall attractive picture once everything is added over it. So make your pick, try to find a stock that fits the criteria, something high resolution so it doesn't distort when you enlarge it, and something you find attractive in the eyes. After you have all of that, drag it into Photoshop so we can begin.

continue tutorial here

Wedding Couple in Wine Glass

Written By Steve Patterson

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at a classic Photoshop effect for wedding photography, placing the wedding couple inside a wine glass. This is a very easy Photoshop effect to create, requiring nothing more than a few basic tools, a layer mask, and a few minutes worth of effort.
We'll be finishing off the effect with a slightly more advanced blending option, but "more advanced" definitely doesn't mean "more difficult", as we'll see.

If you're not into wedding photography, you can use this Photoshop technique to place images inside any glass object, like a bottle or even an hour glass, and it also works great for placing images inside bubbles which is always a fun thing to do.
Any recent version of Photoshop will work just fine.

Here's the two images I'll be using in this Photoshop effects tutorial:

Photoshop Tutorials: The wedding couple.

Photoshop Tutorials: The wine glass.

Step 1: Drag A Selection Around The Couple With The Elliptical Marquee Tool

We're going to start things off by working on the photo of the wedding couple. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool from Photoshop's Tools palette. By default, it's hiding behind the Rectangular Marquee Tool, so you'll need to click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool icon and hold your mouse down for a second or two, then select the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the fly out menu that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool.

Then, with the Elliptical Marquee Tool selected, drag out an elliptical selection around the wedding couple. If you need to reposition your selection as you drag, simply hold down the Spacebar on your keyboard and then move your mouse around to reposition it. Release the Spacebar to continue dragging out the selection:

Photoshop Tutorials: Drag out an elliptical selection around the wedding couple.

Step 2: Feather The Selection

Next, we're going to "feather" the selection, which is Photoshop-speak for making the selection edges softer. To do that, with the selection still active, go up to the Select menu at the top of the screen and choose Feather. When the dialog box appears, enter a Feather Radius value of about 15-20 pixels. I'm going to set mine to 20 pixels:

Photoshop Tutorials: Add a feather of about 15-20 pixels to the selection to soften the edges.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box.

Step 3: Drag The Selection Into The Wine Glass Photo

Now that we have our selection around the wedding couple and we've softened the selection edges, we need to drag the selection into the photo of the wine glass. For that, we need the Move Tool, so select it from the Tools palette or press V on your keyboard for the shortcut:

Photoshop Tutorials: Select the Move Tool.

Then, with both images open in their own separate document windows, simply click with the Move Tool inside the photo of the wedding couple and drag the selection into the photo of the wine glass:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click inside the photo of the wedding couple and drag them into the photo of the wine glass.

Don't worry if some of your edges around the couple look like they're cut off, as mine do at the top and on the right. We'll be fixing that in a moment with our layer mask. Also notice how the edges appear nice and soft (except of course for the areas that appear cut off), and that's thanks to the feather we applied to the selection.

Once you've dragged the wedding couple into the other photo, you don't need to have their original image open on your screen anymore, so you can close out of it if you wish.

Step 4: Resize and Reposition The Wedding Couple With Photoshop's Free Transform Command

We need to move the wedding couple into position in front of the wine glass and we'll most likely need to resize them as well (I certainly need to with my image), and we can do both of these things using Photoshop's Free Transform command. Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) on your keyboard to bring up the Free Transform box and handles around them. To move the couple into position, simply click anywhere inside the Free Transform box and drag them into their new location with your mouse.

The only spot you can't click on is that little target icon in the center of the Free Transform box. When I say "can't", what I mean is, you can certainly click on it if you like, but if you do, you'll move the target instead of moving the image. So if your goal is to move the image, not the little target icon, click anywhere except for on that target icon. To resize the couple, hold down Shift+Alt (Win) / Shift+Option (Mac) and drag any of the corner handles. Holding down Shift constrains the proportions of the image as you drag, and holding down Alt/Option tells Photoshop to resize from the center of the Free Transform box (technically, it tells Photoshop to resize the image around that little target icon, which is why you didn't want to move it):

Photoshop Tutorials: Move and resize the couple as needed with Free Transform.

Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're happy with the size and location of the couple to accept the transformation.

Step 5: Add A Layer Mask To The Wedding Couple Layer

If we look in Photoshop's Layers palette, we can see that we now have two layers. The wine glass image is on the bottom "Background" layer, and the wedding couple is on "Layer 1" above it. With "Layer 1" selected (the currently selected layer is highlighted in blue), click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of Photoshop's Layers palette.

You'll see a layer mask thumbnail appear to the right of the layer preview thumbnail.

Photoshop Tutorials: "Layer 1" now has a layer mask thumbnail to the right of the layer contents preview thumbnail.

Step 6: Paint With Black Around The Edges Of The Wedding Couple

Now that we have our layer mask, we're going to use it to blend the wedding couple in better with the wine glass, and we'll do that by painting with black and a soft-edged brush around the edges of the wedding couple image. For that, we need Photoshop's Brush Tool so select it from the Tools palette. You can also press B to select it with the keyboard shortcut:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of Photoshop's Layers palette.

We also need black as our Foreground color. If black isn't currently your Foreground color, simply press D on your keyboard, which will set white as your Foreground color and black as your Background color, and then press X to swap them. Then with a medium-size, soft-edged brush, simply paint along the edges of the wedding couple image to reveal the edges of the wine glass underneath them, and continue painting until the image of the couple is completely contained inside the glass. To resize your brush, use the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard. Pressing the left bracket key makes the brush smaller and pressing the right bracket key makes it larger. To soften the edges of the brush, hold down the Shift key and press the left bracket key a few times (holding Shift and pressing the right bracket key makes the brush edges harder):

Photoshop Tutorials: Paint with black and a medium size, soft-edged brush around the edges of the wedding couple image to reveal the edges of the wine glass underneath them.

If you make a mistake as you're painting, either press Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) to undo it or press X on your keyboard to set your Foreground color to white, paint over your mistake, then press X again to set your Foreground color back to black and continue painting around the edges.

When you're done, your image should look something like this:

Photoshop Tutorials: The image after containing the wedding couple inside the wine glass.

Step 7: Use The "Blend If" Sliders To Bring Back Some Glass Highlights

The only thing left to do at this point is to bring back some of the highlights in the glass. We can do that easily using Photoshop's Blend If sliders. Click on the Layer Styles icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, then choose Blending Options at the top of the list that appears:

Photoshop Tutorials: Click on the "Layer Styles" icon at the bottom of Photoshop's Layers palette and select "Blending Options" from the top of the list.

This brings up Photoshop's "Layer Style" dialog box set to the "Blending Options" in the middle column. The "Blend If" sliders are at the bottom. You'll see two black-to-white gradient bars. We want the bar at the very bottom. Click on the white slider at the bottom right of the gradient bar and begin dragging it towards the left. As you drag, you'll notice any white highlights and light reflections in the glass beginning to re-appear. Problem is, they have very harsh, jagged edges. To soften them, as soon as the highlights begin to reappear, release your mouse button, hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key, and then click back on the slider and continue dragging it towards the left. By holding down Alt/Option, you split the slider in half and you'll now be dragging only the left half of it. The area in between the two halves becomes a transition area between the wedding couple image and the glass highlights, giving us nice, soft edges to the highlights. The greater the distance between the two halves, the greater the transition area and the softer the edges of the highlights:

Photoshop Tutorials: Drag the white slider for the bottom "Blend If" bar towards the left until you begin to see any highlights or light reflections reappearing in the glass, then release your mouse button, hold down "Alt" (Win) / "Option" (Mac) and continue dragging the slider to split it in half and create soft, smooth edges for the highlights.

You'll probably need to play with the slider halves a bit, moving each one left and right until you're happy with the results. When you're done, click OK in the top right corner of the Layer Style dialog box to exit out of it, and you're done!

Here, after bringing back some of the highlights in the glass with the Blend If sliders, is my final "wedding couple in the wine glass" result:

Photoshop Tutorials: The final effect.

Halftone Dots and Linear Light Tutorial

Step 1.
Open the image you want to add the linear light and halftone dot effect too.





Step 2.
Duplicate the image to a second layer. Label the layers "original image" and "halftone layer". Move the "halftone layer" to the top of the layers window and make sure you have that layer selected.





Step 3.
Make sure you foreground color is white and your background color is black. With the "halftone layer" selected, select Filter > Sketch > Halftone Pattern from the menu bar. Use the setting in the image below or play around some. Click "OK" when you are done.



Your image should look something like this





Step 4.
Now we need to invert the halftone. On a PC hold down your CTRL key and press I, on a Mac use the Command key and press I. Your image should now look something like this.





Step 5.
Almost there, we just need to tweak the "halftone layer" some. Select the layer and change its mode from "Normal" to "Linear Light". You can also lowered the transparency some.





Outcome
And here is your final image. A very cool linear light halftone dot effect in less than 2 minutes.

Lighting effects in Photoshop

Creative lighting can make all the difference to your photos – this tutorial shows how to jazz it up a little.

Setting the overall mood of an image can be easy, thanks to simple, highly effective lighting effects in Photoshop. It can also add another dimension to a relatively bland photo – making it a powerful tool to have in your box of tricks as a designer or illustrator.

In this tutorial you’ll learn various techniques used by the professionals, including brushes, layer adjustments and layer modes – to name just a few.

The trick here is not to overpower the original source image – instead, you’re aiming to complement it with subtle elements. Once you have completed this tutorial you can experiment with your own findings to create unique and inspiring work.

01. In Photoshop, open the file MODEL.jpg from the cover CD. This image was kindly donated by a photographer friend of mine called Rico Kinnard, based in New York. You can see more of his work at www.myspace.com/ricokinnard.

02. There are a many ways to cut out a selection but we’re going to use the Pen tool to trace around the woman – the best way to do this accurately is to zoom in about 200%. Once you’ve carefully completed the selection, right-click (Ctrl + click) on the layer and rasterize it, then select it using the Magic Wand. With the selection active, click on the original layer with the woman then cut and paste it into a new layer, naming the layer ‘Model’. Delete the background and colour-fill layer so you only have the model layer.

03. Create a new layer fill with a light blue colour, then move it behind the model so we have a background colour. Rename the layer ‘light blue background’. Create another new layer, this time using a linear gradient fill with a bright orange and vivid pink colour similar to the model’s dress and headscarf. Change the layer mode to Screen with a 100% opacity.

04. Duplicate the orange/pink gradient layer, adding a lens flare effect in the top right hand side of the picture with the settings on Movie Prime at 184%. Then change the layer mode to Hard Light.

05. Now it’s time to add some brush effects: let’s begin with a large soft orange brush (diameter approx 345 pixels) with 20% opacity. Make some random marks just above the model’s dress on the left-hand side. Rename the layer ‘Orange Brush’ and set the layer mode to 100% Overlay, then duplicate the layer.

06. Create a new layer and repeat the process from Step 05, this time with a bright pink brush, making some spray marks just behind the model’s neck. Use a light pink brush on a separate layer and make some random marks with the mode set to Screen. Finally use a large soft white brush (500 pixels diameter; 20% opacity) and carefully spray the right hand side of the model, slowly building up the colour.

07. Create a new Color Balance Adjustment Layer above the model and invert the mask selection so it’s black. Set the midtone levels to: R = -52, G = +75, B = -49. Click on the mask again and slowly mask out a few small areas around the model’s face and arm with a soft brush.

08. Create another Color Balance Adjustment Layer, with the midtone levels set to R = -43, G = -55, B = +100. This time use a slightly harder brush in the same areas of the mask as before.

09. To add more depth to the colour range, add a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer directly below the model layer, with the Colorize box ticked (Hue 22, Saturation 42, Lightness -20). The cool thing about adjustment layers is that you can always edit or change it using the mask without interfering with the original model layer.

10. Next, add some duplicate layers of the model that you’ve sized up by 150 to 200%. Add a layer mask on each duplicate layer and mask out unwanted areas, like the shoulders and body. Rename each layer ‘Model 1’ and ‘Model Blur’ (give the ‘Model Blur’ layer a Gaussian blur of eight pixels set to Screen layer mode) and reposition them. Place these layers above the ‘White Brush’ layer.

11. Using a similar aqua blue to the flowery bit of the dress, create another brush layer above the Color Balance Adjustment Layers and repeat as in Steps 05 and 06, gently spraying the left side of the arms, changing the layer mode to Hard Light. Repeat this with a bright orange brush layer and change it to Screen mode.

12. Repeat Step 09 with a Hue/ Saturation Adjustment Layer, but change the settings to Hue 218 ,Saturation 83, Lightness 0, with the Colorize box ticked. With a medium-hard brush set to 30% opacity, mask out some areas as shown in the screenshot – remembering to invert the mask. Rename the layer ‘Hue/Saturation 2’.

13. Open diamond vector.psd from the cover CD and import it into the canvas. Add a very subtle Gaussian blur to it and reposition just below the eye of the duplicate model layer in the background. Add a layer mask to it and mask out the areas as shown here. To give it extra impact, add an Outer Glow layer mode with an aqua colour set to Screen, Opacity 75%, Noise 0%, Spread 1% and size 18 pixels. Finally set it to Overlay and rename it ‘Diamond Blur’.

14. Duplicate the ‘Diamond Vector’ layer, this time distorting it using Edit > Transform > Distort. You may need to experiment a little to get the exact effect – once done, reposition the layer as shown and set to Overlay Layer mode.

15. Create a new layer called ‘White Fade’. Use the Linear Gradient tool set to white, with the foreground to transparent, drag the cursor upwards from the bottom-centre of the canvas up to just below the model’s arm.

16. Finally open vector swirl.psd from the cover CD and import it into the picture, repeating the layer Outer Glow effect shown in Step 13. Tweak the settings slightly until you’re satisfied with the results. Then duplicate the layer four times and distort each layer with the transform tool so each one is different and position them as shown in the screenshot. Now if you wish, make some final adjustments – I’ve chosen to add another diamond vector layer over the top left of the canvas and a small white brush layer over the neck area.

Create A Portrait From Text In Photoshop

Written By Steve Patterson

In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll learn how to create a text portrait effect. In other words, we'll create the illusion that the image seen in the photo is actually being created by multiple lines of type. I've seen this effect used with many celebrity photos, from Andy Warhol and Marilyn Monroe to Michael Jackson, David Beckham, even Barack Obama. Of course, you don't need a photo of someone famous to create this effect. In fact, the more you know about the person in the photo, the more interesting the effect can become because you can add more personalized text. You may want to write about what the person in the photo means to you, or share a funny story, or describe something they've accomplished. Or, you can just grab some random text from somewhere and paste it in. It's completely up to you.

I'll be using Photoshop CS4 for this tutorial, but any version of Photoshop should work. Here's the image I'll be starting with:

The original image

Step 1: Crop The Image Around The Person's Face

Before we begin, I should mention that you'll probably want to work on a copy of your photo for this effect rather than on the original image, since the first thing we'll be doing is cropping some of it away. To save a copy of the image, go up to the File menu at the top of the screen and choose Save As. Give the document a different name, such as "text-portrait-effect" or whatever makes sense to you, and save it as a Photoshop .PSD file. This way, you can do whatever you like to the image and not worry about damaging the original.

Let's begin by cropping the image so we get a nice close-up view of the person's face. Photoshop's official tool for cropping images is the Crop Tool, but for simple crops like this, you'll often find that the Rectangular Marquee Tool is all you really need. I'm going to grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the top of the Tools panel (panels are called "palettes" in earlier versions of Photoshop). I could also press the letter M on my keyboard to select it with the shortcut:

The Rectangular Marquee Tool works great for simple crops.

Then, with the Rectangular Marquee Tool selected, I'll click and drag out a selection around the man's face, beginning in the top left and dragging towards the bottom right. If you need to reposition your selection as you're dragging it, hold down your spacebar, drag the selection to a new location with your mouse, then release your spacebar and continue dragging out the selection. I want my selection to be a perfect square, so I'll hold down my Shift key as I'm dragging, which will force the shape of the selection into a square. When you're done, you should have a selection that looks something like this:

Everything outside of the selection will be cropped away in a moment.

With the selection in place, go up to the Image menu in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen and select the Crop command:

Go to Image > Crop.

As soon as you select the Crop command, Photoshop crops away everything outside of the selection outline, leaving us with our close-up portrait:

Only the area inside the selection remains.

Step 2: Add A New Blank Layer

If we look in our Layers panel (palette), we see that we currently have just one layer in our Photoshop document. This layer, named Background, is the layer that contains our image. We need to add a new blank layer above the Background layer, and we can do that by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Click on the New Layer icon in the Layers panel (palette).

Nothing will seem to have happened in the document window, but the Layers panel is now showing a new layer sitting above the Background layer. Photoshop automatically names the new layer "Layer 1". If we look in the layer's preview thumbnail to the left of the layer's name, we see a gray and white checkerboard pattern. This is how Photoshop represents transparency, and since the preview window is filled with nothing but this checkerboard pattern, we know the layer is currently blank (transparent):

The preview thumbnail for each layer shows us what's currently on the layer.

Step 3: Fill The New Layer With Black

Next, we need to fill our new layer with black. Go up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and select the Fill command:

Select the Fill command from the Edit menu.

This brings up Photoshop's Fill dialog box, giving us an easy way to fill a layer or a selection with either a solid color or a pattern. Since we no longer have a selection active on the layer, the entire layer will be filled with whatever color we choose. Select Black from the list to the right of the word Use in the Contents section at the top of the dialog box:

Choose Black for the fill color.

Click OK to exit out of the dialog box and Photoshop fills "Layer 1" with black. Since "Layer 1" is sitting above the Background layer, our image is now blocked from view in the document window by the fill color:

The photo temporarily disappears behind the solid black color.

Next up, we'll add our text!

Step 4: Select The Type Tool

We're ready to add our text. We'll need Photoshop's Type Tool for that, so select it from the Tools panel, or press the letter T on your keyboard to quickly select it with the shortcut:

Any time you want to add text to a Photoshop document, you'll need the Type Tool.

Photoshop gives us the option to add either point type or area type to our documents. Point type is your basic single line of text, usually either a heading or a short caption. Adding point type is as easy as clicking with the Type Tool at the point in the document where you want the line of text to appear and then adding your text. As long as the text you're adding is short enough that you're not worried about it extending out beyond the edge of the document, point type is usually the way to go.

Area type, on the other hand, is used when you have large amounts of text, say one or more paragraphs, and you need to make sure that all of the text stays within the boundaries of the document or within a certain area of the document. Since we need to fill our entire document with text, we'll need to use area type.

To add area type, we first need to define the boundaries for the text, and we do that by dragging out a text frame, which looks very similar to the same sort of basic selection we dragged out earlier with the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Once we have the text frame in place, any text we add will be confined within the frame.

With the Type Tool selected, click in the very top left corner of the document, then drag down to the very bottom right corner of the document so that the text frame covers the entire document area when you're done. As you drag, you'll see the outline of your text frame appearing. Just as when dragging out a selection with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, you can reposition the text frame as you're dragging it out if needed by holding down your spacebar, dragging the frame to a new location, then releasing your spacebar and continuing to drag. When you're done, release your mouse button and you should see your text frame surrounding the entire document, although it may be a little difficult to see in the small screenshot:

Any text we add will now be confined within the boundaries of the document thanks to the text frame.

Step 5: Select Your Font Options In The Options Bar

Now that we have our text frame in place, we can add our text. Before we do though, we'll need to choose which font we want to use. Any time the Type Tool is selected, the Options Bar at the top of the screen will show various options for working with text in Photoshop, including options for choosing a font, font style, font size, text color, and so on. The exact fonts you have to choose from will depend on whichever ones you currently have installed on your computer. You'll probably need to experiment a few times with this since the font you choose, especially the font size, will have a large impact on the overall look of the effect. To preserve as much detail in the portrait as possible, you'll want to use a small font size. Of course, the smaller the font, the more text you'll need to add to fill up the entire document area.

I'm going to stick with something simple, like Arial Black, and I'll choose 12 pt for my font size to keep it small enough to maintain lots of detail in the portrait:

Select your font, style and size from the Options Bar.

We'll need our text color to be white, so if yours is currently set to some other color, click on the color swatch in the Options Bar, which will bring up Photoshop's Color Picker, and choose white. Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Color Picker. The color swatch in the Options Bar should now be filled with white:

Click on the color swatch in the Options Bar and select white from the Color Picker if your text color is not already set to white.

Step 6: Add Your Text To The Document

All we need to do now is to add the text. As I mentioned at the beginning of the tutorial, you can personalize the text portrait effect by writing something specific about the person in the photo, or you can simply copy and paste enough text from somewhere to fill up the document. Since I'm using a stock photo for this tutorial and I don't actually know the person in the image (although I'm sure he's a nice guy with lots of good stories to share), I'll simply add some standard "lorem ipsum" page filler text. When you're done, you're entire document should be filled with white text:

Add enough text to fill the entire document from top to bottom.

To accept the text and exit out of text editing mode, click on the small checkmark in the Options Bar:

Click on the checkmark in the Options Bar to accept the text.

Step 7: Add A Layer Mask To The Type Layer

To turn our Photoshop document full of text into our text portrait effect, we'll need to add a layer mask to the text layer. If we look in the Layers panel, we see that we now have three layers, with our text layer sitting above the other two layers. We know that it's a text layer because the layer's preview thumbnail shows a capital letter T in the center of it. To add a layer mask to the layer, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Make sure the text layer is selected (highlighted in blue) in the Layers panel, then click on the Layer Mask icon.

Nothing will happen yet in the document window, but a layer mask thumbnail will appear to the right of the layer's preview thumbnail:

Layer masks are filled with white by default, which means everything on the layer is fully visible in the document.

Step 8: Copy The Original Photo On The Background Layer

We're now going to create our effect by copying and pasting the portrait photo directly into the layer mask we just added. Click on the Background layer in the Layers panel to select it. You'll see it become highlighted in blue, telling us that it's now the currently selected layer:

Layer masks are filled with white by default, which means everything on the layer is fully visible in the document.

Press Ctrl+A (Win) / Command+A (Mac) to quickly select the entire layer. You'll see a selection outline appear around the edges of the document, indicating that the entire layer is now selected. Even though we can still see our white text against the solid black fill color in the document window, we're actually selecting the contents of the Background layer because that's the layer we currently have selected in the Layers panel. Then, press Ctrl+C (Win) / Command+C (Mac) to copy the contents of the layer (the portrait photo) temporarily into your computer's memory.

Step 9: Paste The Photo Directly Into The Layer Mask

Hold down your Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) key and click on the layer mask thumbnail on the text layer in the Layers panel:

Click on the layer mask thumbnail while holding down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac).

By holding down Alt / Option as we click on the layer mask thumbnail, not only do we select the layer mask, we make it visible inside the document window, allowing us to paste our image directly into it. Since the mask is currently filled with white, your document window will appear filled with white. Press Ctrl+V (Win) / Command+V (Mac) to paste the portrait photo directly into the layer mask. Since layer masks deal only with black, white and shades of gray, the image will appear as a black and white image in the document window:

The image has now been pasted directly into the layer mask on the text layer.

To exit out of the layer mask and switch our view back to normal in the document window, simply hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) once again and click on the layer mask thumbnail, just as we did a moment ago. Notice that the portrait photo is now visible inside the layer mask thumbnail:

Hold down Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and click again on the layer mask thumbnail to exit out of the layer mask.

Press Ctrl+D (Win) / Command+D (Mac) to remove the selection outline from around the edges of the document window. We're now back to our normal view mode inside the document, and the text is now being masked by the photo that we pasted directly into the layer mask, creating our "text portrait" effect:

The text is now being masked by the photo.

We'll see how to quickly fine tune the text portrait effect next!

Step 10: Duplicate The Type Layer

If you're happy with the results at this point, you can skip these last couple of steps, but if you find that the effect looks a little too dark, make sure the text layer is selected in the Layers panel, then press Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) to quickly duplicate the layer. A copy of the text layer will appear above the original:

You can also copy layers by going up to the Layer menu, choosing New, then choosing Layer via Copy, but the keyboard shortcut is much faster.

The image will now appear brighter:

The effect appears brighter after duplicating the text layer.

Step 11: Adjust The Layer Opacity To Fine Tune The Brightness

If you find that the effect is still too dark, simply duplicate the text layer a second time. Or, if you find that it's now a bit too bright, you can fine tune the results by lowering the layer's opacity. You'll find the Opacity option at the top of the Layers panel. The lower you set the opacity of the top layer, the more you allow the layers below it to show through, which in this case will have the effect of darkening the image. I'm going to lower the opacity of my copied text layer down to around 65% just to darken the effect slightly:

Reduce the top layer's opacity to fine tune the brightness of the effect.

And with that, we're done! Here, after adjusting the brightness with the Opacity option, is my final "text portrait" Photoshop effect:

The final "text portrait" effect.

And there we have it!