Using just Photoshop, we're going to turn an ordinary photograph into a stencil worthy image in just a few minutes!
I was bored today and decided I wanted to make a stencil. Looking through my old profile pictures on facebook, I found a particular one that I thought might make a good stencil. After playing around for a bit, I discovered this process for turning it into a two-color image on photoshop.
Keep in mind, you can also use this for silk screening, or any other process that requires a smooth edged image.
I was bored today and decided I wanted to make a stencil. Looking through my old profile pictures on facebook, I found a particular one that I thought might make a good stencil. After playing around for a bit, I discovered this process for turning it into a two-color image on photoshop.
Keep in mind, you can also use this for silk screening, or any other process that requires a smooth edged image.
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Signing UpStep 1: Rough Shapes
First we make it into a rough two-tone shape:
- Load the image
- Image>Adjustments>Posterize - You don't want it to look too different. I posterized it to 10 levels.
- Image>Adjustments>Threshold - Slide the bar around until you see something that looks like a stencil. You have to keep it as simple as possible, for ease of cutting it out, and also watch out for islands that wouldn't be connected to the main stencil i.e. floating blobs. I set my threshold level to 100.
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shading, edge manipulation and island handling? Scan and run. Transfer to final medium and bingo. Done. I've used it for scrollsaw work and it does work.
If you're silk screening the stencil, you can make a small loop with blue painters tape and gently tape it in place. After your first pull it will adhere to the screen & last as long as the rest of the stencil. Freezer paper works well for most short run water based projects :)
TYSM for the very basic & practical introduction to stenciling!
I did these with photo studio months ago...but didn't find you 'ible