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Photoshop Tips
Creating a Screen Print Effect in Photoshop
Dateline: September 19, 2005
Version: Photoshop CS
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Australia-based designer Bjarni Wark distressed a photo
with Photoshop’s Color Range, Threshold, clipping masks, and the Halftone Pattern filter for a modern screen print.
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 Using a photo as the
basis for his illustration, Wark
scanned the image and chose
Select > Color Range to pull
color-based selections for later
manipulation. In the Color
Range dialog box, Wark chose
Selection and Quick Mask from
the Selection Preview pull-down
menu, then checked Invert to
eliminate the white background
of the brick wall and isolate the
figure. Using the Eyedropper
tool to pick up the color of the
brick wall, Wark experimented
with the Fuzziness slider while
watching the Preview window
to determine how much of the
figure he could select.
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 With the figure selected,
Wark pressed Command/Ctrl-J
to jump the selection to a new
layer, chose Image > Adjustments
> Threshold, and moved
the Threshold slider until he
had eliminated all the gray
detail and had a solid selection.
Wark then created an
Alpha channel for the selection
to cut and paste into new
layers by choosing Select >
Save Selection and saving it as
a New Channel in the same
document. “I work in a very
fast and intuitive way,” says
Wark,“Saving the selection as
a channel allowed me to use it
again and saved time.”
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After pasting the selection
from the channel into a new
layer and Command/Ctrl-clickling
to load it, Wark chose
Edit > Fill (Option/Alt-Delete/
Backspace to fill with Foreground
Color or Command/
Ctrl-Delete/Backspace to fill
with Background Color), and
filled the selection with cyan
or red for the pants on the
figure and body. Using the Lasso
tool, Wark cut out selections
from the colors by pressing
Delete/Backspace after making
the selections. He also used
the Smudge and Eraser tools
on the edges to add to the
distressed look of the figure.
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Wark copied type from an email
and placed it in the Photoshop file,
by using the Type tool to create a
layer and pasting the text into it. He
changed the type’s colors to olive
and cyan, then experimented with
the font size and the positioning of
the words by rotating the corners
of the type bounding box. Once the
words and sentences were to his
liking, he duplicated the layers and
rasterized them by choosing Layer >
Rasterize > Type. Wark additionally
used the Smudge and Eraser tools to
lightly fade and age the type.
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To fill some of the type like the
word “paper” at the middle right
with textures from other layers,
such as an image of a concrete
floor after carpeting had been
pulled up, Wark Command/Ctrl-clicked
the word layer thumbnail,
duplicated the texture layer, positioned
it on top of the word layer,
and choose Layer > Create Clipping
Mask (Command/Ctrl-G) for
the type. Wark also eroded the
solid-colored type by choosing
Filter > Sketch > Halftone Pattern
for a screenprinted look.
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Using Color Range to select portions of the shirt,
Wark jumped (Command/Ctrl-J) the selection to a
new layer, then duplicated it. On the duplicate, Wark
made a Threshold adjustment to get a solid silhouette
of the shirt, filled it with brown, then applied the
Halftone Pattern filter to the selection, using tan for
the Background Color. Positioning the Color Range
layer above the shirt layer with the Halftone Pattern,
Wark duplicated the layer again and used the Magic
Wand tool to select the darker areas of the shirt.
Choosing Edit > Fill, he chose brown at a reduced
Opacity, then chose Merge Visible from the Layer
palette menu to merge this layer with the Color
Range layer. This brought back the shirt detail from
the original photo.
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The final image is shown at left. Click to enlarge.
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