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How to Make This Airbrush Graphic in Photoshop

Turn a car photo into a smooth airbrushed poster graphic. You build the glow by hand with Blend If and blur filters, run the flattened image through Airbrusher to get the soft painted surface, then finish with grain, paper texture and a Threshold layer for print-style contrast.

  • 5 steps
  • Airbrusher
  • Texture Pack Vol1
How to Make This Airbrush Graphic in Photoshop

Setup

Document

Photoshop document: 16 in x 20 in, 300 dpi, 8-bit.

Document

Settings

  • Size 16 in x 20 in
  • Resolution 300 dpi
  • Color mode 8-bit

Step 1

Glow

Add some glow to your image. I did this by isolating the highlights using Blend If and adding Gaussian Blur and Path Blur. I set this layer to Screen.

Glow
UI — Path Blur
UI — Path Blur
UI — Path Blur preview
UI — Path Blur preview
UI — Isolated highlights
UI — Isolated highlights
UI — Layers
UI — Layers

Highlight layers

  • Blend mode Screen
  • Highlights isolated with Blend If
  • car highlights copy 2 — Gaussian Blur 20 px
  • car highlights copy — Gaussian Blur 10 px
  • car highlights — Gaussian Blur 5 px

Path Blur

  • Path Blur On
  • Blur type Basic Blur
  • Speed 111%
  • Taper 0%
  • Centered Blur On
  • End Point Speed Disabled (Centered Blur is on)
  • Edit Blur Shapes Off

Step 2

Lens Flares

Add lens flares to some of the highlights of your image.

Lens Flares
UI — Lens flare shapes used
UI — Lens flare shapes used

Step 3

Airbrusher

Merge everything into a single layer, include the background layer. Use the Airbrusher plugin and adjust the settings for your image. Here are the settings I used.

Airbrusher
UI — Airbrusher
UI — Airbrusher

Airbrusher

  • Softness 14
  • Softness Strength 41
  • Smoothness 100
  • Details 10
  • Details Sharpen 0
  • Details Fade 8
  • Edge Highlights 0
  • Clarity 0

Step 4

Smudge

Use the Smudge tool to make any final adjustments.

Tip: Wiggle the smudge tool back and forth or in small circles to add more blur in certain areas.

Smudge

Step 5

Grain, Texture and Threshold

Add grain and paper textures, set to Overlay. At the top, add a Threshold Adjustment Layer and set to Multiply.

Grain, Texture and Threshold
UI — Layers, Levels and Grain
UI — Layers, Levels and Grain

Threshold 1 (top layer)

  • Threshold Level 31
  • Blend mode Multiply

Texture Pack Vol 1 (layer "01")

  • Blend mode Overlay
  • Opacity 50%
  • Levels — Input Levels 0 / 3.27 / 255

Texturelabs_Paper_341XL

  • Blend mode Overlay
  • Opacity 100%
  • Levels — Input Levels 13 / 2.27 / 199

Grain (Camera Raw Filter on 23-05-13_photocopy_031)

  • Grain 100
  • Size 31
  • Roughness 0

Finish

Result

Done. Get the Airbrusher Photoshop plugin to run the same airbrush pass on your own artwork.

Result

Used in this tutorial

  • Airbrusher

    Airbrusher

    $30.00 USD
    $17.50 USD $30.00 USD
    Get Airbrusher
  • Texture Pack Vol1

    Texture Pack Vol1

    $12.00 USD
    $8.40 USD $12.00 USD
    Get Texture Pack Vol1

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