First, open up the photo you’d like to transform.  Make a copy of the photo in the layers palette.  This is always a good suggestion just in case you make a mistake or don’t like the way something turns out; you can always backtrack to the original version of your photo.

Next, you need to remove the color from the image.  You can do this in a few different ways.  If you are familiar with using actions, you could use your favorite B&W one…just make sure you flatten out all of your layers (remember to preserve the original photo layer!).  If actions aren’t your cup of tea, then you can desaturate your photo (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate).

Copy your newly desaturated layer so you should now see three layers in your layers palette – your original photo and two of your desaturated photo.

Select the topmost layer and invert your image (Image > Adjustments > Invert).  It’s going to look a little weird, but that’s okay!

Now, you are going to go into the drop down menu in your layers palette.  Change it from Normal to Color Dodge.  Again, it is going to look a little weird…that’s why we preserved a copy of the original photo.  No worries!

For many of you, your photo is going to look mainly white at this point.  In order to get the affect that we want, we need to apply a blur to the topmost layer.  Go into the Filter menu and select Blur > Gaussian Blur.  You will see a pop-up menu.  Move the slider to get the desired affect.  I set mine to 2 pixels.

If there are any areas on your photo that you would like to get rid of (on mine, it is the area to the right and left of my head), you can use the Dodge tool on the topmost layer to “erase” them.  If there are any areas that you would like to darken (the Bean’s facial features), you can use the Burn tool on those.

Merge layers and save your image.  Make sure you give it another file name so you don’t save over the original!  Now it’s time to add it to your layout.  Once you plunk it down on your page, you are going to see a lot of white space. You have many options here…I treated my photo as a blend.   Use your magic wand tool to select all the white in your photo and delete it.

Your photo is going to look a little washed out, so let’s apply a black adjustment layer.

Right click on the adjustment layer and select Create a Clipping Mask.  It will look quite dark, so now you can fuss with the opacity.  I lowered mine all the way down to 10%.  It gave me just enough darkness to fill in some of the light gray areas in our hair.

Finally, I merged the photo layers and, just like any blend, I used a soft eraser with a low opacity to soften out the hard edges.  I built my layout as usual and voila…

*Layout made using After 10 Years Value Bundle (Kit, Plaids, Bonus Alphas) by Trixie Scraps, Blue Jean Boy by Trixie Scraps and Blue Jean Boy Paint/Masks by Trixie Scraps.

*Tutorial adapted from photoshopbuzz.com/change-photo-to-line-drawing/