Building collages with texture and paint

In this exercise, you are going to transform a portrait photo into a collage by turning the source image into defined bands of grayscale. These will then be turned into selections, within which will appear our collage artwork.

Posterizing the source photo

1. Go to File → Open, browse to the 11-Blend folder, and select LayeredMan.jpg. Click Open when done.
2. Duplicate the background layer by dragging the layer onto the New layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Rename the duplicated layer Subject. Turn off background layer visibility.
3. With the Subject layer active, right-click on the layer name and choose Convert to Smart Object from the list of options:

Figure 11.6: Duplicating the background layer and masking the subject

4. Switch to the Magic Wand tool and click on Select Subject from the Options bar. With the selection in place, click on the Add a mask button at the bottom of...