Vector image in Photoshop. How to Convert Bitmap to Vector Image in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to convert a color photo to black and white. vector drawing without using the pen tool.

Step 1. Open the photo in Photoshop.

I will make a reservation right away that photographs in which the figure of a person is on a white background are suitable for completing this lesson. If you do not have one available, then before starting the lesson, the existing photo must be prepared.

Using the selection tools, separate the figure from the background and copy the selection onto a new layer. Rename this layer "shape". Create a new layer, fill it with white, rename it "background". Move this layer in the layers panel so that it is below the "shape" layer. Merge the "background" layer with the "shape" layer. Rename the resulting layer to "Base".

Step 2 Next, we'll apply an Isohelium adjustment to the Base layer to get a black and white silhouette. It is quite possible that the first time you will not be able to ensure that all the details you need are visible on the silhouette. Therefore, we will make several copies of the “Base” layer so that on each, using different settings for “Isohelia”, we get a silhouette with the necessary details.

After making two or three copies of the "Base" layer, turn off their visibility. Make sure you only have the Base layer active.

Step 3 Apply (Image – Adjustment – ​​Threshold). I used the following settings to get the base of the silhouette:

Step 4 Now we will apply a Diffusion filter to the layer to smooth out the jagged edges. Filter - Styling - Diffusion(Filter - Stylize - Diffuse)

Now, to make the edges of the image sharper, let's go Image - Correction - Levels(Image – Adjustment – ​​Levels), move the right and left sliders closer to the center. To make it easier to control the result, zoom in to 300% before applying the adjustment.

Again repeat the steps with the "Diffusion" filter and the "Levels" correction

Step 5 Turn on visibility for the "Base_1" layer. Apply Image - Correction - Isohelia(Image - Adjustment - Threshold).

Step 6 Repeat step 4 for the "Base _1" layer.

Step 7 Create a new layer, fill it with black, move it in the layers panel below the "Base" layer. Change the blending mode for the "Base_1" layer to " Difference(Difference). Here is what happened at this stage.

Step 8 The girl turned out to be quite ugly, but it's all fixable. Make the Base layer active, add layer mask. With the help of an eraser, we erase the “terrifying” areas on the girl’s face.

Already much better. However, in my opinion, the left eye let us down a bit.

Step 9. Turn on the visibility for the "Base_2" layer, apply Isohelia so that a clear outline of the eye appears. Repeat step 4. Using the tool " Lasso» Select the area with the eye and add a layer mask.

If you are satisfied with the result, then glue the layers.

Let's say we have some bitmap and we want to get it in vector form (or in curves). What do we need to do for this? First of all, you need Adobe Illustrator.

The version doesn't matter.

Procedure

Open our bitmap in Adobe Illustrator. To do this, you can right-click on the picture and select Open with ... > Adobe Illustrator from the drop-down menu or launch Illustrator and drag the picture onto the workspace.

original image

On the toolbar, select the tool " Selection» (black arrow) and click this arrow on our image. In this case, the picture should stand out. To test this, you can try moving it around a bit by holding down the left mouse button while the cursor is over the picture (drag-and-drop).

Above the workspace we find the button " Quick trace” and click on the arrow next to it. It shows all the options available for this action. We need an item Trace Options...". When we click on it, a window with parameters opens.

On the right side of the options window, select " View". This will help to get a better result and understand what each of the parameters is responsible for.

1) do it in a scientific way, that is, you will need to read in the tooltips which of the parameters affects what and set the necessary values;

2) experiment with the parameters yourself, using the so-called "scientific poke method".

I prefer the second way: firstly, the Russian translation of a word does not always fully convey the meaning inherent in the original, and secondly, it is often faster and easier to remember this way. You change the setting. See what it affects (visually). Combine multiple options. And so on until a more or less acceptable result is achieved.

The resulting vector image.

When the picture is already similar to the truth, in the tracing parameters window, click " tracing” and in the menu above the workspace, the button “ disassemble". Thus, we get the original image, but already in curves.

If you are not satisfied with the result, you can refine it. To do this, use the tool Selection» it is necessary to select all the created curves (press the left mouse button and, holding it, circle the entire picture). Go to menu item An object» > « Transformation» > « Scaling” and resize the image so that it is large enough for easy editing. Then select the tool direct selection» (white arrow). With this white arrow, click in turn on each node and align the splines as necessary: ​​when a vertex is selected, whiskers appear nearby, by dragging which you can change the curvature of the spline.

Result in grid mode

Also, a better result can be obtained if you initially take a large image of good quality. So if you don't want to spend time shaming spline nodes in the future, use high-quality images as raw material for tracing!

In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll turn an ordinary photo of a girl into a vector drawing.

This is a rather difficult lesson that will take you a lot of time, but it's worth it! Thanks to this lesson, you will understand how vector images of people are drawn.

We are not using any filter here, only the Pen tool. If you don't know how to use the Pen Tool, see .

Find the photos you want to turn into vector art.

Duplicate it and go to the menu Image> Adjustments> Posterize (Image - Correction - Posterize) and select the desired number of levels there. The more levels, the more detailed your vector image will be.

Highlight the girl's face and neck (exposed areas of the skin) with Use the eyedropper tool to select the color of the skin from the photo. Fill the selection with this color.

Outline the hair again, fill it with black and place this layer below the face layer.

Since we have lost some areas of hair on the temples and on the forehead, we need to finish them. Do this on a new layer above the face layer.

Circle the edges of the clothing. Remember that every detail must be solid. We will draw shadows later...

And now, based on your posterized base and the original image, decide on a new level that you will paint, and with its color.

NEVER TAKE COLOR FROM THE POSTERIZED LAYER! THE COLORS ON IT ARE INCORRECT, YOU NEED IT ONLY TO DRAW THE LEVEL.

Continue painting the tones on the skin. Layers with shadows should be superimposed on each other according to the following principle: light layers - at the bottom, dark ones - at the top.
When you are done with the skin, merge all these layers.

Since we have two layers with hair, make a new layer on the very top and draw light strands on it.
If the hair in your photo is dark, then it will be easy to do, and if it is light, then you will have to more accurately draw the shades obtained during posterization.

Do the same with clothes.
If you look at the original photo, you will notice that the necklace is missing from the drawing. It's okay, so be it.

If the person in the photo is a little overweight or has some detail that you don't like, then just remove it!

Edit all remaining details...

Now work on the eyes. First, on a new layer, draw the shape of the eye. Then create another layer and draw eyelashes. Then merge both layers together.

On top of the black eye shape, draw a slightly smaller white one. And inside the white one there are several circles, from which the pupil will turn out.

We draw lips. First draw the shape and fill it with the main color.

Draw shadows and highlights on the lips, as well as in the mouth (if necessary).
Here, as you can see, a substrate for the teeth is drawn - this is the basis of the gums and the shadow of the teeth.

And in the end, draw the teeth themselves and highlights on them.
Remember that all shadows and highlights must be grouped with the main color.

And after several hours of working on this photo, now look at the result! We sincerely hope that you yourself like what you have drawn.

How to make a vector image in Photoshop is often asked. As you know, Photoshop is a program for processing raster graphics and is not designed to work with a vector. FROM vector graphics special graphic editors work. But if you really need it, but there is no time to study a new program, then with the help of some manipulations you can convert the picture into a vector.

What is a raster and vector image and how do they differ

A raster image is also a grid of pixels (dots). To all of us, the familiar digital photo is just a bitmap image. A vector image does not consist of pixels, but of geometric primitives: straight lines, rectangles, and other shapes.

If you reduce and then significantly increase a bitmap, its quality will be irrevocably spoiled. Since each pixel is a dot of a certain color, and all together these dots make up a picture. When the image is reduced, extra pixels are discarded, so it cannot be restored to its original appearance.

Scaling a vector image allows you to resize without losing quality. This is possible due to mathematical recalculations of the dimensions of the geometric shapes that make up the image.

A raster image allows you to reliably convey visual information, a vector image does not have such an advantage. Vector graphics images can be useful for rendering logos and outline drawings. You will not get photographic beauty from them. Or it will be very complex images, consisting of a huge number of primitives that actually replace pixels.

A simple example of how to convert a raster to a vector

So, the vector consists of geometric shapes. Photoshop has tools for creating paths. The contour is a geometric figure. To make a vector image in Photoshop, you need to create an outline of the image. The tools of the group will help us with this. Select: Rectangular Marquee Tool, Elliptical Select Tool,** Magic Wand Tool , **Quick Selection Tool and "Pen" / Pen tool.

In order for the vector to turn out to be neat, it is worth choosing a bitmap image of the highest quality possible, otherwise the contours will need to be drawn manually.

Open the bitmap image in Photoshop (the most common bitmap format is JPG). Logos, contour drawings, sketches are very easy to process. To get a vector sketch of a portrait, you can first convert the portrait to a sketch using "Filter Galleries", or use ready-made pop art. How to work with "Filter Gallery" and quickly create pop art from photos, we talked about in previous articles. For this example, we will take a ready-made pop art portrait. We deliberately prepared it from a photo of not the best resolution. Therefore, the vector version will show us a noticeable difference.

To work with contours, you need to call the tab "Contours" / Path to the layers palette. To do this, go to the menu "Window" / Window and check the box "Contours" / Path. The bookmark will appear on the layers palette.

The image has 4 colors (the background is not counted). We take the tool "Magic Wand"/Magic Wand Tool and select the first color. To select all areas scattered by islands across the image, hold Shift.

With the first color selected, select the tool "Lasso" / Lasso or Rectangular Marquee Tool and, without removing the selection, click the right mouse button. In the context menu, select Make Work Path.

In the dialog box, specify the maximum smoothing "Tolerance" / Tolerance(from 1 to 10; the lower the number, the better the contours will repeat). We press Ok.

Bookmark "Circuit" the first loop will appear. On the image, it will be noticeable in the form of curves with dots. They can be aligned and adjusted with a tool Node Selection/Direct Selection Tool. With this tool, select a point and either adjust the curve by moving the antenna of the point, or move the arc itself.

Bookmark "Circuit" change the name of the circuit. To do this, double-click on it and change the name in the dialog box.

We do all the described steps with the rest of the colors. As a result, we get four contours for each color.

Having received the contours, it remains to create a vector. Go to bookmark "Layers" / Layer on the layers palette, create a new layer Shift+Ctrl+N. We set the main color to the one in which we will color the first contour.

Back to bookmark "Circuit", we become on the first contour. In the main menu under "Layers" / Layers choose "New Fill Color" / New Fill Layer - "Color"/Solid Color. In the window that opens, click Ok.

Now going to the bookmark "Layers" / Layers, you will see the first vector layer on the new layer.

Let's do these steps for each circuit.

So we got four figures that made up the portrait. Now you can save it to a file with the SVG vector extension (delete the layer with the original image). Click Alt+Shift+Ctrl+W(export as). In the dialog box, select the SVG file extension, click "Export All" / Export All.

In the next dialog box, as usual, specify the file name and path.

That's all. The method is quite simple.

If you often have to work with vector images perhaps this article will inspire you to learn new graphic editors. In any case, you have learned another useful method. We wish you great work.

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Photoshop has an intuitively familiar window interface, broken down into several work items: the main menu, the Tools panel, the Control panel, the document window, palettes. All interface elements except the main menu can be placed on the screen in positions convenient for you simply by dragging them. To do this, move the cursor over the panel header, press and hold the right mouse button and move the opened panel to a convenient part of the screen. You can also add or remove additional palettes by calling them from the "Window" / Window item of the main menu.