Help with silhouette imagery

Question

I found this forum thanks to the following post coming up in my search
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/recreate-this-kind-of-image-background-strike-back-intro/m-p/10165174

And got me 90% of the way to what I wanted, however for some images I can't find a good threshold adjustment to make the picture legible, particuarly when trying to overlay it over the background video I'm trying to use, for example this;
Final look Becomes this; combined
However, in later seasons of the same show they utilized a second color to help images be more clear, for example explosion

face
And I was hoping someone could help guide me thru adding a semi-transparent color to the silhouette images to help show detail

AlanGilbertson · Answer

If I'm understanding you correctly, you want to add a color to what is black in the Threshold layer. Here's how to do that:

Apply the Threshold filter to get the sillhouette you want. Make it the top layer.
Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Option+E to create a new "merged" layer that's just a raster version of your filter.
Hide the filter and the underlying layer.
Select the white in the new merged layer (Select > Select Color) and delete it.
Apply whatever color overlay you want to the new layer.
Reduce the Fill opacity to zero and apply whatever blend mode and/or transparency works for your image.

If I got your intention wrong, come back with more detail, but either way the above should help.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded