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I've seen a remarkably nice and coloured picture on a wallpapers web page some time ago and I've decided to find out the way it has been made. Now I've found out and want to share this with you. I recommend using a picture with a model on a bright background. Now let's make that shot urban style. Open it in Photoshop and let's go.

Step 1

Duplicate the layer by clicking Ctrl + J or by going to Layers -> Duplicate layer. We will work with the new layer from now on, don't mind the first one.

Step 2

We must apply threshold now. Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Threshold and adjust it so that you background will mostly become white. The shadow of the body should become black, like in the screenshot below.

Step 3

Right click on the second layer and go to Blending Options. While holding ALT key down, drag the slider from the right down side to the left. You won't see major changes, but you don't have to either. Make it look approximatively like the slide in the screenshot. If you use a dark background you may have to do the same process with the back slider from the left.

Step 5

Now create a new layer. Go to Layer -> New -> Layer or click Ctrl + Shift + N in Windows. Right click on it and go to Blending options. Now repeat the last process. Drag the white slider to the left by holding ALT down. This time you won't see any results at all, but this will actually help us on our way to the urban coloured picture.

Step 6

Now this is the most exciting part of the tutorial. We have to apply colours to out latest layer. Take the brush tool, set the hardness to 0 and start painting like in the example below. Use colours like magneta, cyan, yellow or any other cool combinations. After this, you go to the second layer, choose the white colour and choose the places where you don't want colours at all. For example, I've decided to let the girl be the only coloured part of the final picture. You can also go back to the second layer's blending mode and adjust the white slider. Don't forget to hold ALT down. Now what do you think about the result?