Push Pin Portraits using Photoshop

A tutorial on how to use Photoshop indexed color to prepare a digital photograph for making plastic push pin portraits.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Photoshop
• pushpins
• pushpin art
• pushpin portrait
• indexed color tutorial
• push pins

[pokemonshowdown]

After doing this how do i get to know to order of pushpins to put..do i like get a huge printout of the pic or something please REPLY@!

[digitalArtform]

@pokemonshowdown Yes, you'd have to get a big printout. 

[pokemonshowdown]

@digitalArtform WHAT i really mean is that after choosing the correct picture of 200 by 150 pixels..how much do i blow it up in order to make each pixel the same size as standard pushpins..? also how do i know how many pushpins/pixels are there..?

THANKS!

[digitalArtform]

@pokemonshowdown If you work at 150 x 200 pixels and assume each pixel is a pushpin then you'll need to buy 50 * 200 = 30,000 pushpins. Can you get a good deal on pushpins? Do you have time to stick 30,000 pins? You might want to work at a lower resolution and blow it up to a smaller size.

[pokemonshowdown]

@digitalArtform How much do I then blow the pic up to..?

[McBlasian]

@digitalArtform Unfortunately it still looks very different than the original when viewed at 100%.

[digitalArtform]

@McBlasian Maybe yours looks different because you are not using a graphics card-based zoom preview on Photoshop, so when you zoom out it doesn't look as smooth. The main thing is, do you like the image when viewed at 100% ?

[McBlasian]

@digitalArtform Thanks for the fast reply! While I understand what you mean, I must elaborate. Doing this, as you said decreases the resolution down to that used by .gif images. However when I attempt this, the colours don't "merge" as yours do. With my image, it appears as though the colours are more prominent, and don't fade together.

[digitalArtform]

@McBlasian It's always going to be somewhat grainy because a limited number of colors has to be 'dithered' to create in-between colors. I think using the error diffusion method, rather than a regular pattern, helps make it look more natural.

[McBlasian]

When I edit the picture, it always becomes extremely grainy, even though I only used the colours you used. Is there a certain picture size I should use? Or format?