How to Turn a Photograph Into a Cartoon in Photoshop

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It’s not difficult to turn a photograph into a seemingly hand-drawn cartoon and with this technique you can modify the appearance as you go along.

Comparison between photograph of Stan Lee and created Photoshop cartoon

To create this effect, we’re going to use a photograph of the late, great cartoonist Stan Lee, courtesy of Gage Skidmore on Wikimedia Commons, which you can download here.

Step 1: The Starting Image

You can use just about any photograph for this technique as long as it’s clear and well-defined. This shot of Stan Lee fits the bill perfectly.

Headshot of Stan Lee

Step 2: Cut Out the Photograph

If you have Photoshop CC, the Select > Subject command will do a good job of automating the process of cutting out the photograph. If you have an earlier version, then start with the Quick Selection Tool and modify the cutout using Select and Mask/Refine Edge (depending on your version of Photoshop). Then, use Command/Ctrl+J to make a new layer from the selection, and add a white background behind it on a separate layer.

Headshot of Stan Lee with white background

Step 3: The Wrong Way

To turn the image to pure black and white, the Threshold filter (Image > Adjustments > Threshold) might seem to be the best option. But as you can see here, this often produces a very rough, bitty result.

Grainy, black and white headshot of Stan Lee with Photoshop Threshold window

Step 4: Soften the Image

Instead of going straight for the Threshold filter, first use Filter > Noise > Median to soften the portrait. I used a radius of 4 pixels. Unlike Gaussian Blur, this softens while keeping crisp edges.

Headshot of Stan Lee with Photoshop Median window

Step 5: Add a Threshold Adjustment Layer

Use Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Threshold to add the Threshold adjustment. Now that the Median filter has been applied, the effect is much smoother. Then, take all the color out of the cutout layer using Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Smooth, black and white headshot of Stan Lee with Photoshop Threshold window

Step 6: Dodge and Burn

Because we’re looking through the Threshold adjustment to the layer beneath, we can modify the base layer while seeing the final effect in the Threshold layer. Use the Burn Tool set to Highlights to darken around the edges of the shirt to give it definition; hold Option/Alt to get the Dodge Tool temporarily and use it to brighten the over-dark areas, such as inside the glasses. Take your time over this step, referring to the original image so you can get the shape of the nose and other features correct.

Black and white Photoshop cartoon of Stan Lee

Step 7: Add a Color Layer

Select the base layer by holding Command/Ctrl and clicking on its thumbnail in the Layers Panel. Then make a new layer, setting its mode to Multiply.

Black and white Photoshop cartoon of Stan Lee with New Layer window

Step 8: Flood With Color

Choose a skin color and use Option/Alt+Delete/Backspace to fill the selection with that color. Then deselect and use the / key to lock the transparency of this layer, so you can’t inadvertently paint over the edges.

Black and nude-colored Photoshop cartoon of Stan Lee

Step 9: Paint the Rest of the Color

Paint on the color layer using appropriate colors for the mustache and hair, glasses and shirt. Paint over the teeth area in pure white. This looks okay so far, but the Threshold filter produces ragged edges. We’ll fix that next.

Slightly grainy, colored Photoshop cartoon of Stan Lee

Step 10: Softening the Edges

Hide the color layer, and use Command+Shift+Option+E/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to make a Merged Copy of the whole image. You can reveal the color layer now if you like, but be sure to work on the merged layer you just made. Use Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to soften the image.  I used a radius of 3 pixels.

Softened Photoshop cartoon of Stan Lee with Gaussian Blur window

Step 11: Sharpening Up

Softening the edges does, predictably, produce a fuzzy result. To fix this, open Image > Adjustments > Levels and, in the Input Levels section, drag the black and white triangles towards the center. This tightens up the blurring, producing smooth shapes. Don’t drag them all the way to the center, or you’ll get ragged edges once again.

Colored Photoshop cartoon of Stan Lee with Levels window

Step 12: The Finished Image

Here’s the image of Stan Lee turned into a cartoon. It may not be up to Spider-Man quality, but that’s what made Stan Lee such an exceptional artist.

Colored Photoshop cartoon of Stan Lee

Steve Caplin is a freelance photomontage artist based in London, whose satirical illustrations have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world. He is the author of the best-selling How to Cheat in Photoshop, as well as 100% Photoshop, Art & Design in Photoshop and 3D Photoshop. He writes regularly for CreativePro and is an instructor at LinkedIn Learning. His YouTube channel 2 Minute Photoshop is a library of over 100 Photoshop tutorials, each just two minutes long, hosted at photoshop.london. When he’s not at his computer Steve builds improbable furniture, which can be seen at curieaux.com.
  • michel says:

    Nice tut! Just a correction though. Stan Lee was not a cartoonist, he was the co-creator and dialogue writer for many of marvel’s well know heroes.

  • While I find that the technique described here is a great artistic treatment of a photo, it is not a cartoon.
    It is not a ‘simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way’.
    It is not a ‘motion picture using animation techniques to photograph a sequence of drawings rather than real people or objects.

    It does use a photo as it’s base but it does not really simplify the features of the photo ‘in a humorously exaggerated way’.
    It just distorts the photo in a graphical fashion.
    And while “A Scanner Darkly’ used a similar graphical style, I do not consider “A Scanner Darkly’ a cartoon film.

    I do greatly appreciate the technique’s information and will probably use it for graphical treatments in the future.
    So thanks for the info, I just won’t include it in my collection of cartooning techniques.

  • Richard D Volkman says:

    What do you have to do if your have photoshop 2012 and there is no select subject command?
    [email protected]

    • Steve Caplin says:

      Then you have to select the subject the way you’d select any object in Photoshop – with the Lasso or Pen tools, or by painting a QuickMask selection. Photoshop has got a lot better since 2012!

  • Richard D Volkman says:

    What do you have to do if your have photoshop 2021 and there is no select subject command?

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