Double Exposure Text in Photoshop

For this tutorial, we are going to use the image/images of flowers and Landscapes. You can use any photo of your liking, the only thing that will be a good idea is that the background is as flat as possible so it will be easier to work with. We will also use a very Fat/Bold Font to fill with our images (we used Free Font “Peace Sans”).

1 - In Photoshop create a “New Document” with a White “Background” and a 300 dpi “Resolution”.

2 - Select the “Type Tool” (T), choose the font you like and write your text. You may want to increase the “Kerning” and/or “Tracking” to have more space between your letters.

3 - Open the image or images you want to use (flowers in our case) and drag it into your Document. Resize it if needed using “Free Transform” “Command/Control + T) and place it on top of your text.

4 - Lower the “Opacity” of your flowers a bit (we set it to 78%) to be able to see your text and move the flowers around to place them in the best position on top of the text. You can Resize, Rotate, etc. your Layer to achieve this.

5 - Let’s get rid of the background, select the “Magic Wand Tool” (W) and click in the anywhere to select your background, then, go to Select > Similar to expand your selection.

6 - If you notice that some parts of the image you wish to keep were selected, use the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” (L). To add to your selection, click the “Shift” key and to subtract from it click the “Alt” Key while using your Tools or use the buttons in the Top Menu. Make sure the entire perimeter of the canvas is selected.

7 - “Invert” your selection (Shift + Command/Control + I) and click on the “Add Vector Mask” button at the bottom of the “Layers” Menu to get rid of the “Background”. Fix the edges of your image by increasing the “Feather” of your Mask in the “Properties Panel”.

8 - “Duplicate” your Layer (Command/Control + J) and move it around to add more Flowers. You can go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal (or Vertical, etc.). You can also “Turn Off” (and back “On”) the layer visibility by clicking on the small eye icon to its left if you need it. Do as many Duplicates as needed, then select them (Shift key) and click on the “Create New Group” button on the bottom of the “Layers” Panel to Group them together.

9 - Click on the “Text” Layer thumb while holding the Command/Control key to make a selection and then make sure you are back on your “Group” Folder and click the “Add Vector Mask” button at the bottom of the “Layers” Menu. Turn off the “Text” Layer, click on the small Arrow to the left of the “Group” Folder to show its contents and change the Top-most layer “Blending Options” to “Multiply. The one of the second from top to “Darken” and the one of the third from top to “Linear Burn”. Leave the bottom one “Normal”. *

10 - Open the other image/images you want to use and drag it to your Document. Resize it and/or Rotate if needed. Make a selection of the “Text” and a “Mask” of it in your new Layer and change its “Blending Mode” to “Linear Dodge (Add)”.

11 - Click on the small black and white circle at the bottom of the “Layers Panel”, choose “Gradient” to create a “New Gradient Fill Layer” and use a “Linear Gradient” with a 90° Angle starting from #4b9898 to #2f8f63. Place that Layer on top of everything and change its “Blending Mode” to “Vivid Light”. Select all your Layers (except the original Text one) and “Group” them together.

12 - Let’s try another look: Duplicate this “Group” (Command/Control + J) and hide it. Show the contents of the duplicate Folder, delete the “Gradient” Fill Layer and change the “Blending Mode” of the Top Layer to “Exclusion”. Go to the “Adjustments Panel” and create a “New Levels Adjustment Layer” on top, clip it by clicking on the small button at the bottom of the Panel and play around with the Levers (values) to enhance your image.

13 - Here are our two Double Exposure options.

* Depending on your images you may need to use different “Blending Options” and/or “Opacity” values.