300 is quickly becoming a huge blockbuster and fan favorite. I will show you how to make photos look like 300. Here’s how to take a normal portrait and turn it into something from the movie 300 - You can be from Sparta! All of this is done using Adobe Photoshop CS2, however you could probably accomplish it using the GIMP or something similar. Make your picture look like a 300 spartan. Your photo… can dine… in HELL!

Here’s a photo of the lovely Ms. Johansson I grabbed off the web.

Step 1:

Usually a photo like a JPEG shows the layer ‘Background’ and it is “locked”. So we want to create two copies of this ‘Background’ layer, by dragging it onto the New Layer icon in the Layers window. You should now have 3 identical layers that are visible (they have the “eye” icon to their left). Rename the top layer ‘desaturated’ and the middle layer ’sepia’. Now you may delete the ‘Background’ layer or simply make it not visible by clicking the “eye” icon beside it. For now, make the ‘desaturated’ layer not visible as well.

Step 2:

We now want to apply the sepia filter to out middle layer, so choose the Photo Filter option in the Adjustments menu. (Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter…)

Now choose Sepia from the drop down menu and drag the ‘Density’ slider to 100%

Step 3:

Now we want to get that intensity and “crushed blacks” look with tons of contrast. First we want to do Auto Contrast (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L) and Auto Levels (Ctrl+Shift+L). Alternatively, you can choose these from the Image > Adjustments menu.

Next, we will tweak the levels slightly to achieve the look we want. Drag the leftmost slider in about 5-10% and move the middle slider over to the right slightly. You can always see the preview and adjust as necessary. The Input levels listed above the graph start at 0, 1.00, 255. As you can see mine is corrected to 31, 0.90, 255 to get the desired effect.

Step 4:

Now we will work with the ‘desaturated layer. Select it and make it visible again. Do Auto Contrast (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L) and Auto Levels (Ctrl+Shift+L). now, desaturate the layer, using Ctrl+Shift+U or choosing Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

We also want to change the blending mode of this layer to “Multiply”.

This creates the washed out sepia look while keeping some color.

Step 5:

The final step is to play with the lightness and brightness of the image to get it looking right. Use the Hue/Saturation dialog (Ctrl+U) and drag the lightness slider. Also you can play with the brightness in Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast… but you probably don’t have to.

Here is what our final image looks like:

The best images to use are those with hard side lighting to create greater contrast on the face and mimic the movie’s look and feel even more. There is also a bluish hue in some of the night scenes, simply replace the Sepia Filter with a Cooling Filter in Step 2, and you will get some good results.

Here are a couple additional images of the Diggnation hosts, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht:

That’s all! Please leave a comment with any further tips or things you’ve figured out with this tutorial to make it better for everyone!