Circuit Board

Transform a regular photo into a high-tech artwork made up of blocks and connectors resembling a circuit board.

Creating the Blocks

First, we’ll create convert the image to blocks using a combination of Photoshop filters.

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Step 1

Open a photo you would like to edit. We recommend using a high resolution image of at least 1000×1000 pixels. It is also fine to upscale a low resolution image before using this effect.

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Step 2

Duplicate the layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer or Ctrl+J).

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Step 3

Activate the top layer and apply a Mosaic filter (Filter> Pixelate> Mosaic) with a cell size of 16 square.

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Step 4

Apply a Find Edges filter (Filter> Stylize> Find Edges).

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Step 5

Apply a Median filter (Filter> Noise> Median) with a radius of 2 pixels.

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Step 6

Apply a Minimum filter (Filter> Other> Minimum) with a radius by 4 pixels.

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Step 7

Finally, invert the current layer (Image> Adjustments> Invert or Ctrl+I).

Adding an Outline to the Blocks

Now that we have the blocks created, we’ll add a simple outline around them.

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Step 8

Duplicate the top layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer or Ctrl+J) and change the blending mode of the new layer to Screen.

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Step 9

Apply a Find Edges filter (Filter> Stylize> Find Edges).

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Step 10

Invert the current layer (Image> Adjustments> Invert or Ctrl+I) and the outline should blend into the image. One last thing to do is to reduce the opacity to 25%.

Creating the Connectors

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We’re almost done with the effect. All we need to do now is add the connectors. This is a simple process using a few Photoshop filters.

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Step 11

Duplicate the Background layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer or Ctrl+J) and move it to the top.

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Step 12

Apply a Mosaic filter (Filter> Pixelate> Mosaic) with a cell size of 16 square.

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Step 13

Activate the new top layer and apply a Median filter with a radius of 8 pixels.

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Step 14

As you might have guessed, we’ll now apply a Find Edges filter (Filter> Stylize> Find Edges).

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Step 15

Finally, invert the current layer (Image> Adjustments> Invert or Ctrl+I) and change the blending mode to Screen.

Colorizing the Final Results

This step is optional. If you would like to colorize the final results, follow this step:

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Step 16

Add a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Hue/Saturation) as the top layer. Checkmark Colorize and apply your desired color settings. Here are the settings I’ve used for this step:

Colorize: Checked

Hue: 100

Saturation: 100

Lightness: 0

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Final Results

Rollover the images below to see the before and after effect.