What You’ll Be Creating
In this tutorial, we will create a powerful typographic poster by using grids. We will also learn to use layer masks and adjustment layers to edit images. Are you ready to get started?
What You Will Need
You will need the following resources:
Download the images and install the font; you are ready to start!
1. Setting Up a New Photoshop File
Step 1
In Photoshop, go to File > New. Name the document *Snowboarding Poster.*Set the Width to 1270 px and Height to 1600 px. Set the Resolutionto 72 Pixels/Inch. Click OK**.
Step 2
Press Command-R to bring up the rules around the document. Head over to View > New Guide.On the New Guideoption window, select Horizontaland set the guide to 70 px.Click OK.
Do the same for the other sides of the document by subtracting 70 px from the final size. To activate and deactivate the guides, press Command-;.
Advertisement
Step 3
For this poster, we will create a 5:3 grid (width x height). This means that we will divide the poster vertically into five sections and horizontally into three sections. Experimenting with grids is a great way to create an unusual layout.
Head over to View > New Guide.In the New Guideoption window, select Verticaland set the guide to 254 px.Click OK.
Let’s set the verticalguides to254 px, 508 px, 762 px, and 1016 px. Click OK.
Let’s set the horizontalguides to533 pxand1066 px. Click OK.
Step 4
On the Layerspanel, click on Create a new Fill or Adjustment Layer > Solid Color.Select a black color in the Color Pickeroption window. Click OK.
2. How to Edit the Ski Slopes Image
Advertisement
Step 1
Drag the Ski slopes image into the Snowboarding Poster document.
Press Command-Tto Transform.Head over to the control bar and activate the Maintain Aspect Ratio button. Set the Widthand Heightto 75%. Press Enterto proceed. Don’t worry about the placement—we will play with that later.
Step 2
Activate the guides by pressing Command-;.On the toolbar, select the Marquee Tool (M).Select the first two columns from the left. Use the guides for this.
Make sure you select the Ski slopes image on the Layers panel. Click on the Add Layer Maskbutton.
Step 3
On the Layerspanel, click on the link button between the thumbnails. This will unlink the image from the layer mask. This is useful when you want to keep the position of the layer mask but want to move the image.
Ensure you select the smart object thumbnail and not the layer mask. Move the image anywhere you desire using the Move Tool (V). In the image below, I want the slope details to be concentrated in the middle section. I know I want to add text to the top and bottom on the slopes, so I’ll try to leave these two sections as clean as possible.
Step 4
To neutralize the image, we’ll add an Adjustment Layer.This is helpful when we are using multiple images in a poster where the colors don’t go together.
On the Layerspanel, click on Create a New Fill or Adjustment Layer > Black & White.
Step 5
Select the new Black & Whiteadjustment layer, and Right Click > Create Clipping Mask.
The shortcut for this is: hold down Option,hover over the layer until the arrow pointing down appears, and click. A clipping mask is useful when we want to apply a Fill Layeror Adjustment Layeronly to the layer below. This way, we won’t compromise the rest of the poster.
Step 6
To open the Propertiespanel, click on the Layer Thumbnail.On the Propertiespanel, move the color stoppers to tweak the color intensity. This particular image is composed of blues and cyans. Feel free to play with these.
Step 7
To keep the layers tidy, select the ski slopelayer and the Adjustment Layer.Drag these two layers towards the Create New Groupbutton. Double click on the Group 1 folder to change the name; I renamed it Slopes.
3. How to Edit the Snowboarder Image
Step 1
Open the Snowboarderimage in Photoshop.Make sure you are not dragging it into the document. We need to open it separately.
Click on the Layer Maskbutton to create a new Layer Mask.
Step 2
Let’s start by working on the sky section. Make sure you have the Layer Maskselected.
On the toolbar, select the Magic Wand Tool (W)and select the sky portion of the image. Hold down Shift to add to the selection. Once you’ve selected all of the sky, press Command-Ito Inversethe selection. Press Command-D to deselect.
Step 3
Press ** to activate the red overlay; this will make it easier to see what parts of the image still need work.
Select the Brush Tool (B).Right click on the document, and set the Sizeto 500 pxand the Hardnessto 0.Press [ to decreaseand ] to increasethe Brush Size. Set the Fillcolor to black and start brushing the snow off the photo.
Step 4
On the Layerspanel, select the Layer Maskthumbnail and Right Click > Refine Mask.
In the Refine Maskoption window, we can change the View Mode.I have On Black (B) selected. Set the Radiusto 7.5 px, Featherto 0.5 px, and Shift Edgeto -25%.Click OK.
Step 5
Right click on the layer and select Duplicate Layer. Namethe layer snowboarder and set the Destinationto Snowboarding poster.
Step 6
Switch back to the Snowboarding poster.Select the Snowboarderlayer, and press Command-Tto Transform.Head to the control bar, and activate the Maintain Aspect Ratiobutton. Set the Widthand Height to 40%.Press Enter to proceed.
While grids are used for creating order in a poster, they are also used for breaking rules. By doing so, we are creating something different. A great way to break the grid is to place the snowboarderimage on a grid guide. Move the image to the bottom left side of the poster, as shown in the image below.
Step 7
On the Layerspanel, click on Create a New Fill or Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation.Repeat this action, but this time add a Brightness/Contrast layer.
To create a Clipping Mask,select bothAdjustment Layersand Right Click > Create Clipping Mask.
Step 8
Click on the Brightness/Contrast thumbnail layer. This will bring up the Propertiespanel. Set the Brightnessto 36 and the Contrast to -4.
Click on theHue/Saturationlayer thumbnail to bring up the Properties panel. Here, we can alter the color of the whole image or specific colors. For this tutorial, we will tweak the colors separately. Click on the Master dropdown menu, select Red, and set the Hueto +25.This time, select the Yellowoption and set the Saturation to -100.Select theCyanoption and set theHueto+35.
Step 9
You will notice that the gloves, beanie and face of the snowboarder are blue. We can fix this by working on the Layer Mask.
Select theLayer Mask on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Select the Brush Tool (B).Right click on the document, and set the Size to 100 pxand Hardnessto 0.Brush over the winter hat, face, and gloves. Perfect!
Select the snowboarder and the two adjustment layers.Drag these three layers to the Groupbutton. Rename the group Snowboarder.
4. How to Add Text
Step 1
On the Toolspanel, select the Text Tool (T).I used white text to contrast with the background.
The typeface I used is Schmalfette.
Bring up the Toolspanel by going to Type > Panels > Character Panel.Below are the details I added, with the type size and specific font weight on separate layers.
- STATION DE SKI
MONT-TREMBLANT
QUEBEC
(Schmalfette, Regular, Size: 100 pt, 80 pt and 200 pt,Tracking: 100 pt, Leading: play with the leading options as it will be different for each line). - 02
—
28
OCTOBER
(Schmalfette, Regular, Size: 180 pt and 50 pt, Tracking: 100 pt. I altered the em-dash scale to fit the numbers’ width. You can do this by using the Horizontal Scale on the Characterspanel).
Place these two text blurbs at the top and bottom on the left side of the poster.
Step 2
Let’s add text to the black background. Using the Text Tool (T),add JOIE DE VIE.On the Characterspanel, set the Sizeto 630 pt and Leadingto 505 pt, and set the color to #eb5d08. On the control bar, activate the Right Align Textbutton. Place the text on the right side of the poster.
On the Layerspanel, move the layer between the Snowbarderand Ski slopesgroups. This is so that the snowboarder is over the letters, adding dimension.
Step 3
Let’s add strokes between the words. On the toolbar, select the Line Tool (U).Head over to the control bar and set the Strokecolor to #eb5d08 and 3 pt.Set the Widthto 665 pxand the Heightto 5 px.
Hold Option-Shiftand drag the stroke to multiply. Place both strokes between the words. On the Layerspanel, move the strokes under the Snowboardergroup.
5. How to Save a File for Web
Head over to File > Save and save the file as you would normally.
To save a JPEG file for web, head over to File > Save for Webor Shift-Option-Command-S. Select the file type you want to save the document in—I am choosing JPEG—and set 100 for Quality. Under Image size, you can change the pixel size of the image if you have any size constraints.
On the bottom left-hand side, you can see a preview of the size of the file. This is useful when there are size constraints on a website and you need to lower the quality or the size of the image.
Click onSave…to choose the location in the new window, and click onSave again.
