Full banner tutorial.
Okay..this is my first full tutorial. It's for a banner that I'm creating for use on a Lost forum. Please bear with me throughout the tutorial, I've never done full ones before. I also most likely do things differently than everyone else. For your information you can click on the thumbnail to get a larger view.
Let me know if this was helpful, and if you feel like sharing what you've done, cool! Show me :)
We're going to be making this -->
using Photoshop 7. I'm sure most of it will be translatable..not entirely positive though.
I will be using these two pictures of Kate & Sawyer -->
credit to http://www.homeofthenutty.com for the caps, the full sized ones can be found here & here.
For the sake of size & what not the previews/images you see will be reduced by half the size but I'm working with the full size :)
01.
Firstly we will be altering the coloring of the pictures, I'm going to start with the picture of Kate.
Open your image and duplicate the image & set it to softlight @ 100%.
Duplicate the softlight layer twice & set them both to screen @ 100%.
02.
Make a new selective color layer [Layer>>New Adjustment Layer>>Selective Color]. Apply these settings:
REDS: -10, -4, -10, 0
CYANS: 0, -7, 0, 0
MAGENTAS: -94, 38, -17, 68
NEUTRALS: 7, 5, 6, 0
03.
Duplicate that selective color layer.
04.
Make a solid color fill layer [Layer>>New Fill Layer>>Solid Color] set to Color Burn @ 100% with the color #C5D7FF.
05.
Make a color balance layer [Layer>>New Adjustment Layer>>Color Balance] & apply these settings:
MIDTONES: -18, -6, 5
SHADOWS: -9, 8, 9
HIGHLIGHTS: -6, -8, -8
06.
Make a new selective color layer & apply these settings:
REDS: -21, -13, 34, 0
YELLOWS: -70, -10, -14, 0
BLUES: 0, 0, 0, 100
MAGENTAS: -15, 26, 27, 18
NEUTRALS: 9, -2, -1, 2
07.
Make a hue/saturation layer [Layer>>New Adjustment Layer>>Hue/Saturation] & apply these settings:
REDS: Saturation>> +11
YELLOWS: Saturation >> -48
GREENDS: Saturation >> +21
CYANS: Saturation >> +32
BLUES: Saturation >> +66
08.
Now you need to flatten your image..what I usually do is create a new blank layer, then press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E this will like flatten everything on that new layer, leaving everything else in tact.
& that is the Kate picture we'll be working with.
09.
Apply the same settings/steps to the Sawyer picture. You can hide the flattened Kate picture you just made to make it easier to see what you're doing. However, with this one there was a little too much blue in the picture, so I changed the Saturation of BLUES on the hue/saturation layer to +32 instead of +66.
& this is the Sawyer picture we'll be working with.
10.
I usually like to smooth my images out, it's kind of a habit. You don't have to do this step if you don't want to. I use Paint Shop Pro 7 for this step, but if theres a way to smooth images in Photoshop that you like, you can use that. But if you use PSP to smooth the images simply go to Effects>>Noise>>Edge Preserving Smooth & set the amount of smoothing to around 5.
Do that to both images. And then we've got these two images that we'll be working with --> one & two.
Okay..now here is the part where it might get a bit confusing because of how I do things. I'll try to be as clear as possible, but try experimenting/changing things to see what you like.
11.
Open this texture by fangirls_inc.
Take this texture by gender, turn it black & white [CTRL+SHIFT+U], rotate it 90 degrees clockwise and paste it onto the first texture in approximately this position (doesn't have to be exact, see what you like):
12.
Set the layer with the second texture to Multiply.
13.
Now here is where it might get kinda confusing.
Go back to the two pictures & resize them to approximately 265x150. Anywhere around there should be fine.
Paste them onto your textures.
Place the picture of Sawyer approximately 22 pixels above and 62 pixels to the right of the picture of Kate and somewhere around this position on the textures (again, this can vary).
Basically you want to place him so you'll be able to see his head next to hers after we add some masks.
14.
Set both of the pictures to Color Burn @ 100%.
15.
Now you can see that you can't see either of their faces because of the images blocking each other..so we're going to add some masks.
Let's start with a mask on Sawyer's layer. Select his layer and click the Add Layer Mask button -->
(don't mind the other layers you see in the screen cap heh).
Select the paint brush & if everything is okay your foreground color should be black & background color should be white. Make sure you've selected the layer mask on the layer palette & not the actual picture. Now begin essentially "erasing" the parts of the Sawyer picture that are covering the Kate picture..particularly in the area of her face.
Now do the same with the layer of Kate. Select it, add a layer mask, use the paintbrush to erase the areas that are covering Sawyer's face.
You should end up with something similar to this:
16.
Now we want to merge these two layers. So select the layer that is on top (mine is the one of Sawyer), make sure that the two layers are NOT linked together (if the layer is linked with its own mask layer that is fine) & press CTRL+E. When the dialog box appears click Apply.
You now have one layer with both pictures and they're blended nicely.
17.
The pictures are a little too dark for me so I'm going to duplicate that layer, set it to Screen @ 100% & then merge it with the layer below (that should already be set on color burn) & we get this:
18.
I like the way it's looking so now I'm going to crop it to the right size to use on a forum which is 400x100. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool [M].
Choose the style to be Fixed Size and set the dimensions to width >> 400 px, height >> 100 px.
Make a selection around wherever you see fit..here is mine:
I actually moved the picture over more towards the right because I wanted more of that grunge scratch thing in it.
19.
Now crop it.. Image>>Crop & you've got a banner:
Now to spruce it up a bit I added some textures & text...
20.
I added this texture by loveicon twice. Once so the lines were visible on the left side & I set this to Lighten. The second one I flipped it horizontally so they were visible on the right side & set it to Screen.
21.
Then I added some text in the font "Honey Script".
The "&" is in the color #777777 set to color burn, size 60.
The "kate" and "sawyer" are in white set to normal, size 36.
& VOILA! You've got a banner:
I'm sorry if that was way too long, I hope I was clear enough. This really isn't that great of a banner but I hope it came in useful to you guys, please let me know! I'd love some feedback :) I'll try to do a better one next time.
Let me know if this was helpful, and if you feel like sharing what you've done, cool! Show me :)
We're going to be making this -->
using Photoshop 7. I'm sure most of it will be translatable..not entirely positive though.
I will be using these two pictures of Kate & Sawyer -->
credit to http://www.homeofthenutty.com for the caps, the full sized ones can be found here & here.
For the sake of size & what not the previews/images you see will be reduced by half the size but I'm working with the full size :)
01.
Firstly we will be altering the coloring of the pictures, I'm going to start with the picture of Kate.
Open your image and duplicate the image & set it to softlight @ 100%.
Duplicate the softlight layer twice & set them both to screen @ 100%.
02.
Make a new selective color layer [Layer>>New Adjustment Layer>>Selective Color]. Apply these settings:
REDS: -10, -4, -10, 0
CYANS: 0, -7, 0, 0
MAGENTAS: -94, 38, -17, 68
NEUTRALS: 7, 5, 6, 0
03.
Duplicate that selective color layer.
04.
Make a solid color fill layer [Layer>>New Fill Layer>>Solid Color] set to Color Burn @ 100% with the color #C5D7FF.
05.
Make a color balance layer [Layer>>New Adjustment Layer>>Color Balance] & apply these settings:
MIDTONES: -18, -6, 5
SHADOWS: -9, 8, 9
HIGHLIGHTS: -6, -8, -8
06.
Make a new selective color layer & apply these settings:
REDS: -21, -13, 34, 0
YELLOWS: -70, -10, -14, 0
BLUES: 0, 0, 0, 100
MAGENTAS: -15, 26, 27, 18
NEUTRALS: 9, -2, -1, 2
07.
Make a hue/saturation layer [Layer>>New Adjustment Layer>>Hue/Saturation] & apply these settings:
REDS: Saturation>> +11
YELLOWS: Saturation >> -48
GREENDS: Saturation >> +21
CYANS: Saturation >> +32
BLUES: Saturation >> +66
08.
Now you need to flatten your image..what I usually do is create a new blank layer, then press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E this will like flatten everything on that new layer, leaving everything else in tact.
& that is the Kate picture we'll be working with.
09.
Apply the same settings/steps to the Sawyer picture. You can hide the flattened Kate picture you just made to make it easier to see what you're doing. However, with this one there was a little too much blue in the picture, so I changed the Saturation of BLUES on the hue/saturation layer to +32 instead of +66.
& this is the Sawyer picture we'll be working with.
10.
I usually like to smooth my images out, it's kind of a habit. You don't have to do this step if you don't want to. I use Paint Shop Pro 7 for this step, but if theres a way to smooth images in Photoshop that you like, you can use that. But if you use PSP to smooth the images simply go to Effects>>Noise>>Edge Preserving Smooth & set the amount of smoothing to around 5.
Do that to both images. And then we've got these two images that we'll be working with --> one & two.
Okay..now here is the part where it might get a bit confusing because of how I do things. I'll try to be as clear as possible, but try experimenting/changing things to see what you like.
11.
Open this texture by fangirls_inc.
Take this texture by gender, turn it black & white [CTRL+SHIFT+U], rotate it 90 degrees clockwise and paste it onto the first texture in approximately this position (doesn't have to be exact, see what you like):
12.
Set the layer with the second texture to Multiply.
13.
Now here is where it might get kinda confusing.
Go back to the two pictures & resize them to approximately 265x150. Anywhere around there should be fine.
Paste them onto your textures.
Place the picture of Sawyer approximately 22 pixels above and 62 pixels to the right of the picture of Kate and somewhere around this position on the textures (again, this can vary).
Basically you want to place him so you'll be able to see his head next to hers after we add some masks.
14.
Set both of the pictures to Color Burn @ 100%.
15.
Now you can see that you can't see either of their faces because of the images blocking each other..so we're going to add some masks.
Let's start with a mask on Sawyer's layer. Select his layer and click the Add Layer Mask button -->
(don't mind the other layers you see in the screen cap heh).
Select the paint brush & if everything is okay your foreground color should be black & background color should be white. Make sure you've selected the layer mask on the layer palette & not the actual picture. Now begin essentially "erasing" the parts of the Sawyer picture that are covering the Kate picture..particularly in the area of her face.
Now do the same with the layer of Kate. Select it, add a layer mask, use the paintbrush to erase the areas that are covering Sawyer's face.
You should end up with something similar to this:
16.
Now we want to merge these two layers. So select the layer that is on top (mine is the one of Sawyer), make sure that the two layers are NOT linked together (if the layer is linked with its own mask layer that is fine) & press CTRL+E. When the dialog box appears click Apply.
You now have one layer with both pictures and they're blended nicely.
17.
The pictures are a little too dark for me so I'm going to duplicate that layer, set it to Screen @ 100% & then merge it with the layer below (that should already be set on color burn) & we get this:
18.
I like the way it's looking so now I'm going to crop it to the right size to use on a forum which is 400x100. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool [M].
Choose the style to be Fixed Size and set the dimensions to width >> 400 px, height >> 100 px.
Make a selection around wherever you see fit..here is mine:
I actually moved the picture over more towards the right because I wanted more of that grunge scratch thing in it.
19.
Now crop it.. Image>>Crop & you've got a banner:
Now to spruce it up a bit I added some textures & text...
20.
I added this texture by loveicon twice. Once so the lines were visible on the left side & I set this to Lighten. The second one I flipped it horizontally so they were visible on the right side & set it to Screen.
21.
Then I added some text in the font "Honey Script".
The "&" is in the color #777777 set to color burn, size 60.
The "kate" and "sawyer" are in white set to normal, size 36.
& VOILA! You've got a banner:
I'm sorry if that was way too long, I hope I was clear enough. This really isn't that great of a banner but I hope it came in useful to you guys, please let me know! I'd love some feedback :) I'll try to do a better one next time.