Banner Tutorial - Photoshop

[BlackKat]

Colouring Techniques
It's for Photoshop 7.0. I don't know how well it will translate to Paint Shop Pro, as I've never used that, but hopefully it'll be some help.

I wasn't sure how much detail to go into, so if you're not sure of anything just ask.

This is the banner I'm going to make:

.

Please don't make this exact banner (even if you use a different picture or text) and then claim you made it, because...well, you didn't did you. [img]images/smilies/smile.gif[/img]

The settings and colours I've used here won't work for every image. Play around a bit. Experimenting is half the fun. [img]images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Right, here we go. For this banner, I used this picture. Note: As far as I can remember most of the pictures I use come from Joel Beckett Online, or the official EE website.

1. Improving the image:

• Adjust the Brightness/Contrast – for this picture, I put both settings up to about +4%. To adjust the Brightness/Contrast, go to Image >> Adjustments >> Brightness/Contrast. It should look like this.
• New Layer - Fill with #0B1E42 (dark blue.) Set the Blend Mode to Exclusion.
• Add an Adjustment Layer. To do this, go to the half black circle on your layers panel. Click on Selective Color. These are the settings I used.
• New Layer - Fill with #F4E1BD. Set the Blend Mode to Soft Light, and the Opacity to 50%.
• Merge Visible. (Shift+Control+E), and Sharpen the layer -- Filter >> Sharpen >> Sharpen. Depending on what image you used you might not need to sharpen it at all. On some it might need Sharpening, but not as much as the Filter does. If this is the case, then got to Edit >> Fade Sharpen. (Do this straight away after Sharpen. Otherwise, the option will disappear. For this image, I faded the Sharpen by about 50%.)
• This is my image now.

2. Making the Banner

• Open a new document - mine was 400px width by 256px height. Paste your new and improved image into it.
• For this banner, I duplicated the image once, and moved the bottom one around underneath the top, until I finally settled on this layout.
• I selected the bottom layer (the image that's on the left partly hidden) and partly desaturated it. (Image >> Adjustments >> Hue/Saturation). I desaturated by about 75%. (These settings)
• Still on my now desaturated layer, I went to Image >> Adjustments >> Variations. I clicked on More Yellow once. (It's also best to click on Original once, and then click on what colour change you want to make ie. before clicking More Yellow. Otherwise, previous settings you've made may apply to this image as well.
• New Layer (on top of your previous two). Add a white line where your images meet up.
• On your colours panel, set your background colour to White, and your foreground layer to #F4E1BD.
• On top of your previous layers, make a new Adjustment Layer. This time, a Gradient Map. It should automatically do a Foreground to Background gradient for you. If when Preview is ticked your image looks like a negative, you need to click on Reverse. Set the Blend Mode of this layer to Linear Burn.
• New Layer. Fill with #D4EEEF. Set Blend Mode to Color Burn.
• New Layer. Fill with #F4E1BD. Set Blend Mode to Soft Light, and Opacity to 50%.
• New Layer. Fill with a Gradient. To add a Gradient, right click on your Fill tool, and change it to Gradient Tool. There should be a gradient bar up top of the screen. Click on it to edit the Gradient. This is the gradient I used, which is one of the Noise presets, with the settings fiddled with. To put the Gradient on, just drag the tool across your canvas and let go. Set the Blend Mode to Screen.
• This is my image so far.
• Make the layer with the white line on it, non-visible. (On your layers panel each layer should have a small eye next to it. Click on it, and the layer becomes non-visible. Clicking on it again makes it visible again, lol.)
• On top of your previous layers, make a New Layer. Stamp Visible. (Control + Shift + Alt + E).
• Add a Gaussian Blur to this Layer of about 9.0px radius..
• Set Blending Mode to Screen, and Opacity to 60%.

Finishing Touches

• New Layer. Using your Rectangle Marquee tool, select a Rectangle area to the right of your white line. (Which you can now make visible again.) Fill this with #FFA1A7. Set the Blend Mode to Screen. Add a drop shadow to it. (Right click on the layer. Go to Blending Options. Select drop shadow. These are the settings I used.
• Add your text. Colour - white. Add a drop shadow to it.
• At this point I decided I wanted a different colouring. Occasionally, I'm wacky like that, hee. So I inverted the colours on three of my layers - The Gradient Layer (not the gradient map), the layer I Gaussian blurred, and the rectangle layer. To invert colours, select the Layer and Control+I. Alternatively, you can go to Image >> Adjustments >> Invert.
• I added a border of about 5 pixels in White, and set the Blend Mode to Soft Light.
• I also moved the Layer Order about slightly. This was what my Layer panel looked like when I'd finished.

And that's my banner done. I hope this was easy to follow. I picked this banner because it used most of the colouring tools that I use. If anyone wants to know how to blend images together, I'll be happy to do a tutorial on that as well. If you're completely new to Photoshop, I'm also fine with doing a screenshot of it and marking out where all the tools are (fill tool, rectangle marquee tool etc.) Any other questions, feel free to ask.

Feedback appreciated on whether you found this useful, whether it was easy to follow. This is only the second tutorial I've done, so I'm quite new to this, lol.