Creating Photo-Grid Posters In Photoshop
Posted: July 6th, 2010 | Author: jennyrusks
This is a tutorial I wrote for PhotographyBB magazine – the best photography magazine on the web! It’s a technique you can use to gather together a number of your shots with a common theme and present them in a nice grid format. The idea is to do some close cropping on the images so they are all the same shape.
1. The first thing you need to do is to sort through your photographs and choose nine images that you want to use in your poster. It doesn’t matter if the pictures are in Portrait or Landscape orientation because you will be cropping them into squares.
2. In Photoshop, choose File > New. From the Preset dropdown box, choose International Paper and from the Size dialog box, choose A4. We want to create a poster for printing leave the Resolution at 300 pixels. Click OK.
3. Open up your nine images (ideally related to each other in some way). I’m using nine pictures I took of my friends’ beautiful daughter in her cot. They’re not brilliant pictures by any means but by putting them together as a group on a grid they make a nice impact.
4. Click back on your main document to make it active. Choose View > Show, and choose Grid. An alignment grid will appear over your blank document. The grid consists of “big” boxes with 16 smaller boxes inside them. You’ll use this to line up your nine images but it will be removed before printing out your poster.
5. Switch to the first photo you want to place on your grid. You can use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to make a selection in each of your photographs. When you’ve selected the Rectangular Marquee tool, hold down the Shift key and drag out a perfectly square selection of the part of the image that you want to appear on your poster.
6. Press V to select the Move tool and drag your photo onto your grid document. Depending on the size of your original, you might find that when you drag it over, it may appear really large or really small. You’ll need to scale it to fit on the grid with your eight other photos.
7. Press Ctrl + T (windows) or Cmd + T (Mac) to bring up Free Transform. Hold down the Shift key then grab the bottom-right corner point and drag inward to scale your photo in size. Drag the handles until your photo is three big squares high and three big squares wide. With the transform handles still in place, put the cursor inside the handles and drag the photo so it is two small squares from the left and one big square from the top. Press Enter/Return to commit the transformation.
8. Choose the second photo you want to appear on the grid from the Window menu and with the Rectangular Marquee tool selected, press-and-hold the Shift key, and drag a perfectly square selection around the focal point of your image. Switch to the Move tool again, click within the selected area, and drag-and-drop it onto your grid document.
9. Now here’s a small time-saving tip. Since you’ve already used Free Transform to scale the first photo, you can now take advantage of "Transform Again." Just press Shift + Ctrl + T (windows) or Shift + Cmd + T (Mac) and the exact same resizing that was applied to the previous photo will be applied to this one. Press Enter/Return to commit your transformation. Use the Move tool to position this photo to the right of your first photo, with just one small grid square separating them. 
10. Repeat the process with the remaining seven photos, lining them up as you go. Separate each row of images by one small box.
11. You can get rid of the grid now that all the images are lined up. Choose View > Show > Grid.
12. Now to add some text to your poster at the bottom. I used a sans-serif font called Century Gothic.
And that completes the poster.
An optional step you might like to take is to convert all the images to black and white.
In the Layers palette, select the top layer (not the text layer) then click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Choose Channel Mixer from the drop down menu. Make sure the Preview check box is checked, then when the dialog appears, turn on the Monochrome checkbox.
Use the Red, Green and Blue sliders to change how the images look. When you get the black and white effect you like, click OK.
That completes the black and white poster.
Filed under: All, Photoshop Tutorials | Tags: Photography, Photoshop Tutorials, poster, Presentation | 3 Comments »
Related Posts:
|
|
|
|
How To Create The Tilt Shift Toy Model Look With Your Photographs In Photoshop
Posted: April 16th, 2010 | Author: jennyrusks
I wrote this article for last month’s PhotographyBB magazine. Check it out for lots of great articles on photography, Lightroom and Photoshop.
The toy model look has become a very popular photo effect in recent times. It tends to work best on photographs taken from a height such as a shot from a window or a bridge. The high viewing angle helps to give the impression that you’re looking down on a toy model.
1. Open up your picture in Photoshop. This is an aerial picture of Paris I downloaded from Stock Xchng. You can get it here http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1195352
2. We’re going to use the Quick Mask mode in Photoshop, together with the Gradient Tool to create a selection.
Press Q to jump into Quick Mask Mode. Reset the Foreground and Background colours to black and white by pressing D. Your colour picker in the toolbar should look like this:
3. Select the Gradient tool in the tool bar. It may be hidden under the Paint Bucket tool. On the Options bar at the top of the screen, click on the Reflected Gradient icon and click on the Reverse checkbox further to the right.
4. Now with the Gradient, click and drag on the picture from the point that you want to be in focus downwards. You may find you have a bit of trial and error with this step. You should now see a red mask appear over your photograph. The parts of the image that will remain in focus are the clear parts, while the red parts will be blurred.
5. Press the letter Q again, to turn off Quick Mask mode. You should now see a horizontal rectangular selection in the area that was clear in Quick Mask mode. This will be the part that is in focus.
6. Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. On the dialog box which opens, under Depth Map, click the Invert checkbox so that a check appears in the box. In the Iris section, choose Hexagon (6) from the Shape and for Radius drag the slider to somewhere between 35 and 40. Once you change the Radius, you’ll see the Toy model effect start to happen. Finally set the Specular Highlights Brightness to 50.
7. Click OK to apply the blurring and then press Ctrl + D (windows) or Cmd + D (mac) to deselect.
You should find that your picture looks a bit like a photograph of a toy model. This effect looks really great if there are cars or people in the picture, as they suddenly look like miniatures. Here’s the final picture.
Filed under: All, Photoshop Tutorials, digital photography | Tags: Photography, Photoshop Tutorials, Tilt shift | 8 Comments »
Related Posts:
|
|
|
|
PhotographyBB Magazine No. 26
Posted: March 31st, 2010 | Author: jennyrusks
I can’t believe how fast time is going. The latest edition of PhotographyBB has hit the virtual shelves. This month the magazine has some excellent articles on becoming a professional or “photo-preneur”, a great story on one photographer’s experience on photo safari in Tanzania and lots of tips and techniques on using a DSLR, Photoshop and Lightroom.
Editor in Chief, Dave Seeram had these comments regarding this recent release:
“Now into our third year of publication, I’m pleased with the growth of the magazine as well as our valued readership. Thanks to the help of the press, bloggers, and the use of social media, we’ve seen a huge increase in the numbers of readers, and the response has been very positive. In a way, this ties into a new series we’ve been running (and will continue to run) for two months now on Social Media for Photographers. This series will be exploring the different social media options that are available, how they work, and how photographers can use them to connect with others and promote their own work successfully.
This month, we take a look at the key differences, advantages, and disadvantages of the RAW vs JPEG file formats. We’ve also got a very special in-depth coverage of the new Lightroom 3 Beta 2 release by John Ogden. Here we dive into details regarding the small tweaks Lightroom 3 has to offer, as well as some of the big changes that have been highly anticipated. Also, if you are planning any trips this year, you’ll want to check out our travel photography tips for some important considerations that many vacationing photographers often overlook.
In our Photography Around the World feature, we’re off to Tanzania for a photo-safari. Along with experiencing the majesty of these beautiful animals, you’ll also learn some valuable tips should you ever have the chance to take a photo-safari yourself.”
This month I’ve written a tutorial on how to create the tilt-shift effect to make your photographs look like toy models.
And on top of all that goodness, PhotographyBB is FREE. You can download it here: http://www.photographyBB.com/magazine
Filed under: All, Photoshop Tutorials | Tags: PhotographyBB, Photoshop | 1 Comment »
Related Posts:
|
|
|
|
Two Interesting Photoshop Text Effects
Posted: January 31st, 2010 | Author: jennyrusks
I haven’t put any Photoshop tutorials or tips on this blog for ages. If you’ve visited this blog before you might know that I write for the Sitepoint design blog and I post Photoshop tuts up there every Monday. Here’s a glance (with links) at a couple of recent text effect tuts posted there in January. Both are easy to achieve with just a few steps.
Filed under: All, Photoshop Tutorials | Tags: Photoshop Tutorials, Text Effects | No Comments »
Related Posts:
|
|
|
|
January Issue Of PhotographyBB Is Out
Posted: January 29th, 2010 | Author: jennyrusks
The January issue of the web’s best photography magazine, PhotographyBB is now available for free download. This month’s magazine is jam-packed with goodies as usual.
The January 2010 edition examines the merits of keeping a strong and tidy photo portfolio, be it physical or an online gallery. Additionally, this issue explores composition techniques, and how negative space can strengthen a photo while drawing the viewer deeper into the image. This month also looks at the Lightroom 3 Beta release in-depth, featuring the new Publish Services and Watermarking tools.
Editor in Chief, Dave Seeram had these comments regarding this recent release:
“It’s a new year and that means exciting new features for 2010. This month’s edition kicks off a new series on portraiture lighting, and how to achieve better portrait photos using a single flash unit in combination with ambient lighting. We also have a few Valentine’s goodies, including a Photoshop tutorial and a book suggestion for those who are interested in learning to create dramatic and romantic Hollywood style portraits. Additionally, we dive into the Lightroom 3 beta release for a look at some cool new features that every Lightroom user is sure to make use of. Pre-visualization can be a powerful tool, and one of our newest contributing authors gives us a great look at how we can use pre-visualization in our photography.
This month, I have a short tutorial in the magazine on how to create a Valentine’s picture using filters and blending modes in Photoshop.
You can download this month’s magazine and all of the previous editions here.
Filed under: All, Photoshop Tutorials | No Comments »
Related Posts:
|
|
|
|
