movieposter

The Method

1. Start by opening all 4 files for this project; fiona.jpg,
ian_laptop.jpg, jane_asher.jpg, arno_vecchio.jpg.

2. We will use the portrait shot of the River Arno as the
base for this composite. Therefore click each image and
drag it onto the river pic. Click and hold with your mouse,
then drag over onto the river pic, then let go. You should
see your cursor change to a cross sign (Windows).

Note the layer stack with the 3 new pix. Four layers in all.

3. Click each image in turn and "Desaturate' them. 'Co-Shift-U'
Or 'Image-Adjustments-Desaturate'
This will remove the colour information (for now).

4. Click on the 'Ian' pic and go ‘Co-T’ to Transform it, with
your finger on the shift key, drag the top left hand corner
handle, to make him a bit larger. See below.
Commit this action by hitting either Return or Enter.

5. On each one go ‘Co-T’ to Transform to the approximate
size as per the final illustration. Commit these actions by
hitting either Return or Enter.

6. In your layer palette, drag the image of Fiona to the top.

Now withyour Eraser Tool (E), start rubbing out parts of this
image to reveal the Ian and Jane images. At the top of the
menu bar you can change the opacity (or preasure) of the
Eraser tool, so that when you rub areas out, it looks like it
is 'merging' into the other images.
IF you Eraser has a hard edge to it, you can change this
by clicking the drop down triangle at the top under Eraser
and pulling the Hardness slider all the way to the left.
Your erasing will now be softer.

7. Do the same with the other two images, so that they all look
like they merge with each other.

8. Once you have the three images the way you
want them, you can then merge these layers.
We will do this by linking them together first.

Click in the space to the right of the 'eye' in
your layers palette of the three images.

9. Then go to the small triangle (dropdown) arrow
at the top of the layers window and choose 'Merge
Linked' This will make one layer of the linked layers.
Now you should have only two (below) layers?

MOVIE POSTER - Creating a mood of a time and place Back to main Photoshop page Here is an imaginary fim poster ‘The River’, typical in its use of blended characters set against a background that tells something about the story. Grateful thanks to Jane Asher, Fiona Beechener and Ian Hinde. All images © 2004 by Jon Davison.
	Downloads: Click the links below to download the images, or click the images in the composite below. Top: Ian (176kb) Centre: Fiona Lower: Jane (176kb) Right: River Arno (128kb)		The Musicman poster Click for larger version Download original pictures; • Guitarist • Lara • Background main • Background girl Follow 'The River'as a guide, it uses a similar approach. The soft focus tutorial will be posted soon! But for now: Once you have merged Luke and Lara as one layer, duplicate this 'Co-J'. Now Desaturate 'Co-Shift-U'. Now Blur-Gaussian Blur' about half way. Then use the 'Overlay' Blend Mode (on Layer Palette where it says Normal. Now in 'Colour Balance, go for a sepia tone. When get the feel you want merge them together.
The Method 1. Start by opening all 4 files for this project; fiona.jpg, ian_laptop.jpg, jane_asher.jpg, arno_vecchio.jpg. 2. We will use the portrait shot of the River Arno as the base for this composite. Therefore click each image and drag it onto the river pic. Click and hold with your mouse, then drag over onto the river pic, then let go. You should see your cursor change to a cross sign (Windows). Note the layer stack with the 3 new pix. Four layers in all. 3. Click each image in turn and "Desaturate' them. 'Co-Shift-U' Or 'Image-Adjustments-Desaturate' This will remove the colour information (for now). 4. Click on the 'Ian' pic and go ‘Co-T’ to Transform it, with your finger on the shift key, drag the top left hand corner handle, to make him a bit larger. See below. Commit this action by hitting either Return or Enter. 5. On each one go ‘Co-T’ to Transform to the approximate size as per the final illustration. Commit these actions by hitting either Return or Enter. 6. In your layer palette, drag the image of Fiona to the top. Now withyour Eraser Tool (E), start rubbing out parts of this image to reveal the Ian and Jane images. At the top of the menu bar you can change the opacity (or preasure) of the Eraser tool, so that when you rub areas out, it looks like it is 'merging' into the other images. IF you Eraser has a hard edge to it, you can change this by clicking the drop down triangle at the top under Eraser and pulling the Hardness slider all the way to the left. Your erasing will now be softer. 7. Do the same with the other two images, so that they all look like they merge with each other. 8. Once you have the three images the way you want them, you can then merge these layers. We will do this by linking them together first. Click in the space to the right of the 'eye' in your layers palette of the three images. 9. Then go to the small triangle (dropdown) arrow at the top of the layers window and choose 'Merge Linked' This will make one layer of the linked layers. Now you should have only two (below) layers?		10. About now you can Crop the frame to the finall size. Choose the Crop Tool (C) and simply drag a rectangle over the image until you have it framed so (below). Then hit Enter or Okay to commit this action. 11. We are now going to lighten the river image. Choose 'Image - Adjustments - Curves'. Anchor a mid-point by clicking it, you can then drag this gently down until the image is at the right density. Compare this to the image in step (4), you should have something similar to this (below)? 12. You can now flatten the image. Same as step (8) but choose 'Flatten' rather than merge linked. 13. It is now starting to take shape right? in which case we can now ad colour by 'Image - Adjustments - Colour Balance' Depending on your approach, you can choose a sepia, or saturated style. Both are achieved with Brightness & Contrast. 14. We will now add some film grain/Noise to the final image to give it some mood. Go to 'Filter - Noise - Add Noise' Set the amount to 10 or so and tick Monochromatic. 15. Click your Text Tool (T) to start creating the final touches to the poster. You can create what you like here. I have called it 'The River'. Experiment with different type fonts and sizes until you have your movie poster. That's about it for now, good luck! Jon