simple sign tutorial - photoshop (advanced)
*THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP USERS. I AM NOT ALWAYS AVAILABLE FOR QUESTIONS SO PLEASE TRY YOUR BEST :) *
this is a relatively long tutorial!
click here for everything you will need to complete this tutorial
1) open your photo & duplicate the background layer by pressing ctrl + J
2) go to the layer panel at the top of the page - new adjustment layer - gradient map. press okay.
3) click the gradient bar that appears and the gradient editor window will come up. set this as your gradient :
(you can always use your own colors as well)
at 0% - fd4a7b
at 50% - d8c4c4
at 100% - ffffff
then press okay until the gradient windows close. your picture should now look something like this.
now select the gradient map layer & set it to linear light
now erase the sitemodel off this layer so that she returns to the regular coloring and only the bed or whatever she is laying on is that pinkish color. its okay if it doesn't look perfect just get it as good as you can :)
then set the gradient map layer to 80%
merge all of your layers then duplicate the background layer by pressing ctrl + J
4) now i'm going to start adding some texture to this sign! open the 'dot pattern' thing i gave you earlier in the tutorial. go to edit -> define pattern. you can name it whatever you want - then press okay.
5) duplicate your layer once more by pressing ctrl + J . This isn't really necessary but I just like to have a backup layer in case there's something that I don't like :)
6) right click the very top layer and select blending options. when the window comes up, change the fill opacity to 0%. Then go to pattern overlay and select the dot pattern that you just saved. Set it to overlay, and change it to 72%. you can change the percentage to whatever you want of course. then close the blending options window.
now its time to start adding some text to our image. many people requested that I make a tutorial on how to get the text behind the person, sort of overlapping in the background. its actually a lot easier than it seems. create a new layer and get your text tool ready!
7) set your foreground color to white (ffffff)
(i am going to use times new roman font with smooth antialias)
make sure your text alignment is set to left
8) in the very top left corner of the sign, click and type your site name. of course im going to use my site name, fashionably late. i used size 25px and bolded it. i did not put a space between 'fashionably' and 'late'.
9) hit the space bar and type your site name again. highlight the site name you just typed. set it to 19px and space out the letters by 10px. now you have two different looking texts right next to eachother.
10) now is the easy part. duplicate your text layer by pressing ctrl + J. Now hit 'V' and your move tool will select. move the text to the left, so that the smaller sitename is below the larger one. you can slightly overlap them if youd like!
11) now just keep duplicating and moving until the text reached the bottom of the sign. it IS OKAY IF IT GOES ON THE SITEMODEL IT CAN BE FIXED ;)
*hint* - once i have about 3-4 text layers set to where i want them, i merge them all and duplicate that layer so that you arent setting them in one by one. it just makes the process go by much quicker! haha.
so just keep duplicating and moving them around until youre happy. i only put the text to the left of the sitemodel (so not to the right of her head)
now merge every single layer that has the text on it together. now break out your eraser tool and erase any text thats on the sitemodel. i also erased the space in between her arm and teh rest of her body, where her arm is bent.
12) the text is obviously not too easy to read so we're about the fix that. create a new layer and get out a large circular brush. set your foreground color to black (000000) now color over the text (MAKE SURE YOURE ON A NEW LAYER!) and then set the layer with the black on it to overlay. change the opacity to 46% (you can set the opacity to whatever you want though)
now you're done! heres my final result.
