Photoshop Indiana Jones Poster

Photoshop Indiana Jones tutorial 

Well if you're a movie buff of any bearing you would be aware of the looming release of ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. You would also definitely have seen some of legendary poster artist Drew Struzan's work (bow). His art for this latest movie is classic Jones, classic action adventure, it's brilliant. Hell, everyone should have their own Indy Poster. In homage to Struzan, let's do it.

A quick analysis of a few movie posters - you'll notice a trend in either warm or cool gradient backgrounds with one highlight.

For this tutorial you'll need:

• One skull or suitable spooky image
• One Aztec/Mayan type carving
• One hero shot, preferably backlit (of course yourself!)
• Shots of rocks, walls, trees, steps for a backdrop
• The SF Fedora Font set (get it here)

A standard movie poster is 27 x 40" (68.6 x 101.6cm) with about 150ppi (pixels per inch) but that's a big file so choose a size that suits.The Background 

We'll start with a gradient of warm color.  Bring up the gradient editor and add color points as shown, then apply.

Drop in and clearcut the skull, then use the EDIT>TRANSFORM>WARP tool to distort the image to a suitably scary state.  DESATURATE to lose the color.  I applied a PLASTIC WRAP filter to give it some sheen.

SKULL COLOUR - We'll place the skull large at the top, and add a layer style by double clicking the skull layer in the layers tab.  We'll give it a COLOR OVERLAY  (we'll use a lot of these) setting the color to a bright orange and using a vivid light blend mode.  

SKULL SHADOW - Duplicate the skull layer and erase all but the areas you want deep shadow.  The eye sockets in this case. Then adjust the layer style to a deep brown with a COLOR BURN blend mode

SKULL HIGHLIGHT - Duplicate the original skull layer again, remove the layer styles and crank the contrast right up to get a few strong whites for highlights.  Set the layer blend mode to SCREEN.  This will give the teeth some punch.

Now we'll flatten the image and apply a little DRY BRUSH filter and some NOISE to give it a painterly gritty effect.

Ok that's the background.  Now a backdrop to frame our 'hero'.  Drop in some background rock or tree life, and DESATURATE.  Apply plenty of contrast for deep highlights.  Now apply another COLOR OVERLAY layer style using a deep brown color and linear light mode.  Set the layer mode to SCREEN.

Now DUPLICATE the layer, remove the styles and set the layer mode to HARD LIGHT.  A little DRY BRUSH can't hurt either. Erase the edges a little to blend with the background.

Now let’s add some steps for our hero to stand on - another greyscale image with a COLOR OVERLAY layer style.  This time set to SOFT LIGHT mode and a light brown color.  We set the layer mode to LUMINOSITY on this one.  As you might be starting to guess, there is experimentation here.  Play. Learn. Enjoy.

Now we pick up speed.  We take our Aztec carving, color it rich blue using the HUE/SATURATION tool, hollow it out using the eraser tool and place it at the base.  Then we create a new layer and paint over it with black (with some opacity) so it's subtle.

The hero 

Now we're ready for our hero. Create a new layer and airbrush in a white glow to sit behind the character. This is our focal point. Now add a layer style to this and use an OUTER GLOW with a yellow color. Glow on glow. Now we'll paste in our character (handsome fellow...) To give it some inky grunt, I like to apply UNSHARP MASK with a high radius. Adjust LEVELS to a point you're happy with, where the hero looks a part of the scene.

Now DUPLICATE the hero layer. Set the new layers mode to LUMINOSITY, and then apply a layer effect. In this case we want three effects to ‘style like Struzan’.

Outer Glow - This will give the character an ink-like outline. Set this to a very dark brown, blend mode to OVERLAY, a little SPREAD and a little NOISE until you get a rough brown outline

Color Overlay - This will give the character the same tone as the rest of the image. Set blend mode to OVERLAY and choose a soft brown to blend the character with the scene.

Stroke - this will mimic the halo outline of a backlight. Set color to white, blend mode to OVERLAY, position to CENTER.

Now to give the character a painterly feel, apply a little DRY BRUSH filter, excluding the face with a feather selection. A little NOISE and UNSHARP MASK perhaps for good measure.

Just text to go 

Almost there!  Just the text to go.  For this you'll need the Fedora set which you can find here.

Enter name here!  To this text we'll apply another layer style, this time with a heavy black DROP SHADOW, a GRADIENT OVERLAY (as shown) and a black STROKE.

Now we'll select the text and click the CREATE WARPED TEXT tool in the text tool bar.  Here we can use the ARC selection to bend the text slightly.  Then rotate a little for lift.  Indy would be proud.

Using the FEDORA TITLE font, we can complete the movie title... and our poster!   Drew often uses paint spatter to soften his work, you could mimic this for a finishing touch by downloading or creating your own photoshop brush.  Might cover that in another tutorial.

All kudos to Drew Struzan for this incredible style, his posters have been an integral part of cinema for as long as I can remember.  Hell I grew up on them.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Look forward to more in the future.

by Rick Davison

Replace background

Step 1 - Open a studio portrait with a solid color background

Below is an image I opened to demonstrate this tutorial. The image below is an example of one of the worst situations. For portraits, a good color background would be green or blue. But for this tutorial, I will use a studio portrait with red background and lots of skin, hair, and even a drop shadow to show you this tutorial in the worst situation. In most situations, removing background will be a lot easier but it is important to learn how to mask difficult images so that you're prepared to mask most images.

Step 2 - Select a color range

Choose Select > Color Range. In the Color range tool, click on the background. Hold the shift key and continue clicking the background until you have the entire background in white. Click OK when done.

Step 3 - Smooth the selection

The selection may look perfect, but if you zoom in you can see that it may not be especially if you're trying to mask hair. To fix this, choose Select > Modify > Smooth and smooth the selection by 1 pixel. This will remove all tiny dots without making the selection too round. Making it too round will cause problems with the hair later.

Step 4 - Create a layer mask

First, to create a layer mask, you will have to unlock the Background layer. To do this, double click on the layer and a window will appear with the layer settings. Just click OK with the default settings.

Now choose Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection. This will create a new layer mask with the selected area (the background) in black.

Step 6 - Manually paint the mask to correct errors

Hold the Alt key and click on the layer mask thumbnail. You should now see the black and white layer mask in the document window. You can see that the mask is not exactly perfect. For example, the red lips was masked out because Photoshop thought it was part of the background when we used the Color Picker tool. To fix this, just paint it out with white using the brush tool. But make sure that you're working on the layer mask and not the layer.

Step 7 - Place the background file

Choose File > Place, browse for the background image file and click OK. The image should be placed into Photoshop as a new layer with a transform box allowing you to resize the image. Resize the image so that it its into the document boundaries. When resizing, hold the shift key to main the image aspect ratio.

Move the layer to the bottom. We've just masked an image, but wait we're not done. Look at the image below. The hair still has a red outline and near the legs (not shown in the picture), it has a red glow. This was caused by the drop shadow in the original image. In the next steps, we'll work on fixing this issue and working on the hair.

Step 9 - Use the Levels tool to shrink the mask.

First, zoom into an affected area with the glow. Select the layer mask then open the Levels tool (Image > Adjustments > Levels). Move the middle slider towards the right until the edge glow disappears.

Step 10 - Sponge the hair

There will still be some slight outlines around fine details such as the hair. Use the Sponge tool on desaturate mode and paint carefuly on the edge. Because the hair is usually not completely grayscale (black hair has some browns in it), you want to be careful not to over apply the sponge tool. Work only on the edge and zoom in so that you can be more precise.

If you're working on hair that's not black, create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, check mark colorize, and adjust the settings to match the hair color. Then, click on the Hue/Saturation layer mask, press Ctrl+I to invert, and paint the affected areas with white.

Step 11 - Match the two layers

The mask is perfect now, but we're not quite done. This final step is one that many people forget and it is the most important step to make it look real. That is to match the brightness, contrast, and saturation with the background image. Add the appropriate adjustment layers but don't edit the settings yet. For the image I used, the saturation is fine so I will just add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to fix the brightness and contrast.

Once you have the adjustment layer, you need to create a clipping mask so that it only affects the layer below. To do this, press Alt+Ctrl+G and it will create a clipping mask that will only affect the shape of the layer below and not the background.



Once you've done that, adjust the settings so that it matches the background. For example, the background I used has higher contrast and brightness. I will increase the contrast and brightness to match the background so that they blend in.

Final Results

Adobe photoshop Tutorial

Light Shaft-Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open an image into Photoshop. This Photoshop effect doesn’t work with every photo, so you’ll need to pick a good photo to start with. A photo that is compatible with this Photoshop tutorial is one with a visible sky and that is partially covered with trees, clouds, etc versus a clear blue sky. Below is an example of a good image for this effect.

[click photo to show]

Step 2

First, we’ll create a duplicate of the layer. Press Ctrl+J or go to Layer > Duplicate to create a duplicate layer. You should now have two layers in the layers palette.

Step 3

Make sure that you have the top layer selected. Choose Image > Adjustment > Threshold. The Threshold tool creates a 100% black and white image (no grays). We’ll use this tool to help us separate the sky and the foreground.

In the Threshold tool, move the input slider all the way to the right. Then, move the input slider towards the left slowly until the sky appears. Once it appears, let go of the mouse button and click OK.

[click photo to show]

Step 4

What we’re creating is a mask that separates the sky from everything else. But chances are that it is not perfect. For example, in my image, the bride’s dress still shows up as white. To fix this, select the Brush tool and paint those areas black. The only thing that should be white is the sky.

[click photo to show]

Step 5

We’re done with creating the mask. We’ll now use this layer and blur it to create the light shaft. But first, we’ll need to make this layer blend into the layer below. Change the layer blending mode to Screen.

[click photo to show]

Step 6

This is where the results start to appear. Choose Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. The Radial Blur filter can create a zoom blur from any direction. In the Radial Blur filter, set the amount to 100%, blur method to zoom, and quality to best.

Before we work on the blur center setting, we’ll need to know where the source of light is coming from. The easiest way is to look at the shadows. For example, looking at the shadows in the image below, we can tell that the light source, in this case the Sun, is from the top left.

Now that I know that the light source is on the top left, I will move the blur center in the Radial Blur filter setting to the top left.

[click photo to show]

You should now have a beautiful light shaft like the image below. It looks a little too short, so in the next steps, we’ll extend it.

[click photo to show]

Step 7

Extending the light shaft is easy. Just duplicate the layer and apply the same Radial Blur again. To do that, press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer then Ctrl+F to repeat the previous filter. You should now have a longer light shaft.

[click photo to show]


Do this one more time (duplicate layer and repeat the Radial Blur filter). You can continue doing this, but usually the light shaft is long enough.

[click photo to show]


Here’s a timeline of the progress. Starting from the left is the image with no light shaft. Then to the left, the light shaft is created and lengthened.

[click photo to show]

Step 8

Now we have several layers and we’re going to merge all those light shaft layers into one. Select the top layer then press Ctrl+E to merge down. Do this again until you have only two layers: one with the light shaft and the background

[click photo to show]

Step 9

We’re almost done! We just need to tweak the light so that it looks natural. Right now, the light shaft looks white and unless you’re working on a black & white image, it will look unnatural. To fix this, we’re going to tint the light shaft with the Hue/Saturation tool.

Press Ctrl+U or choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. In the Hue/Saturation window, checkmark the Colorize option. Then, adjust the hue and saturation so that the light shaft color matches the environment.

[click photo to show]

Step 10

Another step? Well, this is more like a half step because it is completely optional. Sometimes, you may notice that the light shaft will go past foreground objects. You can mask out the areas where it is visible by adding a layer mask.

If you want to do this, add a layer mask by clicking on the new layer mask button in the layers palette or by choosing Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.

[click photo to show]

With the layer mask selected, choose the Eraser tool and erase the areas that you do not want the light shaft shining. I don’t quite like the results on my image and I prefer that the light shaft cover the father and daughter so I will simply disable the layer mask. To do this, hold the shift key and click on the layer mask thumbnail in the layers palette.

[click photo to show]

Final Results

Look how much drama is added to the photo. This effect can make good photos look great. How many wedding photos have you seen with a light shaft? Now you can add it to your photos easily with Photoshop.

[click photo to show]

	Mystical Light Shaft
	03.16.2008
	DennyTang http://tutorialpulse.com/47/mystical-light-shaft/