Hi.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to to show you how to create the look of a classic letterpress poster.
Letterpress printing is known for its subtleties of texture and color.
I created this one based on a poster produced by Hatch Show Print company.
This tutorial is is two parts.
In Part 1, we'll create our background and transform a photo into three overlapping images.
In Part 2, we'll add text, a few graphics and a stained texture to age our poster.
I provided a Photoshop file, so you can follow along.
It's located in my video's description or project files.
It includes this stained paper texture, a letterpress ink texture and a plain white
background.
Double-click the bottom layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Inner Glow".
The Blend Mode is Normal, the Opacity is 100% the Technique it "Precise" and the Source
is "Center".
The "Choke" is 100% and the Size is 70 pixels.
Click the color box and pick a color you'd like for your background.
Since I already know the color I want, I'll ust type it in the hexadecimal field: FFDB00.
Once you pick your color, press Enter or Return twice to close both windows.
Make the texture layer visible and active.
Change its Blend Mode to “Screen”.
Click the Adjustment layer icon and click "Levels".
We want the adjustment layer to effect just the one layer beneath it.
To do this, either click the clipping mask icon or press Ctrl + Alt + G on Windows or
Cmd + Option + G on a Mac.
Make the Input Midtones: point five zero and the Input Highlights: 154.
Open a photo of someone or something that you'd like to use for this poster.
It can be color or black and white.
The first step will be to convert it into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively,
as well as allow the filters that we'll be adding to it fully editable.
Click the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
We need to separate the subject from its background by making a selection around the subject.
There are many ways to make the selection and your choice should depend on the characteristics
of your photo.
For this example, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool.
If you're using this tool as well, make its radius between 5 to 10 pixels depending on
its resolution.
Drag the tool over your subject to select it.
If you need to remove areas of the selection, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over
those areas.
After your subject is fully selected, click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of
the selection next to your subject.
To place it onto your poster, press "v" to open your Move Tool and drag it onto the tab
of your poster.
Without releasing your computer mouse or pen, drag it down onto your image and release.
To resize and reposition it, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T. When you
see this message, it's just telling us that the Smart Filters will be temporarily turned
off while we use the Transform Tool.
Just click OK.
To resize it, go to a corner and when you see a diaganol, double-arrow, press and hold
Shift as you drag the corner in or out.
Leave room for any text that you want to add later.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Change its Blend Mode to "Multiply".
Your foreground and background colors need to be black and white, respectively.
If they’re not, press “D” on your keyboard.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Open the "Sketch" folder and click "Halftone Pattern".
Make the Pattern Type: "Dot", the Size: 2 and the Contrast: 3.
Then, click OK.
If you want to brighten your subject, click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Levels".
As you did earlier, clip it to the layer beneath it.
I'll make the Input Highlights: 218, but feel free to brighten it to your liking.
Shift-click on your subject to make IT active, as well, and press Ctrl or Cmd + J to make
a copy of both layers.
Press and hold "Shift" as you drag the copy to the left.
Make your top subject active.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Solid Color".
Pick a color you like for your overlapping subject and click OK.
Change the Blend Mode to "Screen".
Click the top layer and Shift-click on your subject copy to make all three layers active.
Make a copy of them by pressing Ctrl of Cmd + J. Press and hold Shift as you drag the
second copy to the right.
Next, we'll reveal your middle subject through one of your other subjects on either side
and then offset that subject, which is common in mass-produced, letterpress printing.
Scroll to the bottom subject and Ctrl-click or Cmd-click on its layer mask to make a selection
of its shape.
This is your subject in the middle.
Scroll to the top subject, which your subject on the right and make it active.
Press Alt or Option + Delete to fill the layer mask with the active selection.
Doing this masks out this area of your right subject, which in turn reveals your middle
subject.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. To offset the right subject, press the Right
arrow on your keyboard once and then the Up arrow once.
To consolodate space in our Layers panel, lets place all of our subject layers into
its own folder.
To do this, scroll to the top and make the top adjustment layer active.
Scroll to your bottom subject and Shift-click on it to make all of the layers that comprise
your subject active.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + G to place them into a folder.
Name it the name of your subject and change its Blend Mode to "Multiply".
Go to the texture layer and press and and hold Alt or Option as you drag a copy of it
above the folder.
Clip it to the folder by pressing Ctrl + Alt + G on Windows or Cmd + Option + G on a Mac.
There will be areas of your subject in which the texture is appearing white, so to remove
those white areas, press "z" to open your Zoom Tool and drag over your middle subject
to zoom into a section.
Open your Move Tool and drag the texture to move it until you don't see anymore white
on your subjects.
To make the texture more subtle, open your Levels window by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + L.
Drag the Output white level to approximately 100 and click OK.
To fit it back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
In Part 2, we'll add text and some graphics and age it with stains and creases.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!