Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to place yourself or someone you know onto the cover of a magazine,
and customize the entire cover.
I provided a Photoshop template that you can download, so you can follow along.
Its link is in my video's description or project files.
It includes a plain base that we'll make into a gradient background, the magazine's masthead
and 3 layers of text that we can customize with different fonts and colors and a barcode.
I also included links ot the fonts I used in case you'd like to use them for your cover.
For this cover, I'll choose to make it for a muscle magazine, but keep in mind,
you can make it for any subject you like.
Feel free to use different fonts and colors that best reflects the subject of your magazine.
Open a photo that you'd like to place on the cover.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
If you want to create a different background from the one that's presently behind your subject,
you'll need to make a selection around your subject.
For this example, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool.
If you're using this tool as well, drag it over your subject to select it.
To remove areas of the selection that's outside your subject,
press and hold Alt or Option as you drag over those areas.
If there are soft or feathery areas like wispy hair, you can refine their edges by using
the Refine Edge filter or on later versions, Select and Mask.
I did in-depth tutorials on both of them, so if you want to watch them, click the cards
at the upper right or their links in my video's description.
Once you make a selection around your subject,
click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
We'll convert it into a Smart Object, so we can modify it non-destructively.
To do this, click the icon at the upper, right and click "Convert to Smart Object".
We'll place it onto the magazine template by pressing "v" to open our Move Tool
and dragging it onto the tab of the template.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
If we want to make your subject bigger on the cover, we’ll need to zoom out to give us more room.
To do this, press Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on your keyboard.
To resize it, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T. If you're using a Photoshop version
earlier than CC 2019, go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and
hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag it in or out.
If you're using C 2019 or later, just press Alt or Option as you drag it.
To reposition it, go inside the Transform's bounding box and drag it.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To zoom back in, press Ctrl or Cmd and the “plus” key on your keyboard.
We want to move our subject layer to just above the base,
so all of these layers will be on top of our subject.
To do this, we can either manually grab our subject and drag it down
or we can use the shortcut: Ctrl or Cmd + the left bracket key three times.
Right now, our masthead is hiding our subject.
To place our subject in front of the masthead, Ctrl-click or Cmd-click our subject to make
a selection of its shape.
Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I.
Make the masthead active
and click the layer mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection next to the masthead.
Essentially, the layer mask is hiding or masking out the area of the masthead that has black in it.
Think of layer masks as stencils - white reveals and black masks out.
Temporarily hide the articles text and the barcode.
Next, we'll adjust the look of our subject.
Make the subject active and click the Adjustment layer icon.
Click "Black & White".
It's important to note that adjustment layers always affect all the layers below them in the Layers panel.
To restrict them to affect just the one layer below it, we need to clip it to that layer.
To do this, click the "Clipping Mask" icon or press Alt + Ctrl + G on Windows
or Option + Cmd + G on a Mac.
You can also go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
There are many presets from which to choose and I encourage you to click on each of them
to see how they affect your subject.
For this particular image, I'll click "High Contrast Blue Filter".
Open the Adjustments panel.
If you don't see it , go to Window and Adjustments.
Click the "Levels" icon to adjust its brightness.
Clip it to our subject and slide the Input white level to the left to brighten our subject.
Open back the Adjustments panel and click "Gradient Map".
Clip it to your subject.
Open your gradient presets and click the gear icon.
Click "Photographic Toning" and when you see this message, click OK to replace your current
gradient with the Photographic Toning gradients.
I'll scroll to the bottom and click the third one from the right on the third row from the bottom.
Again, feel free to experiment with the others to get the look you want for your subject.
To save space in the Layers panel, we'll group the adjustment layers with the subject into a folder.
To do this, Shift-click the subject to make it and the rest of the adjustment layers active
and press Ctrl or Cmd + G.
I'll name the folder, "Subject".
Double-click the Base layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Gradient Overlay" and the gradient bar.
Click the black and white thumbnail and the lower, left Stop.
Click the box and in the hexadecimal field, I'll type in 110000 to select a very dark red color.
This will be the color of the outer edges of the base.
You can make it any color you want.
Then, click OK.
Click below the gradient bar in the middle.
This will make a new Stop.
Make the Location 50%.
Click the box and I'll type in 7B0000.
This will be the central color of the base.
Click the lower, right Stop and for its Location, I'll type in 80%.
For its color, I'll type in FFB400.
This will be the central core of the base.
Then, click OK on the Color Picker and the Gradient Editor.
Check "Reverse" and make the Style: "Radial".
I'll make the Angle: 35% and the Scale: 150%.
Next, we'll change the color of our mast head, but before we do, if you haven't downloaded
the fonts that I provided, choose whatever fonts you have already for your masthead,
as well as the for the articles on the cover.
Double-click an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Color Overlay" and the color box.
I'll choose a medium, red color.
Make the "Articles" folder visible and open it.
Double-click the large "T" of the top text to highlight the text.
Assuming you already picked a font for this article, press the "Delete" key to delete it
and type out your text in its place.
Presently, I have the left alignment icon active, so my text is aligned on the left.
Feel free to center it or align it on the right if you like.
To adjust its size,
double-click the large "T" to highlight it or you can drag your cursor over all the lines.
Drag the size icon to the left or right.
To adjust the space between the lines, known as "Leading",
click the "Character/Paragraph" icon or go to Window and Character.
Drag the Leading icon to the left or right.
To adjust the size of one of the lines, highlight that line and drag the Size icon to the right or left.
To move a line up or down, highlight that line and drag the "Baseline Shift" icon to the right or left.
To reposition the lines, open your Move Tool and move it.
We'll change its color,
by double-clicking an empty area of the layer to open its Layer Style window and clicking "Color Overlay".
Let's move the layer Style window over, so we can see our text.
Click the color box and pick any color your like.
Continue to change the rest of your text using these steps.
Then, to finish it, make the bar code visible.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!