Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a powerfully compelling poster
with gradient text, a beautifully-effected photo and body copy that wraps around your subject.
Open a photo of someone that you'd like to use for this project.
I downloaded this one from Shutterstock.
Before we begin, I want to mention that I'll be moving a bit quicker for more advanced users.
The first step is to separate the subject from its background by making a selection
around your subject.
For this example, I'll use the Quick Selection Tool, which I covered how to use in many of my tutorials.
Refine your selection by using Select and Mask filter
or Refine Edge filter depending on which Photoshop version you're using.
I did in-depth tutorials on both filters, so if you want to watch them, I provided their
links in my video's description below.
Output it to a "Layer with Layer Mask".
We'll convert it into a Smart Object , which will allow us to modify or adjust the filters
that we'll be adding to the image.
Click the icon at the upper right of the Layers panel and click "Convert to Smart Object".
Make a new layer below it, by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
We'll fill the empty layer with black, but first, if your foreground and background layers
aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Since black is your foreground color, press Alt or Option + Delete to fill the empty layer
with black.
Make the top layer active and click the Adjustment layer icon.
Click "Hue/Saturation"
and check, "Colorize".
For the Hue, I'll type in 209, the Saturation: 53 and for Lightness, I'll keep it at 0.
Feel free to adjust these settings for your image.
Make your image active and go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
If you want to see more of your image, press Ctrl or Cmd and the minus key on your keyboard.
Open the "Distort" folder and click "Diffuse Glow".
I'll keep the Graininess: 0, the Glow Amount: 2 and the Clear Amount: 10,
but again, feel free to adjust these amounts.
Click the "fx" icon and click "Outer Glow".
The color is white, the Blend Mode is Normal and the Opacity is 100%.
The technique is "Softer" and the Spread is 0.
For this image, I made the Size: 20 pixels, however, you may want to adjust the size amount
depending on the size and resolution of your document.
Click Inner Glow.
The color is white, the Blend Mode is "Color Dodge" and the Opacity is 50%.
The Technique is Softer and the Source is Edge.
I'll make the Choke 10% and the Size: 250 pixels, but again, you may want to adjust these amounts.
To save space in the Layers panel, let's collapse the effects.
We're ready to add our main text.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool.
We'll make our text temporarily white, so we can see it over the background.
To do this, invert the foreground and background colors by clicking this icon or by pressing
"x" on our keyboard.
Pick a font.
I'm using Bank Gothic Bold.
If you'd like to use as well, I provided its link in my video's description or project files below.
Make its size temporarily 100 points, so its large enough to see.
Click the "Center Alignment" icon.
Click on your document and type out your text.
We want to increase its size to near the edges of our poster.
To do this, click your Move Tool and press Ctrl or Cmd + T to open your Transform Tool.
Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt or Option
+ Shift as you drag it out.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To center it over the document, press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select our canvas
and click the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon.
To deselect it, press Ctrl or Cmd + D. Go to View and make sure Rulers and Snap are checked.
If they aren't just click on them.
Go to the left ruler and drag out a guide line until it snaps to the left edge of your text.
If you don't see the guide line, press Ctrl or Cmd + H. Go back to the ruler
and drag our another guide line to the right edge of your text.
Scroll to the top of the Layers panel and drag your text layer to the top.
Click the "fx" icon and click "Gradient Overlay".
Click the gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.
Click the "Black, White" Preset and the lower, left Stop.
Click the color box to open the Color Picker.
Pick a color for the bottom of your gradient text.
Since I already know the color I want, I'll type it into the hexadecimal field: 12D0FF.
Once you pick your color, to accept it, press Enter or Return three times to close all three windows.
Make a copy of the text by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J.
Go to the text and press and hold Shift as you drag the copy straight down.
Press “T” to open your Type Tool and highlight your text.
If your new line of text has more characters than it has now, go to the "T" icon at the
top and drag your cursor to the left.
Now, type out your text.
To increase its size, click your Move Tool and open your Transform Tool to increase its
size to the guidelines.
To move your text over 1 pixels at a time, press the left or right arrow key on your keyboard.
Once your text is lined up with the guide lines, press Enter or Return to accept it.
Use your up or down arrow key on your keyboard to slide your text up or down equidistant
to the the bottom of your document as your other text is to the top of your document.
Scroll to the bottom and make the black layer active.
Above it, we're going to place another line of text, which will appear behind our subject
and our other lines of text.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool again and click on the background.
For this text, I'll use "Dense Regular".
If you'd like to use it, I provided its link, as well.
I'll increase its size and type out my text.
Since, I'm going to ultimately increase its size to the edges of my poster, I'll zoom
out of my document by pressing Ctrl or Cmd plus the minus key on my keyboard.
Open your Move Tool and drag your text to the center.
Open your Transform Tool and increase your text to the edges of your poster.
Before we give this text some color, we first need to clip our subject's adjustment layer
to just the subject, otherwise the adjustment layer will affect all the layers below it
including this text.
We'll make the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer into a clipping mask by first, making it active
and pressing Ctrl + Alt + G on Windows or Cmd + Option + G on a Mac.
Now, the Adjustment layer is affecting only our subject and no other layers.
Double-click your bottom text to highlight it.
At the top, click the color box to open the Color Picker and pick a color for your background text.
I'll type in: 00498C.
Open your Move Tool.
To fit your document back onto your canvas, press Ctrl or Cmd + 0.
To make our bottom and top text pop more, we'll add soft black gradients behind them.
To do this, make the adjustment layer active and click the New Layer icon to make a new layer above it.
We want the foreground color to be black, so press "x" on your keyboard to invert your colors.
Open your Gradient Tool and make sure your Linear Gradient icon is active.
Click the gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.
Click the "Foreground to Transparent" preset and click OK.
Go to the top of your poster and press and hold Shift
as you drag the Gradient Tool to approximately here.
Go to the bottom and repeat the process as you drag the tool up.
Next, we'll add text that wraps around the outside of our subject.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the thumbnail of our subject to make a selection of its shape.
Go to Select, Modify and Expand.
I'll expand it 20 pixels, but you may want to adjust this amount based on your document's
size and resolution.
Invert your selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + Shift + I.
Open your Rectangular Marquee Tool and place your cursor on the left guideline below your top text.
Press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you drag your tool to the lower, right guideline
above your text.
Then, release.
Your selection now should look similar to mine.
Open your Paths panel.
If you don't see it, go to Window and Paths.
Open the fly-out list and click "Make Work Path".
Keep the default Tolerance of point 5 pixels.
Then, save the Path and click OK.
Before we add the text that will wrap around the outside of our subject, we need to temporarily
hide the large text behind our subject to avoid activating the large text when we click
on our document.
Open back the Layers panel.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer and scroll down to your large text.
Click the eyeball icon to hide the text and scroll back up to the empty layer you just made.
Open your Type Tool again and invert your foreground and background colors.
I'll pick Bank Gothic Bold.
Once you pick your font, click this icon, which opens the Character and Paragraph panels.
I'll make its size 16 points and the Leading 15 points.
Leading is the space between lines of text.
You can change these amounts later if you like.
Open the Paragraph panel and click the "Left Align Text" icon.
Hide the guidelines by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H.
We're ready to add paragraphs of text to the left of our subject.
Click inside the path.
There are 3 ways you can add text inside a work path.
One way is to actually type your text inside the path.
Another way is to copy and paste text from an outside source
and the third way is to paste in or generate "Lorem Ipsum".
This is essentially filler text, also known as "dummy text".
It's meant to serve as a placeholder for the actual text that you'll ultimately use.
Version CS6 and later already comes with its own Lorem Ipsum generator, however, if you're
using an earlier version, I included a few links of free, online Lorem Ipsum generators.
If you're using CS6 or later, go to Type and "Paste Lorem Ipsum".
Automatically, it pastes in the font, size, Leading and alignment you chose.
When we click on "Right Align Text", our text justifies to the right edge of our path.
I'll click back on "Left Align Text", however, feel free to experiment with the alignments.
Click your Move Tool and open back your Paths panel.
Click the thumbnail of "Path 1" and open your Type Tool.
Click inside the right path.
I'll click the "Right Align Text" icon and go back to Type and "Paste Lorem Ipsum".
Click your Move Tool and close the Character and Paragraph panels.
Open back your Layers panel, scroll to the large text and make it visible.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!