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Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Politics aside, I'm going to show you how to recreate the iconic “HOPE” poster of
Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign designed by Shepard Fairey using a different headshot.
This is an update of a tutorial I did many years ago on a much earlier version of Photoshop.
Before we begin, I want to mention that I'll be moving a bit faster for more advanced users.
I provided a Photoshop template that you can download, so you can follow along.
Its link in located in my video's description or project files.
It includes the original "Hope" poster design and a separate layer of the framed border
including the bottom shape that your text will be placed onto.
In addition, I included the link to the font, "Nevis Bold", which is relatively close to
the original font, "Gotham" used in the poster.
"Gotham" isn't free, but "Nevis Bold" is.
Open a photo of someone that you'd like to use for this project.
It can be color or black and white.
The first step is to make a selection around your subject.
Since I want the selection to be as sharp as possible, I drew paths with the Pen Tool
and then converted it into a selection.
I did an in-depth tutorial of the Pen Tool, so if you'd like to watch it, I provided that link, as well.
Once you made a selection around your subject, click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer
mask of the selection next to your subject.
We'll convert he entire layer 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".
With your Move Tool active, drag the subject onto the tab of the poster template.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, drag it down and release.
Drag the subject below the frame.
We'll make a new layer below the subject by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
In this empty layer, we'll create a two-tone, gray background behind the subject.
But first, go to View.
If "Rulers" and "Snap" aren't checked, just click on them to make them active.
Go to the ruler on the left and drag out a guideline to the middle until it snaps in place.
If you don't see the guide line, press Ctrl or Cmd + H. If your foreground and background
colors aren't black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard.
Click the foreground color to open the Color Picker.
In the Brightness field, type in 50%.
The, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Open your "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and drag a rectangular selection over the left side
of the poster, making sure it snaps to the middle guide line.
Fill it with the foreground color by pressing Alt or Option + Delete.
Deselect it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + D. Click the foreground color again
and type in 25% for the Brightness.
This time, drag your tool over the right side of the poster, making
sure it snaps to the guide line.
Fill it with the foreground color and deselect it.
Make the frame visible.
Hide the guide line by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H. Go to View and click “Snap” to deactivate it.
Make your subject active.
We want the top of our subject's head to go beyond the frame.
If it's not, just drag it up.
If you want to enlarge your subject instead, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt
or Option + Shift as you drag it out.
Go to Filter, Blur and Surface Blur.
Type in 10 for the Radius and the Threshold.
Surface Blur essentially blurs an image while preserving the edges.
Go back to Filter and click "Filter Gallery".
Open the "Artistic" folder and click "Cutout".
Make the "Number of Levels": 5 because the poster has 5 colors.
Make the "Edge Simplicity": 5 and the "Edge Fidelity": 1.
To save some space in the Layers panel, click the small arrow icon on the right of the layer,
which collapses the effects. Click the Adjustment layer icon and click "Channel Mixer".
Check "Monochrome", which makes all the colors neutral gray.
If your photo is already black and white, it's still a good step to use, since there
may be a subtle color cast to it.
Click the Adjustment layer icon again and click "Posterize".
Make the Levels: 5.
This sets the number of tonal levels (or brightness values) for each channel in an image.
Open your Magic Wand Tool.
Make the Tolerance: 10, check "Anti-Alias" and make sure "Contiguous" is not checked.
Click on the second lightest tone of your subject to make a selection of it.
Go to Select and Save Selection.
Click OK and deselect it.
Click the Adjustment layer icon one more time and click "Gradient Map".
Click the gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.
Click the lower, left Stop.
This will be our darkest color.
Click the color box and in the hexadecimal field, type in 00324D.
Then, click OK or press Enter or Return.
Click below the gradient bar to create a new Stop.
For its Location, type in 25%.
Click the color box and type in E01825.
Make another Stop and for its location, type in 50%.
For its color, type in 7498A4.
Click the lower, right Stop and for its location, type in 75%.
For its color, type in FDE5A9.
Click the right corner under the bar to add another Stop.
Notice this Stop's location is 100% and it's color is the same as the one to its left.
To save more space in the Layers panel, we'll place all of the Adjustment layers into a folder.
To do this, Shift-click the bottom adjustment layer to make all of them active and press
Ctrl or Cmd + G. Name it "Adjustment layers".
We'll make a new layer below the folder by Ctrl-clicking or Cmd-clicking the New Layer icon.
Click the foreground color and for Brightness, type in 50%.
Fill the empty layer with the foreground color.
The reason it's not gray is because the gradient map adjustment layer delineated the 50% gray
tone into this specific blue color.
Go to Filter and Filter Gallery.
Close the "Artistic" folder and open the "Sketch" folder.
Click “Halftone Pattern”.
The Pattern Type is: "Line", the Contrast is: 50 and the Size is: 1.
Open the Channels panel.
If you don't see it, go to Window and "Channels".
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the the thumbnail of "Alpha 1", which makes a selection of it.
Open back your Layers panel and click the Layer mask icon to make a layer mask of the
selection next to the line pattern.
We're ready to add the text.
Make the frame layer active.
Our text will be placed above it.
Open your Horizontal Type Tool and pick "Nevis Bold", which is the font I provided the link to.
I'll make the size temporarily 225 points, Sharp and Center Alignment.
Click the color box and click the blue background to pick up its color.
Click on your document and type out your text.
To adjust the space between two characters, click between those characters and press and
hold Alt or Option as you press the right or left arrow key on your keyboard.
To resize it, click your Move Tool and open your Transform Tool.
Position and resize it over the dark blue panel.
Then, press Enter or return.
To center it, press Ctrl or Cmd + A to select the canvas and click the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon.
Then, deselect it.
Lastly, make a composite snapshot of the poster by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E on Windows
or Cmd + Shift + Option + E on a Mac.
Doing this, results with a stronger line pattern in the poster.
Flattening the layers also creates the same effect.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!