Movie Poster Tutorial

• Level: Intermediate
• Translatable: One optional step uses Selective Color.
• Steps: 10

Part 1

Goal: To edit the picture of the woman so that it will have a higher contrast and “stand out” enough to still look good with the later edits. In this case the base picture is relatively high quality. If you are using a lower quality photograph you will need additional adjustments.

Step 1: Open the picture of the woman in Photoshop. Duplicate the background layer and set the duplicate to blend mode soft light. If the picture is too dark duplicate the background a second time and set the second duplicate to screen. Adjust the opacity of the screen layer as needed.

Step 2: Go to Select -> All. Then go to Edit -> Copy Merged. Paste as a new layer.

Step 3: There are two methods for step 3. Originally when I made this poster, I used a bleach pass filter from Red Paw Media with Exposure (0), Gamma (0), and Saturation (0) checked. These are the default settings. This is the easier method, but it involves downloading the filter so I have included an alternate method below.

Step 3: Alternate method. Go to Layer -> Adjustment Layer -> Curves. Create a slight S curve. Then add a Saturation Layer with the Saturation settings Reds -20, Yellows -30, Greens -100, Cyans -100, Blues -100 Magentas -100. Now go to Layer -> Adjustment Layer -> Selective Color. Use the settings Red: 0, 0, -25, 75 and Black 0, 0, 0, 30. This is not exactly the same, but is close enough for this tutorial.

Step 4: Go to Edit -> Copy Merged. If you think you may want to go back and make some adjustments also save the psd file.

Part 2: The Poster

Goal: To “blend” different pictures together so that you don’t see jagged edges between the pictures and to even out the coloring and lighting.

Step 5: Create a new document that has the same width as your “face” picture and has a height that is about 30%. Paste the face picture into the new document in a new layer and set this layer to Soft Light. Make sure there is still a background layer behind the face layer.

Step 6: Using the Lasso Tool draw around the bottom of the face picture staying near the edge. Do not try to draw a straight line, but allow the line to “wobble” a bit which can make the blend look more natural. Then go to Select -> Feather and choose 60-80 pixels depending on the size of your picture. Click Delete.

Step 7: Paste a clouds picture in a layer between the background and face picture. I used one of my own clouds pictures, but you can find cloud pictures on most stock photography sites. If the clouds seem to be obscuring the face select the clouds under the face using the lasso tool and go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur. Adjust the blur settings as necessary. I used 30.

Step 8: Make a Gradient Adjustment Layer just above the Clouds Layer. Go to Layers -> Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map. Use color #c6b292 as your foreground layer and black (#000000) your background layer.

Step 9: Open the “City” picture. Paste it between the background layer and the Gradient Map Layer and drag it to the bottom of the image so that most of it is below the face. Use the Lasso Tool to draw along the top part of the city picture and follow Step 6 (draw, feather, delete).

Step 10: Click on some “free space” in the picture and type the title. I used the font OptimusPrinceps size 82. Go to Layer -> Layer Style and add a drop shadow with the settings Distance 2, Size 2. Go to BLevel Emboss and use the default settings except set the size to 1.

Picture credits/sources:

• Woman: Dreamstime free image. Ref #487652
• City Picture (Bermuda): Photovaco (Direct Link)
• Clouds picture: My own.
• I searched IMDb and did not find any films titled “The City Story”.