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Adding Dramatic Lighting in Photoshop 

 

 

I only wish I knew this technique when I started using photoshop. However, it's extremely simple to get great lighting effects. I wonder what took me so long...

Download the PSD to follow along 

Let's Break down this tutorial before we begin

1. Choosing a Photo 

2. Adding Lighting Effects

3. Adding Gradient Maps

4. Photo Examples

Let's dive right in.

Step 1. Getting a Photo

This technique will apply to any photo. I prefer using it on Models. These are a few of my favorite ROYALTY FREE stock photo websites. 

Unsplash
Pexels
Pixabay

Step 2. Adding the Lighting Effects

Make a New Layer (shit + ctrl + N) and name it Light 1 (you can name it whatever you wish, but I like to keep things organized)

Press B on the keyboard or select the Brush tool from the Toolbar to bring up the Brushes. Choose a Soft Round Brush. 

Choose a night bright blue from the color palette and make sure the foreground color is set to the color you choose.   

Change the Blending mode of that layer to LINEAR DODGE (ADD) and Paint on one side of the image. 

Since there's a light blue in the image I've chosen I deliberately choose a blue color to paint with. 

I followed the exact same process and painted with a purple on the left side of the image. 

It's that simple.  

You can alternate between SCREEN, COLOR DODGE & LINEAR DODGE (ADD) Blending Modes. Feel free to experiment. 

Step 3. Adding Gradient Maps

Adding Gradient Maps will also give you some cool dramatic effects. 

Add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer ABOVE the LIGHTING LAYERS. You could also place the gradient map adjustment layer in between the lighting layers you painted. This will also give you some great results. 

Change the blending mode of the Gradient Map Adjustment Layer to Color Burn and reduced the opacity to 60% (feel free to toggle the various other blending modes to see the different lighting possibilities)

These are the colors I've chosen for the gradient map

For Photoshop CC 2020 users I used 5 gradient the Default Gradient from the "Oranges" folder"

For older versions of Photoshop you can add any gradient map and change the colors to: 
YELLOW - #facc22 & ORANGE - #f83600

The Photo above shows the result when the Gradient is ABOVE the LAYERS 

The Photo below shows the different results you can achieve when the GRADIENT MAP is between the light layers

 EXPERIMENT! EXPERIMENT! EXPERIMENT. 

You'll surprise yourself if you experiment with layer placement, changing blending modes etc. You don't have to copy everything I've told you in this tutorial. Have fun!

That will be all for this Tutorial. As I mentioned it is THAT simple. It looks complicated but it's a piece of cake. 

Photo Examples using the same techniques you learned in this tutorial.

 

Thanks & don't forget to Share & Leave a Comment. 

 

Download the PSD to follow along 

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Create a Fortnite Style Youtube Video Thumbnail in Photoshop 

 

In this tutorial, together we will create a Youtube Video Thumbnail, Fortnite Style. Let's Break down this tutorial before we begin 1. Setting up the Photoshop Document 2. Adding, Resizing, & Adding Tonal Adjustments to the Background Image 3. Creating the Text in True Fortnite Style 4. Adding a Youtube Subscribe Icon 5. Color Grading This is the finished design we will achieve through this tutorial. Let's dive right in. Step 1. Setting up the Photoshop Document For the document size, I am using the official youtube recommended 1280x720 px with a Resolution of 72 DPI. I know for certain that you or I would not be printing this thumbnail, that's why we will stick with 72 DPI.  Step 2. Adding the Background Image For obvious reasons I decided to use a "gaming" background :) which I downloaded from pexels.com

Download Image Here

  Grab the image and bring it into your photoshop document and resize as needed. This is what it should look like. Next we will add a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer and add a brightness of 94 as shown below.   Now we'll add a "Gradient Map" adjustment layer and add a layer mask to it. We will come to that but first use the settings as I've done in the image below. The Pink Color I've used is #ff00ea This is what the background should look like after applying the gradient map. You should see a "Layer Mask" everytime you add an adjustment layer. We will use that layer mask to partially reveal a the effect of the brightness & contrast adjustment layer below. To do that you need to Press G on the Keyboard to bring up the Gradient Tool.  With the Gradient Tool selected, make sure your foreground and background colors are set to black and white, Press D on the keyboard to make sure and make sure the Opacity is set to 50%. You can just press 5 on the keyboard and your opacity will change to 50%. Neat little trick, huh?  While holding down the SHIFT key, move from the LEFT TO the RIGHT of the canvas/image.  (shift key makes sure you do so in a straight line). The right hand side of the image should be a little brighter now. To recap, we should have 3 layers by now.

 

Step 3. Creating the Text in True Fortnite Style

  It is the Text and font that really gives the Youtube Thumbnail Design the "Fortnite" look. We will use the Burbank Big Condensed Black font for this Youtube Thumbnail Template. Download the Font from Here Add the text you need on 3 separate layers so you can rotate them and apply the effects individually. I googled "Vector Target" and added that image to the design to give it that "gaming look" and placed the number 01 inside it. Place all the text layers and our Vector Target image inside a group. Press CTRL or COMMAND and Click on each of the text layers and the Vector Target now press CTRL or COMMAND G to group all those layers together. Right Click on the "Text" group and select Blending Options. We will add a "stroke" to the layer group. Size of 12px with a Black Color Your Text should look like this. The fun begins now! We will add those tasty effects to each individual layer of text. Right Click on a text layer and let's add some effects. Looks at the image below and enter in those values. Inner Shadow - Blend Mode - Overlay - Color - White Distance - 5, Choke - 0,  Size - 4  Gradient Overlay - Select the Gradient color strip and enter in the first color value #9a12de and #ff0deb as the second color value Click on OK and now this is what your Text should look like We want the "Twitch" text to be in WHITE with a gradient overlay effect applied to it. Having this text in white gives us good color separation between our text. Right Click on the TWITCH layer and select Blending Options and use the settings below. Inner Shadow - Blend Mode - Overlay - Color - White Distance - 5, Choke - 0,  Size - 4 

 

Gradient Overlay -

Blending Mode - Normal

Select the Gradient color strip and enter in the first color value #a3a3a3 and #ffffff for the second color value.

Click Ok and this is what your text should look like after applying all those effects :)

 I added another text layer "Like and Subscribe" and placed it in the Text Layer Group.  

Step 4. Adding a Youtube Logo and a Subscribe Logo

  Head on over to Google Images and search for a Youtube Logo. Once you've found one, we need to "desaturate" the logo. All we're doing is knocking off the color. With the logo layer selected, press Shift + Command (ctrl) + U or go to the image menu, then to adjustments and at the bottom you'll see "desaturate". Your Logo should look like this. Change the blending mode of the logo layer to "Divide" and now it should look something like the image below. I forgot to mention that I added the Subscribe Button to the design. This button sits directly above the background layer. I changed the Blending mode of the Subscribe button to "difference" and added a white outer glow. Because the button sits above the background layer and below the Gradient Map and Brightness / Contrast Adjustment layer, this is the effect we achieve.

Step 5. Color Grading

To Soften up the image I added a Curves Adjustment layer right at the top of the layers panel so the adjustment affects the entire image. I reduced the opacity of the Adjustment layer to 70% A subtle difference but very powerful. I bet you'll like this final step. As a Bonus we will add one final adjustment layer - HUE/SATURATION ADJUSTMENT. This will allow you to achieve different colors using only the HUE SLIDER. Move the HUE Slider from LEFT TO RIGHT to change the overall color. Pretty Cool!

Voila, we have just completed designing an awesome Youtube Thumbnail Template in Fortnite Style. 

I'm so happy you followed along with me in creating this Fortnite Style Youtube Thumbnail Template. As always, you'll be able to download the PSD file in case you lose your way during this tutorial.

Thanks & don't forget to Share & Leave a Comment.

Download the PSD

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Roy Woods Album Cover Design in Photoshop

 

In this tutorial I'll show you how to make an Album Cover Design in Photoshop in a few simple steps. We are going to replicate the style of Roy Woods. The design is simple and easy to achieve, but sometimes the simplest things can be the most complicated. 

Let's Break down this tutorial before we begin

1. Setting up the Photoshop Document

2. Creating the Circle Glow

3. Adding the Model

4. Adding the Noise

5. Adding the Text 

This is the finished design we will achieve through this tutorial.

Let's dive right in.

Step 1. Setting up the Photoshop Document

 

For the Size I have used 2000x2000px  with a Resolution of 150DPI and since I'm not going to be printing the artwork, I'll select RGB Color Mode. 
Who prints CD Covers these days? 

Once I've done that, I'll change the color of my background to BLACK. Just press Ctrl or CMD I to invert the default color of white to black.

You could also add a solid color adjustment layer and use black as the color. 

Step 2. Creating the Circle Glow

I really enjoyed this part. You'll enjoy it too. 

Go to the tool bar and select the Ellipse tool or type U on the keyboard to bring up the ellipse tool and draw an Ellipse (circle) by holding down the Shift key. 

Holding down the shift key while drawing the Ellipse / Circle will make a perfect circle. This is what your design should look like. 

I changed the color of the circle to #ba0000

We are going to need two circles, so, duplicate the first RED ellipse/circle and change it's color to #ff5d05

 

Creating the Circle Glows
Convert both the "circle layers" to a Smart Object

Right Click on the layer and select "Convert to Smart Object" 

 

 

Converting it to a Smart Object will ensure that we can work in a non destructive manner, any filters we apply to our "circle" can be changed later as opposed to a Rasterized layer. 

2. Once converted to a smart object, go to FILTER - BLUR - GAUSSIAN BLUR and enter a value of 56.0, this should make your circle quite blurry.  

 

 

 

Do the same for the ORANGE circle but this time change the Gaussian Blur to 16.0

  This is how your Circles should be looking. Nice and Blurry! 

 

Lastly!

Create a New Layer and press B on the keyboard to bring up the Brush Tool and select the default SOFT ROUND BRUSH 

Right click on the canvas to bring up the brush settings (this is the easiest and shortest way) and bring the hardness all the way to 0 and make the brush size 700px which is almost the same size of the circles.

On the tool bar, make sure your foreground color is set to #e7593d

 

 

Now place your brush in the center of the circles you've already created and "left click on the mouse" to add in the color. It should look something like this. 

 

Nice! We're done creating the glows. On to Step 3. 

Step 3. Bringing in the Model

 

Download the Model Image from Here

Once we've opened up our model image in photoshop we need to mask him out before we add him in to our Album Cover document.

If you are using Photoshop CC 2018 and above you can cut the model out easily by going to the Select menu and click on Subject. Photoshop will automatically select out the model for you. 

After photoshop is done selecting the model, you may need to use the quick selection to select the spectacles of the model. 

Press W on the keyboard to bring up the Quick Selection tool and select his spectacles. 

After you've got a good selection, press CTRL or CMD J to add the cutout of the model to a new layer. 

You can now drag the model layer to the Album Design PSD (the one with the circles) and place the model in the center. 

You can also press CTRL or CMD A to copy the model and head on over to the Album PSD and press CTRL or CMD V to paste the model on to a new layer. 

Obviously you will now need to resize the model so he fits nicely in the design. 

We need to color grade the model in so it looks like he belongs in the scene. We'll do so by adding a few adjustment layers to the model. 

We will start by adding a BLACK AND WHITE ADJUSTMENT LAYER and clip it to the model by right clicking on the adjustment layer and selecting "create clipping mask". Now the Black and White adjustment layer will only effect the model and not the other layers. 

Next we will add a GRADIENT MAP ADJUSTMENT LAYER which will add the colors of the glows to the model. I've used #ff5d15 for the orange. That's all I've done!

 

 

You can already see that the model blends in much better. It looks like he belongs in the scene. You can add a curves or levels adjustment layer and brighten him up a bit but we won't need to do that here. He looks fine! 

 

Step 4. Adding Noise

 

Let's add some grain and noise to the album artwork design to give it some texture. 

Create a new layer, press SHIFT + F5 or go to EDIT - FILL  and from the Contents dropdown, select 50% GRAY. 
Click OK

Now go to FILTER - NOISE - ADD NOISE (20%)

 

 

Change the blending mode of the noise layer to OVERLAY and bring down the OPACITY to 25%

 

Not bad at all, just add the text & we're done! 

Step 4. Adding TEXT

 

TITLE FONT (CLUB NITRO HOUSE) -  I've used steelfish bold for the title with a size of 182 pt.

SUB TEXT (VERTICAL TEXT) - For the Sub Text, I've used the Montserrat Bold from dafont.com with a size of 9.46 PT and a TRACKING of 250 and I've lowered the opacity of the text to 45% so it doesn't stand out too much.

You can download the fonts here:

Montserrat Bold
Steelfish Bold

To finish things off I added a Parental Advisory from google images and threw it in the design. With some bold text I added the Artist Series and Billboard Logo to add a little polish to the overall design. 

There you have it, we have completed this Album Cover Design in Photoshop. I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm giving you the completed PSD so you can follow along with this tutorial. 

Remember, Art is Subjective, you don't have to follow the exact settings and colors I've used, experiment and have fun. 

Download the PSD

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