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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 Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter Share on linkedin LinkedIn

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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

Check out and Download the Nitro House Album Artwork  Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter Share on linkedin LinkedIn

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Want more Views? Look more Professional

 

It's as simple as that, a cool Youtube Banner for your Channel is crucial to give your channel "that" professional look. While the quality of your videos is important, having well designed Channel Art and Youtube Video Thumbnails is just as important. 

Ever heard of the term "Click Bait"? Well, that's exactly what your Channel Banner is intended to be. A good designed Youtube Banner or Video Thumbnail is almost 100% guaranteed to have visitors flocking to your channel. You get the idea, don't you.

Today we will design a professional looking Youtube Channel Banner inside of Photoshop. This tutorial is intended to be simple and less complex. I'll leave a link for you to download the PSD and use it on your channel.

This is the Youtube Channel Banner we will look to create using Photoshop CC 2020.

Alright then...let's get to work.

Step 1. Open up photoshop and make a new document (photoshop .psd file of course)

 

As of 2020, the size of a Youtube Banner is 2560x1440 pixels. This size is optimized for Desktops, TV's & Mobile Devices.  That's the size you must choose. 

Step 2. Adding a Pattern or Background

 

I've chosen to add a background of leaves. In this case i've used the default photoshop patterns that come with Photoshop CC 2020, if you don't use CC20 then you could always add a background of leaves which you could find on unsplash.com, pexles.com or pixabay.com

Step 3. Adding a rectangle across the canvas

 

Next, we'll add a rectangle shape horizontally across the canvas to act as a base / container for our text and photo. This section is very important because this is what your viewers on their desktop and mobile device are going to see. I have added the template with all the guides and safety margins for the devices, leaving that technical stuff aside, let's get on with the tutorial.

Once our container (black rectangle) is in place, I'll double click on the rectangle layer or right click on select "Blending Options", and select "Pattern Overlay" and choose the same "trees background" as you did for the main background in Step 1,
Bring down the opacity of the pattern to around about 35% - 40 %.
Looking good!

Now we will add text to our Youtube Banner Template. You could add the photo first but, I like to start with the text first to make the design a lot fuller and give me better visual direction.

Step 4. Start Texting

 

Nothing fancy here, just some text to inform my viewers exactly what my channel is about.

TITLE FONT - For my title PHOTOGRAPHY, I've used the MONT HEAVY DEMO from dafont.com with a size of 35 PT and a TRACKING of -40. I've also set the font to italic and uppercase on the character dialog box.

SUB TITLE FONT - For the Sub Title, I've used the Montserrat Black from dafont.com with a size of 6 PT and a TRACKING of 250. You get the idea!

You can download the fonts here: 

Month Heavy Demo
Montserrat Black
Bebas Neue 

Step 5. Adding Your Photo

I've chosen to add a photo to the left of the text, this is subjective and you could add it anywhere you'd like as long as it's within the safety margins so that your photo will be displayed correctly on all devices. 

Click to Download Photo

I added a circular shape where I want my photo to appear. This circular shape will serve as the "mask" or "container" for our photo. In other words, the photo we place will take the shape of the "mask" or "container". In this case it's a circle. 

In order for our photo to take the shape of the circle we will need to use a "clipping mask". A clipping mask will "clip" the photo to the circle so it could the shape of the circle. 

To make the photo a clipping mask, you would need to make sure your photo sits directly above the circle shape. Right click on your photo and from the long dialog box that opens, select CREATE CLIPPING MASK

Notice how your photo has now taken the shape of the circle. That's perfect!

So this is what we have thus far. Not too bad!

and oh! I grabbed a Youtube Subscribe button from google images and added it to the Youtube Banner Design. The options are endless, you can go crazy if you want to.

That's it! You've learned how to design a good looking Youtube Banner for your Channel.

Download the PSD

Download a Set of Youtube Channel Banner Templates Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter Share on linkedin LinkedIn

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