Billboard Design • Part 2 | "U" Belong

If you haven't already done so, take a peek at the Billboard Design 1 blog, which is available at this link...

blogger gwennie2006 | Billboard Design • Part 1…
http://gwennie2006.blogspot.com/2010/08/billboard-design-part-1.html from the Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation


See a completely remixed version at this blog....
GrfxDzinerTutorials.blogspot.com/2010/01/ready-2-go.html




The above billboard is from an original photo by Kristen Duran. I really like the perspective that shot the photo from, and her timing was great too. The people in the photo are well balanced, and the portion of dock is well placed. That is a really massive catamaran too, and because the nature of that type of boat is so wide, it works quite well for the aspect ratio needed in a billboard. While the proportions often vary from billboard to billboard, they are always very horizontal in nature. The sail works well in her photo too, as it already put away and acts as a pointing arrow of sorts within the photo. As you can see I deliberately broke the words around the sail, and it points to the second portion of copy.

I did some minor editing of her photo initially too, as is often needed in any image used for advertising. Her original photo had some things on the dock, and some of the paint had chipped away from the posts. Those were simple to fix, and are explained in this image before I added the image onto the billboard scene....



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I also worked on an additional image from Kristen that has a very interesting perspective, as it is shot from above. I used the same elements from the above billboard to help create an established look. It is a small campaign for adverting.



As you can see there is a theme developed by including the same elements. Even though they are different images, the included elements help to create a familiar feel to it. That is how a campaign begins, and as it gets used more and more on additional pieces, it becomes even more recognizable. Here is the campaign extended to a full page ad…


The photography in that ad, as well as all of the pieces in this blog, was done by Kristen Duran. Just click any image and it will take you to the image on flickr where you can find links to her originals. Thank you again so much for allowing me to work on them.



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Justice for Deanna Cremin
the UnSolved Murder of Deanna Cremin...
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by, Investigator/Reporter Bob Ward...
Saturday, November 11, 2006 (5PM; 6PM; 10PM; 11PM) - Thank You!!



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The colors of grey...

The above image is from an original by....titled....I did some retouch work explained in the first comment of the photo if you click it. I then wanted to do a greyscale conversion. Normally when you simply the conversion it can appear flat and lacking contrsast. Boosting te contrast in different ways can often deteriorate the subtle ones.

One way tat can help a great deal with your conversion is to add a layer of colored light above it. In photo shop you simply creat a new layer and fill it with an appropriate shade. See this example below...


The first image is the full color version, then a straight greyscale conversion fr testing. The foue other images have cyan, red, green and then blue layrs added respectively. In each instance that color layer was applied as "soft light" blending mode. The colors gained are only fr the aid in the greyscale conversion. Once a simple conversion is applied to the ccolored variants, they react in different ways...





Other colors could be used also, but thee example is to give you an idea of how helpful it can be to filter light through your colored original. It is the same way an enlarge head dials in hues and tones. By making the adjustment to te light, you retain all of he details in the original. You can further contrast a touch, but you will have better details to begin with.


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As soft as a feather...

For that edit I did most of the same things I do for portrait work. I used the lasso tool for selections, and the pen tool for the initial selection of the model. That selection is just the outline of the model, and I find the pen tool does that the best. As I have mentioned in other places, it makes a very crisp edge and sometimes to crisp for that portion of he photo. For the quicker selections once the subject has been isolated, are easily done with the lasso tool. The feather amounts always change too depending on what portion of he portrait, and how precise you need an edge.

 To show you a dramatic difference of the finer edge to a softer one, look at these variations of the initial work. Each has also had a graphic treatment done to the underlying background image. The first example use the Graphic Pen effect, and the second usses a Concentric Circle. See how the thickness of the concentric circles create the tone...





....and do you see how softly the textures blend into the subject? That feather amount is about 300 pixels on the full size edit. It started as a quick selection using the lasso tool. I roughly followed the contour of he subject, and it didn't have to be precise at all because of the very strong feather amount applied.
 The effect of having a precise edge on one side contrasted with an extremely soft edge on the other is something that can be used in combination with illustrations, or paintings. It tends to give the illusion of the subject falling into the painting, or coming out of a illustration. Take a look at these screen caps to see the layer stack...

You can see the same type of contrasting feather work in this poster for the Sundance Film Festival. It was for an online contest back in 2006, just for fun. Look at the very soft edge where the sky meets the globe, the text for the title also has some very soft feathering, and on a couple layers...



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Shine on ruby2sday...

I will buy you a garden, where your flowers can bloom...

I will buy you a new car all shiny and new...

...Yes, I will.

 The Mustang in the photo above has the headlights turned on by using one of the light modes in Photoshop. That one was the lens flare, and I just had the lens portion of the headlight selected when applied. It makes it appear they were on for the photo. Often times you have to add light back into a photo for one reason or another. The second photo uses the Multiply and Soft light layer options to help with the sky and overal lighting. There are always descriptions of the work when you click on the photo. It will take you to flickr where the steps I used are int eh comments.
 The next photo below, as well as the first photo in the blog, were completely reworked and the background only had new lighting applied with the Lighting Effects Filter.

 Using the Lighting Effects Filter will allow you to recreate many theatrical lighting scenarios. It is a powerful feature that definitely takes time to learn well, but there are many things that can be done simply, and right off the bat. The image below had some symmetrical things fixed, and then I I isolated the lamp portion. I copied this to a new layer, and then relit the background on the layer below with a Radial style light, and centered to the lamp...





That Jade CD design is also done with fairly simple lighting effect. I almost always isolate the subject somehow and the apply lighting differently to the foreground and background. That technique will add more depth to your shot and make it look natural too. Here are a couple screen caps that have more info on the filter:

Those two screen examples use a spotlight, which is a litle more difficult to understand. There will be another blog on just that one light as it invlovles the understanding of planes and ellipses. Start with something simple like the Lamp with the Blue sky.

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greenRoom…

Peta Evans-Taylor | Hold On imagery/editing from gwennie2006 • YouTube™ Used with permission from Peta's Out of the Darkness CD.


Often times you can add some texture through additional layers, and especially when the original photograph is shot with some sort of texture behind it. In greenRoom I applied several layers and all blended into the previous layer beneath it with a light blending mode,

such as screen, multiply, etc. I did select the subject first and used the Pen Tool to get the most accurate edge. It is also quite qwick with the Pen Tool and completely editable if you need to tweak it some.
 Following are a couple other pieces from the Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation as well as a few pages from the introducttion to the Power of Art, from gwennie2006...





Automatic Download of 8-Page tutorial in .PDF format:
Introduction | the Power of Art | 44 MB PDF file • GrfxDziner.com


For some similar techniques for a different style of textured, you can have a look at these examples. Each is much better explained in the blog written about each of the edits. The indivisual blog links are below the images...

Check out these blogs too from the
Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation:
GrfxDziner.com | Texturized • Cabin Fever…
GrfxDziner.com | GoldiLoches • Out of the Woods…




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~Candlelight Vigil~ Deanna Cremin
Investigator/Reporter - Bob Ward
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