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Dawn

Making a Basic Announcement in Photoshop Part 1

Create a new document, 7" wide by 5" tall, resolution 300. I prefer 5x7 over 4x6 as the 4x6 will be cropped during printing.



Open your Layers Palette. (shortcut is F7)
Choose "New Layer" from the pull down menu. This will be our background. Now, we must choose a color.



Click on the foreground swatch at the bottom of the tool bar. Choose your desired color from the color picker - you can pull the sliders on the right to get different colors.

Now, with your color selected, go to Edit>Fill (Use: Foreground Color, Make sure Preserve Transparency is not checked. Click OK)



Create another new layer and select the Rectangular Marquee tool (looks like a square with dotted lines)



Click and drag to create a rectangle shape towards the bottom of your document. Now, let's pick another color for this area. Again, click on your foreground swatch and select your color. Now, with your color selected, go to Edit>Fill (Use: Foreground Color, Make sure Preserve Transparency is not checked. Click OK) Then deselect this item. Select>Deselect or ctrl d.



Create another layer. Click and hold the rectangular marquee tool until the Elliptical Marquee is shown and select it. Holding the shift key, click and drag a perfect circle onto your document.

We are going to fill this area with white. Edit>Fill (Use: White. Make sure Preserve Transparency is not checked. Click OK) Then deselect this item. Select>Deselect or ctrl d. (You can move this item to your desired location using the move tool - shortcut "v")



Now choose the type tool from the tool bar. It is marked with a "T" or shortcut "t"
Click the center of the circle and type your desired initial. Here I used "D"
Select your letter and change the font and size to your desired style. I choose the font "Minion" at 60pt. You can also change your font color by clicking on the color swatch on the top tool bar.



Don't forget to save your document! File>Save to your desired location.

I'll be back with part 2 where we will add photos, additional text and embellishments!

Basic Announcement Tutorial Part 2

Open the photo in Photoshop that you wish to add to your announcement.

Select All (ctrl a) and Copy (ctrl c) - head back to your announcement file.

Choose the Rectangular Marquee again and create a square shape at the top of your document.



Place your photo. Edit>Paste Into. You'll notice that most of the image is masked. We will fix this using the Transform Tool.

Under Edit>Transform>Scale - holding the shift key drag one corner of your image until it is your desired size. Hit Enter when you are satisfied.



You'll notice on your layers palette that there is now a image mask from when you placed your image. Go ahead and right click on that and select "Apply Layer Mask"

Now, you can keep the image as-is or take it one step further by adding a soft feathered edge.

To do so, Select your photo. Under Select>Modify>Feather - Input 30 (or more or less depending on how much you want it feathered) Hit OK.

Now select the inverse (crl, shift, i) and hit "delete" on your keyboard. Hit delete a few times until you like the effect. Viola, soft edges!



Our next step will be adding text and I'm not going to go into too much detail about that since your usage will vary. Just use the type tool as described in Part 1 and place your text where desired.



The last step is to add a bit of embellishment. We will do that in the form of adding a polka dot background.

Select your white circle layer (should be layer 3) - copy it (ctrl c) - create a new document - it will automatically be the right dimensions so hit OK. Paste the circle into the new document. Turn off the background layer by selecting the "eye" next to that layer.



Now, under Edit, choose define pattern. Hit OK. Close that document, no need to save it.

Now, back on the announcement file, choose Layer 1 (the pink background layer)

At the bottom of your layers palette, you'll see an option for layer styles. Click on it and choose "pattern overlay" -



Input the following:

Blend Mode: Screen, Opacity: 50 - In the Pattern area, use the pull down menu and select the white circle we just created. Scale: 20 - hit OK.

Don't forget to save! When you are finished and ready to print be sure to flatten your image (Layer>Flatten Image) and SAVE AS a jpeg.



I hope you enjoy this tutorial! If you did, I'd love to hear from you in the comments below! BTW: I used PC shortcuts on this since I was using my PC, but for Mac users you just swap out "ctrl" for the "Command" key.

Photoshop Tip: Creating a Vignette

Adding a vignette to your photo can really add emphasis to a certain area of your image. It is quick and easy to do! First, open your photo in Photoshop.

Create a new layer and then select the Elliptical Marque tool (you may have to select and hold the Rectangle Marque tool to see the Elliptical selection)

Now using the Marque tool create the oval area which you would like to emphasize.



Next, feather your selection. [Select>Modify>Feather - Radius of 50+]
Select the inverse of your selection [Select>Inverse]
Now, go up to Edit>Fill>with black at 100%



Depending on your image, the vignette may to harsh at 100% Opacity. Try reducing the opacity to suit your taste.

Here is my finished image with the opacity set to 60%.

Photoshop Tip : : Adding Contrast

Adding contrast can add depth and dimension to your digital photos.
Start with your straight out of camera image and re-size and crop if necessary.
Defog your image as shown here.

.

Duplicate your layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer) and change the layer mode to overlay. Change the opacity to about 40%. (Experiment with the opacity to suit your image)



Duplicate your layer again and change the layer mode to soft light. Change the opacity to about 30%. (Experiment with the opacity to suit your image)



You will notice a big difference right away.
Now, under Image>Adjustments>choose Brightness/Contrast.
For this image I choose Brightness +10 Contrast +30. Flatten your image.



Notice how the colors are more vibrant and the details stand out. If you wish to tone down the color effect, you can reduce the saturation under Image>Adjust> Hue/Saturation.