Sports Posters

[matelow]

I like putting these together...

[swampler]

Nice work!

[psurrette]

Are these all based on Artistic Actions templates?

[mccreary]

Matelow,

These posters are great. Would you be willing to give an aspiring poster maker a few tips on how these were done? I have access to Paint Shop Pro X and Photo Shop CS3. I have not mastered layers and cannot get my projects to look anywhere near as professional as yours. I realize it is a complicated process, but if you could just give a few tips (or a complete tutorial would be OK too!!!) they would be greatly appreciated.

[matelow]

Thanks guys!

Are these all based on Artistic Actions templates?

3 & 7 are not - the rest, yes, with modifications. The background in the football posters is a comp of my metal shed and spiralling footballs. Chris R (artisticaction) is a genious, but once Id had a look at what he was doing I was off.

Pete - checked out your gallery - outstanding! I love the skiing/kneeboarding shots, which are tack sharp Did you take them from the boat?? What were your settings?

Would you be willing to give an aspiring poster maker a few tips on how these were done?

Mac

If you lived closer, Id show you how to do this. You do need to understand layers, selections, masking, blending modes and gradients etc. However, once you see it done, its not all that intimidating. One of the posters above mentioned artisticaction.com. Thats where I got started with this stuff. There is a TON of specific step by instructions on the site, altho it takes a while to find it all. More importantly, you can download small, but fully layered examples of his templates. That way you can actually see how the posters are constructed.

Personally, I make most of my selections with the pen tool and can take out a subject in 6-8 minutes with it

Mac - Check out a picture I just posted in the 'portrait' forum, titled On Fire. I gave some details on how it was done which youd probably find interesting

[Mr. Pickles]

Nice work on these. My only nit-pick was with the second one. I thought you mis-spelled City, but I guess it is the abbreviation for County. Still, it looks funny to me.

[mccreary]

matelow,
Thanks for the advice and the suggestion to visit artisticaction.com. That site will be very helpful.
I have been watching your posts, your work is very well done and very imaginative. Keep it up and have some karma.

[matelow]

Mac
Cheers mate. I'll be posting quite a bit over time. artisticaction is a great place to pick up stuff on layout, design (Chris R has extensive experience in graphic design) selections, layers, layer styles, blending modes etc I had a fair amount of PS experience when I found his site (about a year ago) but it was a GOLDMINE to me. Ive learned and picked up PS stuff from several books and the web etc, but the practical stuff I got from Chris was invaluable. He uses a lot of the basic PS selection tools (magic wand etc) I mainly use the pen tool and fairly often the magnetic lasso, if the edge contrast is good. I copy the selection to a new layer and clean up the selection with a mask to the underlying full picture. I dont use the refine edges tool to soften my selection, rather I use the blur tool set on 50% - looks better and is much faster.

If I want to mask hair, and Ive shot the subject against a white BG, I'll use an alpha mask which preserves fine hair detail. Check the cheerleader poster shots at creativeedgefoto.com

Hope this gets you on track Mac. Using AA borders and just pasting a whole image into them is a way to get started - then you have to bite the bullet on learning PS!

Owen