| Once again, you can see the layer mask icon next to the layer
icon with the black areas showing the masked or invisible areas and
white showing the remaining selection. Learn to master the gradient
tool for layer masking...it’s one of the most powerful things you
could ever learn in Photoshop. Wax on/Wax off...patience
photo-san.

Now you could add an adjustment layer. To create a
custom adjustment layer, do as I teach and Ctrl click on the layer
to select it with the marching ants. Now you can bring up a Curves
(in this case) adjustment layer that will only apply to this layer
because you have created a selection that will be a perfect match
and because there are no other layers in between, will apply only to
this layer.
Instantly I would say that Curves would be the tool
of choice in this instance because it gives you plenty of
flexibility for mapping different light parameters across the layer.
Curves is used a lot in many movie posters. Experiment around with
creating different control points and shaping them until you find
something you like. When you find something you like, you just know
that ‘it works’; this is all part of being an effective Photoshop
designer. This is one option that could work.

Ok, this ones a little too freaky. Maybe a “Predator
Meets Teenagers Next Summer” poster.

As you can see there are different possibilities
that could all work well. You could create layer comps in Photoshop
CS to show your client (or yourself) the many different options. Or
you could create different custom adjustments layers and turn them
on and off with the seeing eyeballs.

Please preview something like this in full screen
mode (FF TAB). Black looks extremely nice and elegant. Fading in
front black always works. Great typography is a must in teaser
posters because there is very little else. You want to create
intrigue. Not: too: shabby. Grab this .psd from the
iPSDirectory
or when you sign up for the PSDer ezine. 

Create an industry standard COMING SOON text layer
in a smaller font size. With the move tool place it towards the
bottom of the document (eyeball where you think it should go). You
can then use the centering method I teach in the other tutorials.

Rasterize the duplicate layer and run Ctrl F on it
(the filter) and then change the blending mode to difference.

Now grab large bristly brush as shown from your
brushes palette (only available when B is your tool. Go to View to
bring up the Brushes palette if it isn’t yet visible.

Make one blob of a stroke on a brand new layer.

Here I have selected it so you can see it better.
Dark dark brown was our foreground color. These are the settings
I’ve used.

Now...this big brush stroke is on it’s own
layer..hey it kinda looks like a tree shadow..let’s see what else we
can do. Go to give the rundown on the blending modes and find
something that suits your palate (pun almost intended).
There are two options that work well here. I’m using
color burn because it’s a nice hard shadow effect. If I start
lowering the opacity it starts washing out too much. Plus it adds
more intrigue to keep everything so sharp and hardcore.
Click here for secrets of commercial advertising design on
AdvancedPS.com

The other option was linear light and I ended up
sticking with that one. To tell you the truth I didn’t have this
tutorial planned at all (from the image to the text effect to the
shadow) and it just sort of fell into place as I went along. You
want to get to that level as a designer where you understand now
only Photoshop but all of the possibilities you can start combining
when you have a large source image collection and some good training
experience like from
Photoshopdesigner and PhotoshopDesign.NET.

Get to the level where you don’t have the blank
document syndrome but rather you are just brimming with ideas that
you want to try and produce. Get your flow started
here.
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