Photoshop Skills Development 1

Here is an example image of Jarvis Cocker which I will edit and manipulate using some of Adobe Photoshop's basic editing techniques and create a very simple magazine cover using some of these features. In the image, I will insert a masthead behind the Jarvis Cocker image, as well as inserting sell lines and a barcode image somewhere on the image.

Here is a design which I have created using Adobe Photoshop. In this activity, I have taken advantage of some basic yet effective Photoshop skills. For example, I have used the effect of placing the masthead behind the subject of the main image. To do this, I first created a copy of the layer with the image on. I placed the copy layer behind the original and deleted the entire image from that layer. I was then left with a layer of Jarvis Cocker's image and a blank layer underneath that. On the main image, I changed the hue/saturation of Jarvis Cocker to make him appear brighter and less dull overall. I also used the Magic Wand Tool to remove the bright pink background from the image, changing the tolerance so that the tool would select the majority of the pink colouring. Once the pink background was removed, I selected the empty layer and inserted a white-to-blue radial gradient effect, which replaced the previous pink background. Now, I decided to add the masthead behind Jarvis Cocker's head. I created a new layer between the background layer and the main image and inserted a text box. In the text box, I typed the name of the example magazine, 'Soundcheck'. I rotated the text to allow it to stand out, and changed the font and font size to increase the effectiveness of the masthead. I positioned the masthead so that the text was behind Jarvis Cocker's head. Since the text was behind the main image, yet in front of the background layer, the 'K' is cut off, however not enough so that the reader cannot understand what the overall word is. Next, I decided to add a main sell line and a couple of sell lines to the magazine. I used the same font as the masthead, but changed the colour to correspond with the dark background of Cocker's clothes. I also added a stroke effects to the two smaller sell lines so that the white text contrasted a little bit with the light blue background. Finally, I inserted a barcode by opening the image in another Photoshop document, and selecting the entire image and copying it. I then went back into my Photoshop activity and pasted the barcode into the document. Scaling the image down, I relocated the barcode to the lower-right hand side of the page, a location where barcodes are typically found. I saved my image as a .PNG to avoid quality loss, and also saved it as a .PSD so I could revisit the document at a later date and edit it should I wish.