Album Cover

[stuartdunlop]

Hi guys, i'm new here and i was hoping someone could help me out. i,m trying to make a picture in the style of Paolo Nutini's album cover but i can't figure out how it's done



any help would be greatly appreciated

[arb]

Hi stuartdunlop,

I work with this:

These progams are freeware:
Goto: Cybia - Digital Resource Studio
Choose at the top: Digital Photography/The works/Alphaworks and download
Choose at the top: Digital Photography/The works/Mezzy and download

Install these filters

Open a photo and choose filters cybia/mezzy/etching. Play with the sliders Details/Contrast/Black (first, set details and contrast on zero and play with black. Now you have a black and white image.

Important duplicate layer or the next filter won't work and go to filters cubia/alpha works/PHOTO WhiteOut, so you have now a layer with the white parts become transparent

Have fun and if you some time left over have a look at the other filters on this site,

Ton

[notjustgraphics]

I'll assume you can manage the colour blocks ok and are having trouble with the black and white figures...

First you need the photographs of the people (or person) you are going to use... it would be preferable if the backgrounds are very light and VERY simple...

After that it's really just a matter of playing with Threshold and Contrast...
IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > Threshold & IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > Brightness & Contrast

A tip to get the colour blocks even... turn on your rulers and set guides at even distances. Then use the rectangle select marquee... it should auto-snap to the guides. Select a block, fill it with the appropraite colour (Or use a rectablge shape) and move on to the next one.

I'd recommend using layers for each block, each figure, and the text so you can always go back and tweak or change if necessary.

That's the 10 second version... the hard part is going to be getting the right photos to start with.

Someone more experienced than me may be along to give you additional pointers as well!

Mike.

These photos above were probably shot for the album cover using a green screen or with a pure white background to make seperating the shape from the background easy.

[stuartdunlop]

thanks for the pointers guys, your help is much appreciated. i'm off to give it a go

[stuartdunlop]

had a go and came up with this, what do you think?

[arb]

Originally Posted by notjustgraphics

That's the 10 second version... the hard part is going to be getting the right photos to start with.
Someone more experienced than me may be along to give you additional pointers as well!

that's right, that is problably the hardest part. you can adjust photo('s) with brightness/contrast or with gamma correction. The lighter the part the less black you get. Don't forget after adjusting above mentioned ways you can always add or remove parts of the black or white by "hand"

Ton

[arb]

Originally Posted by stuartdunlop

had a go and came up with this, what do you think?

I think it's a good start!

The two backgrounds on the right are too dark. The woman on the right has a dark dress against a dark background. Experiment with the threshold (a bit higher) with the two persons on the left. A big part of the faces is too black to compare with the other two.

Ton

[tamlin]

Personally, I think Threshold and Brightness/Contrast are too crude to achieve the effect you're looking for. I think you'd have more control if you desaturate the images and then use either a Levels or Curves adjustment layer to bleach them out. Another way might to be to use Posterize on the desaturated images.

No disrespect to Arb, but this is a pretty simple effect to do with the supplied tools in Photoshop - you don't need 3rd-party plugins to achieve it.

[stuartdunlop]

thanks Tamlin, tried it your way. what do you reckon?

[tamlin]

I think that's definitely closer to the original. The two figures on the left seem to have rather rough edges - if you cut them out from a background, you might want to consider one of the various methods of defringing them before you apply your posterize effect.