This is the conclusion of last week's project, where I did a photoshoot of five, nine, and thirteen items which sum up my life as a graphic design student. This week, I chose one of the photos to work with in Photoshop. I was required to create one version demonstrating color effects from my textbook - "Photoshop Tricks for Designers: How to Create Bada$$ Effects in Photoshop," by Corey Barker - one version using Hollywood-style effects, and one version with the light effects, as well as a designer's choice version.

I decided to use the photo of nine items as my source image, as it had the best composition and balance. I cropped it slightly in Photoshop to eliminate unnecessary white space and get it to the required 5" x 7" postcard size. I cropped it to 5.25" x 7.25" to include 0.125" bleeds on all sides.

I found that many of the effects in the book were not naturally suited to my project, so I did not follow the directions word-for-word, but chose to use the instructions more as technical guidance and inspiration for different themes. For the color effects, I went the Selective Color route.

I isolated the items and placed them in a layer on top of the background, and then I desaturated the background. I used a Levels adjustment layer to turn the background orange, and a colorized Hue/Saturation layer to turn the items turquoise. Finally, I set the blending mode on the Hue/Saturation adjustment to Color.

Creatively, I had some difficulty with the Hollywood effects, as I felt the book offered me a very limited range of effects not very well suited to my project or my style. Out of the three options, I felt that the only one that would would possible to try on this image was the Grunge effect.

I sampled a part of the wood from the background and defined a pattern from it for texture. I then placed a layer filled with this pattern above the background layer, and set the blend mode to Divide and the opacity to 75%. There is a brush splatter layer between these two layers, with a blend mode of Multiply. I added a Levels adjustment layer to the texture layer. I did High-Pass sharpening on the next layer - which contains the items - and set the blend mode to Color Burn, finishing the layer with a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. The final, uppermost layer is another items layer with an opacity of 89%.

I actually liked how this one was set up. I felt like the Bokeh effect from the book translated well to my project, and I had some fun with it.

On top of the original image is a layer of circles, which were created using the Brush tool with 100% hardness, some color jitter and some size jitter; the layer's blend mode is Overlay. Next up is an items layer. On the top is another layer of spots, flipped 180 degrees to the other one, but with similarly placed spots. This layer has size jitter, no color jitter, and a Soft Light blend mode. The spots layers' colors are actually based on the photo; I sampled a yellow color and an orange color from the sketchbook on the left side of the photo.

You would think that creative freedom would be amazing, right? Well, for me "freedom" seems to be synonymous with "lack of direction." This one took some time to nail down, for sure.

On top of the background layer is a desaturated copy, which has a Gradient Map adjustment layer to turn it blue. Above this is an items layer with a Color Burn blending mode; clipped to this is another Gradient Map adjustment. I chose colors which reflect me and my style, using mainly blues with hints of orange in the background.

It was close decision choosing one of these to be on the final postcard design; I almost went with the Color effects version, and I also liked the Light effects version. In the end, though, it was the Designer's choice that made it.

I did not want to overwhelm the photo, and I wanted any additional elements to achieve just the right balance between unity and contrast. I felt that three text elements were necessary on this postcard's front: my name, my field, and a tagline. I used a few variations of the Dunbar Low typeface, and added Stroke and Drop Shadow effects where I felt appropriate.