In this tutorial, we’re going to make a typographic poster (like Grammy’s Typographic Posters) from a simple portrait using Photoshop techniques.

Final Image Preview

The described effects look nice on portraits with good contrast and light background, but you can easy adjust the contrast and make the background lighter using possibilities of Photoshop. (to make this tutorial I have used Female Stock thanks to Katanaz-Stock).

Step 1.

In Adobe Photoshop, open our portrait

and adjust the contrast Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast

Step 2.

From the Select menu, choose Color Range.

From the Select drop-down menu in the Color Range dialog, choose Shadows and click OK.

Press Ctrl+J (MAC: Command+J ) to copy the selected shadows pixels in a new layer. Back to the Background layer in the Layers palette.

Step 3.

Use Color Range again, but now choose Midtones from the Select drop-down menu and click OK.

Press Ctrl+J (MAC: Command+J ) to copy the selected midtones pixels in a new layer.

Step 4.

Click on the shadow layer and apply Edit>Fill (Shift+Backspace (Mac: Shift+Delete)). Use Black color, with Preserve Transparency selected, and click OK.

Then, activate the midtones layer and use the Fill again with 50% Gray color. You should have a portrait made from black and gray color.

Step 5.

Click on the shadow layer and press Ctrl+E (MAC: Command+E) to Merge Down it with the midtones layer.

Step 6.

Create a new document File>New (Ctrl+N (MAC: Command+N)). Set the Foreground color to black by pressing D. Use the Type tool (T) to type different words in various fonts and sizes.

Right click to select Rasterize Type for each word

and from the Edit menu, choose Define Brush Preset. Give a name for each brush in the Brush Name dialog and click OK.

Step 7.

Click the Create a New Layer at the bottom of the Layers palette. Set the Foreground color to black by pressing D.

Choose Brush Tool (B) and select one of your created brushes from the Brush Picker in the Options Bar.

In the Brushes panel(F5), click on the Brush Tip Shape. Adjust the Spacing between each word, Diameter and Angle of the brush. Paint on the new layer and feel free to experiment with the Spacing, Diameter and Angle of the brush.

Repeat with your other custom brushes.

Step 8.

Create a new layer, Press Ctrl+Backspace (MAC: Command+Delete) to fill it with white color

and and drag it under the layer painted with brushes

Step 9.

Hide all the layers except the black&gray portrait layer, and then click on that layer to make it active.

Press Ctrl+A (MAC: Command+A) to Select All content of the layer and then press Ctrl+C (MAC: Command+C) to Copy.

Step 10.

Activate the layer painted with brushes, click on the Add Layer Mask at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a layer mask.

Hold Alt (MAC: Option) and click on the layer mask thumbnail.

Press Ctrl+V (MAC: Command+V) to paste the content of the black&gray portrait layer in the mask.

Press Ctrl+D (MAC: Command+D) to Deselect. Press Ctrl+I (MAC: Command+I) to Invert the mask.

Step 11.

Activate the layer painted with brushes (not the mask) by clicking on the layer thumbnail. The text will appear inside the white&gray areas
of the mask.

Create a new layer and add more text brushes outside the mask.

Step 12.

Add a Gradient Overlay style to the layer painted with brushes by clicking on the Add a Layer Style icon (fx) at
the bottom of the Layers palette and select Gradient Overlay.

Click on the Gradient, and select the Blue, Red, Yellow gradient in the Gradient Editor dialog box and click OK.

Step 13.

Repeat the same operation for layer with text brushes outside the mask but use Violet, Orange gradient in the Gradient Editor.

That’s it! Our Typographic Portrait like Grammy’s Posters is complete.

discuss this topic to forum