Time for another Push Standards Photoshop tutorial folks!

In this tutorial I will be showing you how to design an authentic looking poster for a rock band. The steps are reasonably simple but the result is really interesting. As with a lot of my tutorials I wasn’t totally sure how this would end up looking, but it came together nicely at the end.

Here is the end result:

Step 1:

Find a rock related image for your posters background. It doesn’t have to be anything special as it won’t be prominent in the final product.

Go to menu > images > adjustments > desaturate.

Step 2:

Create a new layer. Select all and make a radial gradient going from a dark grey center to black edges.

Step 3:

Move this new layer underneath your background image, then set your background image layer to ‘multiply’ and reduce it’s opacity to around 60%.

Step 4:

Now, this isn’t really looking dark enough, so I create a new layer, fill it with black and reduce the opacity to 80%.

Step 5:

Create a new layer. Use the lasso tool to create a sunburst shape from the center of your image. Fill this with a white to transparent radient gradient like so:

Step 6:

Reduce the layer opacity to around 10%.

Step 7:

Paste your band’s image into the center of your poster. I’ve chosen Interpol, as they’re the best band in the world!

Step 8:

Use the lasso tool to cut around the band members, and then go to layer styles and add an outer glow to the layer. Settings should be opactiy: 100, spread: 0, size: 3. The result should be like this:

Step 9:

Create a new layer behind your band member layer and make a transparent, to white, to transparent linear gradient. This should give your post a lot more depth:

Step 10:

The sunburst image that was originally created now isn’t big enough to show up behind the band members, so I select this object and then enlarge it.

Step 11:

I want the bottom of my band members to appear to fade into the background. You can do this either via using a layer mask or just by adding a black to transparent upwards gradient.

Step 12:

Use photoshop custom shapes (or your own brushes) to create some cool shapes in the corners of the poster and at the top.

Step 13:

Add some text for your band’s name at the top of the poster.

Step 14:

Go to edit > transform > distort and distort your image like this to give it some depth:

Step 15:

Now I want to give the text a cool 3d effect. To achieve this I rasterize the text layer, duplicate it and invert it (to make it black). I then duplicate this layer moving each duplicated layer down 2 pixels. When I have enough to create a good 3d effect I merge all of these layers together. I then give the merged layer a thin white drop shadow to make it stand out against the black background. Drop Shadow settings are: Normal, opacity: 25, distance: 1, spread: 0, Size: 0.

Step 16:

Add text at the bottom of the poster for the time and date of the gig. Repeat the previous steps to achieve distorted 3d text, but this time move the 3d shape layer sideways (rather than downwards).

Step 17:

Now add some text at the poster’s footer to make it look a little more authentic.

Step 18:

The poster is looking pretty cool, but we want it to look more realistic. More like a poster than a computer image… To achieve this find a photo of some ripped up paper and paste this on to a new layer.

Step 19:

Set this new layer to ‘multiply’ and reduce it’s opacity to 35%. This obviously will not look like an actual peice of paper, but is a simple and easy way to get rid of the pristine, look of a plain photoshop image and dirty it up a little.

Step 20:

Just to give the poster a final cool touch we’re going to stick it to a brick wall. Flatten all your current layers for the poster so that it is just 1 layer. Then hide this layer, create a new layer behind this one and paste in a photo of a brick wall.

Step 21:

When you reveal your poster layer it should look something like this:

Step 22:

Now use the lasso tool to select round the edge of your poster very roughly to create a realistic poster edge. Try to be quite subtle with this stage. Once this is done make the poster look as if it is on the wall, rather than part of the wall by adding a subtle black outer glow and faint drop shadow.

Step 23:

Now to make the poster look extra realistic use the lasso tool and select a ripped area of the poster. Copy this selection and then delete it.

Step 24:

Now paste your selected ripped area onto a new layer. Rotate the image so that it fits neatly onto the edge of your hole in the poster. Go to image > adjustments > hue/saturation and then increase the lightness by 90.

Step 25:

To give the ripped paper a little depth go to layer styles and add a gradient overlay. Make the gradient go from black to transparent. Then add a drop shadow with the settings: opacity: 55, distance: 13, spread: 0, size: 10.

And there you have it! A cool, authentic rock poster - perfect for any band website!