Creating a Billboard scene in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to build up a scene from scratch, using a few photos. This is great for a header or advertisements. By using this method you can give yourself the exact amount of room you need for you content, or to fit the space.

 

 

Ok. Lets open up a 800×1000px document.

 

We are going to grab a few images from a few different websites.

 

First off just as a note everystockphoto.com is a good resource for free images, just keep in mind the licensing.

 

 

I’m going to need:

A brick wall

An image of a pipe

We are going to grab a blue metal texture (5th one down)

And a tree sky combo here.

 

Now that we have that we will start building our foreground. Since we know what we want to do with this brick wall we will open up the image and start cutting out just the top.

 

 

Step 1

 

I’m going to cut out the top by using the magnetic lasso tool since we don’t need a real smooth edge because we want a natural feeling.

 

 

 

Step 2

 

We are going to drag the image in to our 800×1000px document and size it using control+t, so we get the wall to fill up the lower half of the canvas.

 

 

 

Step 3

 

Then I want to adjust the levels, (apple/ctrl+L) so that the arrows are on either side of the black area. Click OK.

 

 

 

Step 4

 

Now lets grab the pipe image. Use the method you prefer, but I am going to use the pen tool to cut my pipe out. When you cut it out make sure you cut out the brackets too, we are going to need those.

 

 

 

Step 5

 

We are going to do the levels (apple/ctrl+L) on the pipe the same way as the brick. We want a balance in tones with the pipe and the brick.

 

 

 

Step 6

 

I want to give this pipe a curve at the top so it looks like bending and going over our wall, so I’m going to make a half moon shape that we can use to delete the top to curve it. We’ll do this by making a curve with our circle marquee tool. First create a new layer (apple/ctrl+shift+N) and draw a circle with your starting point on the top left of the pipe and your ending point at the top right of the pipe, so it makes a circle the same size as the pipe. Now fill that image with alt+backspace.

 

 

 

Step 7

 

We want to duplicate this layer with apple/ctrl+J, now move that new layer down. We are now going to delete the overlapping part of the first layer with the second layer to create a half moon by pressing backspace. We are now done with the layer we duplicated so you can trash it by dragging it down to the trash can at the bottom right icon in your layers palette.

 

 

 

Step 8

 

We now want to take our half moon shape and bring it up to the top of the pipe. Take your half moon layer and press apple/ctrl to activate it, click on your pipe layer and press backspace. If you can still see pipe above your half moon shape press the up arrow until its covered up and press backspace again. We can delete that first circle layer now.

 

 

 

Step 9

 

Now you should have a nice curved shape like so. Still with me?

 

 

 

Step 10

 

So we are going to put everything together before we get into details so lets go and grab the tree and sky image. Take the image and put the layer just above the background layer. Now we are going to do the levels again (apple/ctrl+L).

 

Now before we get any further we are going to want to rename our layers. So name the layers accordingly, something that’s easy to recognize.

 

Ok, time to build the billboard. First, click on the pipe layer and select the rectangular marquee tool from our tool bar. Grab a rectangular section of the pipe and press apple/ctrl+J to copy that selection to a new layer. Do this twice, one for each leg. Rename these legs accordingly.

 

Now we want to put the legs behind the brick wall layer.

 

 

 

Step 11

 

Let’s create a new layer and use the marquee tool to make a box, fill it in white. This is going to be the main part of our billboard. For the border we are going to use the blue metal texture.

 

 

 

Step 12

 

Now let’s pull it into our project and adjust the levels. I am going to drop the opacity down so I can see the background. As a preference I don’t want to have too much of the rust and I want it mostly blue so I’m going to adjust that accordingly.

 

 

 

Step 13

 

So I want to select the white box we just created by holding down ctrl/apple to load the layer. Then apple/ctrl+shift +I to get the inverse of the box. The backspace to delete. Now we have our textures the same size as the white box.

 

 

 

Step 14

 

We want to load the blue metal layer with the apple/ctrl and go to Select>Modify>Contract and set the pixels to 15. Press ok. Now delete with backspace.

 

 

 

Step 15

 

We are going to do a few things with the border so I’m going to make a new folder (bottom of the layer pallet, folder icon) and label it “billboard border.” We are going to create a new layer and load the border.

 

 

 

Step 16

 

I am going to make a gradient starting at the bottom left.

 

 

 

Step 17

 

Change the fill to multiply, and adjust the opacity.

 

 

 

Step 18

 

Now we are going to repeat steps 15 and 16, but we are going to use white, we are starting our gradient at the top and we are going to change the fill to overlay.

 

I think we are getting somewhere.

 

 

 

Step 19

 

We want to make our inner shadow, so now I want to duplicate the border layer with apple/ctrl+J, load the layer and fill it with black.

 

 

 

Step 20

 

Drag the black border layer behind the blue one and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. I am now going to bump the shadow down and to the right with the arrow keys.

 

 

 

Step 21

 

Now I’m going to use my square marquee to clean up the area a little bit. We don’t want the shadow outside of the billboard. So highlight the area round the billboard like so and backspace for delete. (You can add to your selection by holding shift)

 

 

 

Step 22

 

We are going to use the layer styles now to create some depth to the background of the billboard. Start by clicking on the black circle with the “f” inside it and open up gradient overlay. The default gradient is a little harsh for us so we are going to adjust it to the settings above.

 

 

 

Step 23

 

We are now going to give this background a little texture. So lets load the background layer we were just using. And create a new layer, then fill it with black.

 

 

 

Step 24

 

We are going to take this layer and go to Filter>Render>Fibers. Adjust the settings as above. Click Ok.

 

 

 

Step 25

 

Set the layer to overlay and drop the opacity all the way down to 5%.

 

 

 

Step 26

 

Go to the layer styles and to color overlay. We are going to give this layer some color, to make the billboard look a little more grimy.

 

 

 

Step 27

 

We are going to jump around a little bit and give the whole look a darker feeling. First off we need to give the feet of the billboard a shadow. We are going to do this by first creating a new layer, then we are going to load one of the feet. We will load both at the same time by holding down apple/ctrl+shift.

 

 

 

Step 28

 

Now lets create some shadows. We’ll do this with the gradient tool. Make sure you are using black and create a gradient starting above the feet. Keep playing with it until you find something you like.

 

 

 

Step 29

 

Alright. Now we go to the pipe. Lets select this layer and duplicate it. Load the duplicated layer and color it black, and place it under the original pipe layer. We are going to blur it so go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set it to 4.0. Duplicate the blurred layer and move it down and to the right. Take the other duplicated layer and just move it down.

 

We now want to combine the two shadow layers. We do this by linking the two layers together and pressing apple/ctrl+E.

 

 

 

Step 30

 

For a little detailed work we go to the top of the pipe and get rid of the shadow where the pipe hangs off the wall. There are a few different ways we can do this but I’m going to load the brick layer and select the inverse (apple/ctrl+shift+I).

 

 

 

Step 31

 

Since the brackets that hold the pipe to the wall are bolted to the wall we need to make that shadow smaller. We’ll do this by creating a mask (In the layers pallet at the bottom, gray box with a white circle in it) and paint in black with a 9pt soft brush.

 

 

 

Step 32

 

Take the brick layer and load it. Create a new layer, and create a black gradient starting at the bottom.

 

That’s it. Use this for a billboard mock-up, or for an advertisement. This tutorial like every other one, isn’t meant to be copied as much as it is for a guideline. Use different photos, different scenes. The main thing is to be creative.

 

 

 

Final

 

 

You might also like these articles...

Only comments in English will be approved!