How To: Transform a photo into a flashy poster in Photoshop

Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those digital pictures into shape with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. In this episode, Ben shows you how to transform a photo into a flashy poster in Photoshop.

Bert explains us the difference between layer masks and alpha channel masks, and why they each have their own, different purpose.

In the first step of creating the auto show poster, Bert uses the Type Tool to create the word, 'Wheels', and converts the type to a work path. To see the work path, create an extra layer below the type and fill it entirely with white. After stylizing the work path as desired, discard the original text layer and the white layer, leaving only the work path.

To dramatize the colors in the Channels window, Bert makes a copy of the green channel, giving him his first alpha channel. The levels in the alpha channel are adjusted, creating strong light and dark shades in the image. He then duplicates the adjusted channel, and then inverts the newly made second alpha channel.

Within the layers window, Bert creates a copy of the background image. He then chooses the light colors in this new layer by loading the first duplicate green channel. With this selection, he creates a new solid color layer. With this new solid color layer, he applies a bold color, such as purple.

To apply a different bold color, to the remainder of the image, select the second alpha channel, and create another solid color layer on top.

The last step is to add the text with a bright color (Bert uses white) and use layer styles to apply color and create a drop shadow for some impact.

Search Pixel Perfect on WonderHowTo for more Photoshop episodes from this Revision3 show.