Steven Erat's Blog | TalkingTree.com

Christmas card made from photo of Concord's Colonial Inn

Dec 18

posted by Steven Erat in Adobe, Photoshop, Photos, New England | 3 Comments

Do it yourself greeting card, made with Adobe Photoshop CS 2 from this original image. Printed on 10 mil Epson Archival Matte Paper with HP Photosmart 7960 inkjet printer at 300ppi resolution in 5x6 inch size. It looks even better in print than here onscreen.

This entry was posted on December 18, 2005 at 6:54 PM and has received 25984 views. There are currently 3 comments. Print this entry.

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• #1 by tony of the weeg clan on 12/19/05 - 6:38 PM

  

  dude...
  
  very well done.
  
  quick run down on what you did to get the effect? ive been with mrss photoshop in an exclusive relationship since a long time ago (~1997 or so) and she hasnt show me this technique :)
  
  tw

• #2 by Steven Erat on 12/19/05 - 7:33 PM

  

  There were a few stages involved. First was creating the posterized look so that the photo appears to be illustrated. Then I used the posterized version as a starting point for making the this greeting card image.
  
  Part 1: Start with the original photo, use Image - Shadow-Highlights to even out the lighting, then apply the Poster Edges filter. There are 3 PE settings, edge thickness, edge intensity, posterization. The edge settings start at 0 and get stonger as you increase, and the posterize starts at 6 and gets more cartoon like as you go down. I like to use 2-2-4. Then adjust the saturation of the image, and finally adjust the brightness/contrast just a little bit.
  
  Part 2: Starting with the posterized image (which I like all by itself anyway), copy the image to a new layer and white out the bottom layer so the whole image is only on that layer. Then set the magic wand to about 40 and select a color you want to bring out like red. Then choose Selection ] Similar to get all the red. Then CTRL-C, CTRL-V to put the red on another layer all by itself. Go back to the layer with the full image and choose Image - Saturation and decrease the saturation way down. At this point you have 3 layers, all the red from the image on a top layer, the full image with decreased saturation on the middle layer, then a white background on the bottom. Bump up the saturation of the red layer, use the eye dropper to select the shade of red, and use the Healing brush or maybe just the paintbrush to correct the red areas since the magic wand may have left some irregularities so just paint over them with the same color.
  
  Part 3: Flatten the layers with Layer - Flatten image, then select all with CTRL-A and add a border by choosing Edit - Stroke - Black, Center, 25px. Then set the background color to white and increase the canvas size, Image - Canvas size to increase the white around the image. Then use the Text tool to write the greeting in a large font. I used the Vivaldi font at 220px with an inner glow for the main text at the bottom. To get text effects like inner glow or drop shadow see the like (f) icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
  
  Part4: Printing. This was fun trying to figure out how to print on one piece of paper so that it comes out right with a message on the inside when you fold it. When printing change the resolution to 300 DPI with Image - Image Size, and then adjust the size to how you`d like it on paper. Make sure you print from inside Photoshop, and don`t use the Windows Fax and Photo viewer. Print at the highest quality for the printer, which on my printer properties was "Maximum DPI" which was one step higher than "Best" oddly enough. Finallly, use a heavy weight matte paper made for inkjet printers.
  
  Maybe I should blog some photoshop tutorials.

• #3 by tony of the weeg clan on 12/20/05 - 10:05 PM

  

  dig it. like i said, i have been with photoshop
  for a long long time, and all of that made VERY clear sense
  and the one part that REALLY is that whole process is
  the posterizing. since im always stuck in corporate america
  building sites, rather than anything too too creative or whatever
  will usually fly, i never get to mess around with the posterize
  and other stuff, as a lot of times, that kind of look just wont
  fly. i might have to start playing a lot more, and see what i can
  come up with and maybe sneak something new into a new
  website design... anyway, as always good work man.
  
  later.