School Poster--How I Did It! (using Photoshop)

I thought I'd just do a quick post showing off a project I just completed for my school, using Photoshop. One of the things I always tell people when they are considering learning Photoshop and digital scrapbooking is that the program is so versatile and can be used in so many different areas of your life. I have three posts about other ways to use photoshop, if you haven't read them you might want to! 1, 2, 3.

Anyway, here's the poster that I created, and I didn't use ANY kits.

I have seen some pretty amazing things people create with Photoshop, and sometimes it drives me crazy--HOW did they do it? Tell me! I want to learn something new! So although this can't come close to competing with some of the amazing kitless pages I've seen on blogs like Stefstyleblog, (HOW do you do all those amazing pages! It's a mystery!!!) I WILL tell you how I did some of the elements on this page.



First of all, I managed to get the blood spatter and the fingerprint off of google images. Both required me to use the magic wand to get rid of the white background. The fingerprint was especially tiresome to do, but it turned out beautifully.

For the background, I just started with a green square. Then I used a few filters on it. First, one of my favorites, the Render>Lighting Effects filter. I used the Spotlight for light type, then just messed with it until I had the look I wanted. The other filter I used was Filter>Noise. This is what makes the background--well, noisy. A little scratched and not so pristine. I think that's all I did with the background.

Then there was the text. I wanted to make it look Neon and as much like the TV show as possible. I did a search for "CSI text" and found a website that said that the Clicker font was most similar to the TV show. I downloaded the clicker font for free--don't even remember where. It was easy to find. Making it look neon was a little harder--I have no action for it and had no idea how to do it. So I did a simple google search for "neon text in Photoshop" and found this simple tutorial. There were plenty to choose from, but I liked how easy this one was.

As for the police tape, I just made that. I used my shape tool to draw the yellow line. Then I went into Layer Styles, Gradient. I created my own gradient with the colors I wanted. Then I just added the text. I did the same thing with stripes--just copying and pasting the black on top of the yellow how I wanted it. It was actually quite easy!

So there you have it. Sometimes I am baffled by my own cleverness. Then I see what other people can come up with in Photoshop and realize I'm a total beginner all over again. There is just so much to learn!