Creative Process

Creating the leaflet and poster.

I created a flier and a poster to attract tourists to the Huddersfield area.

First I began with the flier, I created the canvas by setting the background resolution to 300 pixels (dpi) and then changed the paper size to A5 and the colour scheme to RGB and the background colour to white.

I then found the images I wanted on the internet and in some cases copied and pasted the images into a new layer but with some I went to the full size image on the internet picture and save picture as, then saved it into my folder and went to the Photoshop file and browse for the file to find the image and used the move tool to move it onto the canvas and resized it to make it smaller, this is better than making images bigger because we can ruin the picture by making the pixels bigger.

With some images I first used the elliptical marquee tool to mark out  an area, used fill colour to colour the background of the shape before inserting the images into the shape.

In one case I used the rectangular marquee and rotated the shape for a diamond effect by using transform to make the flier more eye-catching.

I used the text tool to type in the names of the images and then adjusted the colour of the text and with some text I again used the marquee tool to create an area in which I typed in the text.  I then used different fonts for the type face for example:

with the heading I used Minya Nouvelle, bold and italics and 30 point size and used the colour picker to make it red and then created a curved effect.   This makes an interesting banner. 

For my signature at the foot of the document, I used Segoe Script, bold and 24 points and colour blue.

I thought it would be an interesting eye catching effect to change the background to a creative image so I used: a different filter and used render, clouds, filter, distort, twirl and changed the angle then Ctrl and U to colourize the layer.  I changed the text to a curved shape for the heading and also changed the art gallery text, so that it would not look too plain.

Everything we do in Photoshop should be a separate layer which makes it easier to edit, layers super impose one image over another and we can resize the image and remove the background.  Layers function in the same way as sheets of transparent acetate such as you would use on an overhead projector.  We can write or paste on each independently, group and re-order them. 

A raster layer displays a single image, this image may be synthesized as the view changes, the background layer is always a raster layer and is pixel based. 

 A vector layer holds scaleable objects if you draw a circle on a vector you can change it’s size position and colours.  Vector objects are lines shapes and other figures saved in a way that is not tied to fixed pixels. 

I softened the edges of some of the images by feathering with the brush tool.  I selected a layer mask and used the zoom tool and shift key to drag over the selection, so that we can see it closer and use the brush tool resize the brush and  click and hold the shift key down to keep a straight line and go around the edges.  Feathering  helps make added features look in place with the background image, it makes it blend better.  After deciding that the background to Leo the Lion was too daseling I used hue and saturation to change the Hue of the orange marquee from orange to a pale blue colour.  An adjustment layer allows you to apply an effect like brightness or saturation to other layers.  Saturation is the depth of colour and Hue is the shade.

Over all, I tried to make the images eye catching ie; title, font sizes, graphics, not too much information but enough detail, the layout A4 or A5 and poster and leaflet and when and where these would be appealing (advertising, communication etc.) as I mentioned in my initial proposal.

A layer mask is linked  to a layer and hides part of the layer from the picture what is painted black on the adjustment layer will not be visible on the final picture.  What is grey will be more or less transparent depending on the shade of grey.

I wanted to keep the leaflet to the point and brief but colourful and noticable at the same time.  The twirl sky blue and white background gives a good effect.

The poster is a similar idea but with brief information about the sites.

The heading in bold red Leelawadee fonts. 

For the background I first I set in to white and then used filter, render, fibres and filter, distort glass to create a stained glass effect and then created a new adjustment layer and used hue and saturation, increased the hue to make the colour vary between blue and green, so that the object and text looked prominent but the background does not stand out too much.

I thought it would be a good idea to create a rainbow effect across the poster so I tried experimenting by opening a new file and selecting the bottom width of the document with the rectangular marquee tool and used the gradient tool to drag a line along the top of the selection, deselected and used filter, distort, polar co-ordinates, making sure that rectangular to polar was selected, I rotated the image by increasing the percentage and to mark across the image I used the rectangular marquee tool to select the bottom half of the image and deleted.

Satisfied with the effect I moved the image into the original document and used an adjustment layer to change the gradient to create the rainbow colour and used another adjustment layer to lighten the image using hue and saturation.

Some buildings are of obvious tourist interest because they stand out for example the Lion Estates.

Others such as Greenhead Park stage events, so they are interesting for those who want a day out.

JPEG (Joint photographics expert group) is smaller one layer sent by e-mail on the web.  JPEG is often used to save photographs for the internet.

JPEG (Joint photographics expert group) is smaller one layer sent by e-mail on the web.  JPEG is often used to save photographs for the internet.

JPEG (Joint photographics expert group) is smaller one layer sent by e-mail on the web.  JPEG is often used to save photographs for the internet.

In JPEG (Joint photographics expert group) is smaller one layer sent by e-mail on the web.  JPEG is often used to save photographs for the internet.

JPEG (Joint photographics expert group) is smaller one layer sent by e-mail on the web.  JPEG is often used to save photographs for the internet.

If we save a file as a PSD (Photoshop Document) file we can make multiple edits and send to print quite a large file with all our information and someone can modify what is in it. 

 When the PSD format is converted into GIF, JPEG,TIFF or other graphics formats the layer is flattened into one bitmap image.  PSD is the default format for Photoshop and the only format, besides the large document format PSB that supports most Photoshop features, when we save the PSD file we can set a preference for the maximum file compatibility so that the file can be read by other applications.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) is smaller one layer sent by e-mail on the web.  JPEG is often used with digital camera memory cards to save photographs for the internet, these may be copy write.

GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) is a bitmap (one bit per pixel), it’s 256 colour limitations mean it is unsuitable for colour photographs and other continuous colour images.  It is suitable for sharp-edged line art such as logo’s.

CMYK colour is a subtractive method, the process of four colours (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) it acts by masking certain colours particularly on white background. 

RGB (Red, Green and Blue) is an additive combination of all primary coloured lights while black is the absence of light. 

CMYK  is just the opposite white is the natural colour of the background while black results from a full combination of colours.  When using CMYK, If you want to cover  a large area with solid black use 40% C, 40% M, 40% Y and 100% B.  When you want text, images and backgrounds to appear pure white use 0% for each value.

The RGB colour gamut is larger than CMYK, working in RGB means your images are web ready with no conversion as opposed to designing in CMYK for printing and converting the colour to RGB for web use.

Photoshop is an excellent program for creating images that look like desktop publications with its broad variety of creative processes.