Photoshop Advice Megathread

[Darth Brooks]

Thank you for doing this. When it comes time to make a template, I will probably ask lots of stupid questions, so sorry in advance. Anyway, once I learn how to do it, I will make way too many templates for everything. Also if you want to edit a player (make him wear another teams uni), would you just make a template out of him and then create that teams uniform?

For something like that you want to make it so you can shift around the uniform. Like on the old guy from page one, he stays the same as the uniform changes.

The magic is making it so that you can change the colors and logos on the uniform while the player stays the same.

[St Louis Cardinals]

Okay, so I have erased all the logos from the player. whats next?

[Darth Brooks]

Now comes the hard part and the stuff I'm experimenting with myself.

You have to come up with a version of the uniform as if it was white and a version as if it was black. on my example I did this by adjusting levels. I don't know if it will work here, it might. You have three different colors (the Charcoal, the red and the orange) so you'll have to treat each of them separately. The red and orange will need to be desaturated (turned to a gray) first.

Use your imagination. Look at it and try and work out what the uniform would look like if it was white. What would it look like if it was black? Look at the other images in the series to see how the Black & White areas differ.

If someone is willing to jump in with a good tutorial for getting the needed adjustments, go for it. I've been working on a template (not this one. Something very 80's. I'll post up in when I have it ready) so I haven't gotten to the picture yet. I'm still experimenting. When I come up with a good idea I'll post it. Your welcome to try a bunch of things and see what works.

[NOppenheimer]

How do you erase all the logos? Sorry for the stupid question.

[NOppenheimer]

I tried applying a logo to grass. It's not perfect but not bad either.

[walkerws]

Leave it normal and then make it a little more transparent. That'll keep the colors more true

[St Louis Cardinals]

Well I switched photos because the other one was too dark, and I came up with this. Any suggestions on what I could do better?

[IanC]

My first attempt with the grass logo. How did I do?

[Darth Brooks]

The logo looks good but you might want to find more natural looking grass.

Well I switched photos because the other one was too dark, and I came up with this. Any suggestions on what I could do better?

That's actually really good.

I had planned on going through the steps again on this image.

First step, masked off areas I didn't want to change.

Second began to erase/ cover areas with logos & numbers.

Some of this was cloned from different areas, some painted in and some cloned from other images in the set.

I worked big - this is the actual size. When it's shrunk down, the change allows you to work with details that would be hard to master if you worked actual size.

Next I made white and black masters using Levels and Curves (again, experimenting)

I had to desaturated the charcoal black. Even though it was a black it still had color.

This is how it's organized. The unchanged parts first, then white (multiply) and Black (screen) followed by the uniform number and then colors, then the background.

and this is how it looks in use.

I still need to work on the helmet. It's tempting to either erase the helmet altogether or put one of the helmet templates in there. I should also make it so you can change the shoe & glove colors as well. I will be uploading it here when it's finished.

[Darth Brooks]

I think it's getting there.

[derschwigg]

It's looking pretty good, but at the moment, the numbers look screen-printed on. If you're going for an embroidered look, you can employ some layer styles to achieve the look below:

I used a custom brush for the stitching, but otherwise, it's all in the layer styles menu.

I used a:

Bevel and Emboss with Contour

-Outer Bevel, Chisel Soft, 80% depth, Up, Size 10px

Stroke

-10px outside

Inner Shadow

-Distance 5, size 15

Gradient Overlay

-Overlay, 15% opacity, reflected gradient

Pattern Overlay

-Screen, 100%, 42% scale.

Drop Shadow

-size 5, distance 15

Also, I did a 10% Arc of warp text.

Of course, all of this matters if you have a crazy close up like you see here. Otherwise, you could probably tone down most of those values I mentioned earlier.

[JPDesign]

Biggest thing that sticks out to me is that your shoulder numbers look too small.

[Darth Brooks]

It's looking pretty good, but at the moment, the numbers look screen-printed on. If you're going for an embroidered look, you can employ some layer styles to achieve the look below:

I used a custom brush for the stitching, but otherwise, it's all in the layer styles menu.

I used a:

Bevel and Emboss with Contour

-Outer Bevel, Chisel Soft, 80% depth, Up, Size 10px

Stroke

-10px outside

Inner Shadow

-Distance 5, size 15

Gradient Overlay

-Overlay, 15% opacity, reflected gradient

Pattern Overlay

-Screen, 100%, 42% scale.

Drop Shadow

-size 5, distance 15

Also, I did a 10% Arc of warp text.

Of course, all of this matters if you have a crazy close up like you see here. Otherwise, you could probably tone down most of those values I mentioned earlier.

Would you be willing to post a sample psd? Neat effect and I wouldn't mind getting a copy of the brush for the stitching.

[derschwigg]

Would you be willing to post a sample psd? Neat effect and I wouldn't mind getting a copy of the brush for the stitching.

Sure! https://www.dropbox.com/s/m4f0m0umpu7vii9/Jersey.psd

As for the brush, it was a simple > shape that I made in a new document, then hit edit - define brush preset, then set the spacing to 100%.

[Prefix270]

I tried applying a logo to grass. It's not perfect but not bad either.

Need to keep your grass in proportion to the image being painted or chalked on to it. Just like in real life. The canvas dictates the application. Bigger image with smaller (and mowed) grass blades will produce a better image not to mention a more realistic look.

[mattwillcox]

Thanks for all of the tips Darth Brooks, I would have been lost without them! This is what I've got so far. There's still a bit of tweaking and cleaning up that I want to do, but that'll have to wait until exams are over.

[Darth Brooks]

I'm getting there on the closer in Doug Martin image- I think I have the helmet somewhat figured out. One question is how big to make the file? The original is 4912 x 7360. That would be immense by the time I added in all the layers needed and would give the file sharing programs fits. 600 x 800 is probably smaller than most people want to play with. Somewhere in there's a happening medium.

[St Louis Cardinals]

What I would do is make the file as close as you can to the 8.5x11 inches that a piece of paper is, unless that is to big.

[mrkennedy77]

Wow. This thread just wreaks of awesomeness! So much useful information, I just can't wrap my head around it! This has inspired me to make an attempt to create my own template, and now I have some direction. Thanks DB for starting this thread and thanks to everyone who has contributed their knowledge to this!

[derschwigg]

I'm getting there on the closer in Doug Martin image- I think I have the helmet somewhat figured out. One question is how big to make the file? The original is 4912 x 7360. That would be immense by the time I added in all the layers needed and would give the file sharing programs fits. 600 x 800 is probably smaller than most people want to play with. Somewhere in there's a happening medium.

Lookin good! The size of the template should reflect where you intend to use it. The 4912x7360, I'm assuming is at 72 ppi for it's resolution. When you convert it up to 300 ppi (optimum for printing hi-res), that's about a 16x24 print. I'd knock it down to 11 inches tall at 300 ppi. That should give you the most versatility. If people are gonna download it, they can always scale it further down themselves.