Book Header Tutorial

How to go from

to to

 

Hey there! Some people asked me to create a tutorial for my new story header =). I promise, it will be very easy to make, absolutely beginner friendly and it just includes one Selective Colouring layer, but it looks good as well if you leave it out. So: Totally translatable!

 

Step 1:

Prepare your base. I took this beautiful book picture (from sxc.hu), resized it and pasted it into a 500x300 new document. My base looks like this.  

 

Step 2:

Now duplicate your base twice, desaturate the one near the base with STRG+U and set both layers to Soft Light with 100% opacity. This makes the picture even more beautiful than it has been before, doesn’t it? ;) Example.

 

Step 3:

Let’s make a new layer. Chose a nice light-tan colour (I took #ebceaf) and fill your blank layer. Set it to Colour Burn, opacity 30%. See the difference? Not much, but it’s there and it definitely looks good – you see?

 

Step 4:

Yay, Selective Colouring! (If you’re a PSP or GIMP user, you can leave out this step, don’t worry, you’ll still get a nice resultJ) Now, enter these settings:

 

RED:

Cyan: -100

Magenta: +100

Yellow: +100

Black: +100

 

NEUTRALS:

Cyan: +27

Magenta: -5

Yellow: -28

Black: +32

 

Your picture should look like this now. I know it looks VERY blue and pink, but trust me, we’ll fix that in a minute.

 

Step 5:

Curves time! Again, very easy, so don’t be afraid =) Let’s start with the RGB options: Click anywhere you want to click and enter the following settings:

 

Input: 142

Output: 111

 

Let’s go on to Red. Again, click anywhere on the line, but this time type in:

 

Input: 78

Output: 120

 

Half time! Your settings for Green look like this:

 

Input: 105

Output: 117

 

Last one, I promise. As you can see, we’ve reached Blue now. This time, there’s a little difference, but first: Click and enter:

 

Input: 72

Output: 109

 

And now – surprise, surprise – make another click on the blue line. Now fill in:

 

Input: 91

Output: 116

 

And we’re finished with curves. This is our result. Yes, I know, what you think… It even looks more pink and orange. But honestly… It’s pretty nice though, isn’t it?

 

Step 6:

Remember your base? Yes? Very good… Go down, duplicate it and drag it to the very top. Set it to Soft Light with 50% opacity. Actually not much difference, but definitely better =) See?

 

Step 7:

This part might be a little tricky, but don’t worry, it will be over soon J . Go to Adjustment Layers -> Gradient Map. Choose a black and white gradient and click “enter”. You should have a nice b/w picture now. BUT… We don’t want to have it b/w, remember? No problem, just set the layer to Multiply, opacity 60%. Nice, isn’t it?

 

Step 8:

Let’s achieve this nice brown colour we want to have… Make a new layer, fill it with #c6a372, a warm tan, and set it to Multiply 50%. Your whole thing should look like this now.

 

Step 9:

Make another layer, fill it with #e4e3d2, a beautiful light grey-something, and set it to Multiply 100%. This should be your outcome. Without Selective colour it will look like this.

 

And voila: We’re done with the colouring! I’ve uploaded the PSD for you (Looks a bit different than your outcome here, but that doesn’t matter at all =) ), but trust me – it’s MUCH more fun colouring the picture on your own ;)

 

Step 10:

Time for some decoration! This is our new base. Remember that picture? ;)

 

Step 11:

Take this nice stock picture, texture something (by sxc.hu again), paste it onto your picture and move it around until you like its position. Erase so long until you are happy with your result. I got this.

 

Step 12:

Same picture, same texture, different result. Again, paste it, but this time – other placement. And erase different parts of the texture (of course you can use different ones too), just be creative and trust me… You can’t make any mistakes, it will look good anyway. My result.

 

Step 13:

Beautiful, isn’t it? But it’s still too empty for me. Soooo I entered some text J . Make a new text layer, type your text – I wrote “Nox Aeterna” (which means “forever night”) - in for example Bickham Script Pro, 55pt, colour black. Set the layer to Overlay, opacity 40%.  Looks like this.

 

Step 14:

Duplicate your text layer, leave it on Overlay, but change the opacity to 80%. Very nice =)

 

Step 15:

Make another text layer, again type in your text – mine was “Die Schattenkämpfer” (“the shadow fighters”) – in, again it’s just an example, Charlemagne Std, 12pt, white and leave it on Normal 60%. That's my FINAL OUTCOME.

 

You won’t believe it, but you’re done now! Here is the PSD, I’d love to see your results =) Have fun, sweethearts!