And For Our Big Finale

This is it. 

We are reaching the end. 

You have been able to learn the basics that will help you start out on Photoshop. 

Keep in mind you can always go here for more blogs with step-by-step help! 

I'll leave you on a parting note how basics can change into something bigger.

Back in the first post, I talked about the importance of where a layer is placed. In another post we talked about the lasso. Let's take the two and some imagination to make a Game Day Graphic.

Seems simple right? All the things we had talked about before with some extra logos?

 Take a closer look.

The players are in between the wording. The Gameday is behind the players but in front of the crowd. Because of the lasso and the layers, this is all possible. 

In this situation, we have taken the same picture and sandwiched it around the Gameday text. Also as a quick note, the team's names are up higher in the list so they stand to the front more.

Once the pictures are sandwiched you need to take out your handy dandy lasso tool! Regular lasso, not magnetic though!

Begin lassoing around the players slowly peeling back the top photo to show the wording. 

Again, simple but it seems hard! Photoshop is almost a "fake it 'til you make it" situation. 

You can make professional looking graphics and be self taught like both myself and my Director are. 

The key is finding amazing blogs much like this one and videos that can help you along the way! 

Happy 'Shopping!

Making Pictures Move

GIFs. Gaining popularity in social media and when it comes to working with sports teams.

Did you know you could make GIFs on Photoshop? Neither did I.

This may be a step out of the level we have been working at, but following the step-by-step directions will make it easy enough to become a GIF Master!

First you need to open all the layers you will want to GIF.

Once you have that all prepared you need to open a Timeline. 

Go to Window

Click Timeline

Change the drop box in the Timeline to Create Frame Animation

We need to make frames at this point. By clicking the Create Frame Animation, it will take the dominate layer and make it a frame. In order to make it switch, you can make a new frame by hiding what layers you don't want to see. 

You can continue to add frames by clicking the paper icon next to the garbage can on your timeline. Once all the frames are on your timeline, there are two more steps you will want to take before completing your GIF. 

You will want to change the amount of time each picture is on the screen by opening the choices under the frames. Two seconds is a good amount of time to fully convey the GIF. You will also want to make it so the flipping will go on Forever as can be seen in the bottom of the Timeline. 

From here you can go to Save for Web. You will want to change the Image Size Percent to a smaller amount in order to make the GIF small enough to post on social media. 

Click Save and name the GIF to your desktop (or wherever you choose to save it). 

There you have it! You have made a GIF and it was relatively simple! The best purpose I have seen for this was to make a Starting Line Up GIF at game time. 

A main thing you need to be sure of is if you are using pictures like head shots or have wording, all the layers should line up so the transition is seamless. 

Organizing Makes Life Easier

When it comes to Photoshop, repetition is easy if you do some organizing.

You can make folders and subgroups when you have a lot of layers to make it easier on the eye and better to scroll though.

 In order to make the group, you just click on the folder at the bottom of the layer bracket and it will help you organize your stuff!

Like I mentioned a few posts ago, the positioning of the layers are very important. The place this comes into play are with the background and also the additional photos added in. By putting the background at the bottom, it ensures that everything will lay on top if it and it can fade into the back.

In the case of The Office clip, putting the additional photo at the bottom of the list it allows the appearance of the text being over Jim. 

Now that everything is organized it is easy to switch out the players and information as I did in the following graphic:

It also gives the ability to move things easier if you have to flip the picture like I did in the graphic below:

Since we organized our different layers into folders, it is easy to Control-Click multiple layers and move them together.

Using the arrow tool, you can move it all from one side to another in order to flip what is needed to change the graphic.

There are several reasons to change the layout of the graphic. One is to change the way the graphics work especially if they will be posted one right after the other. Another reason is because of the picture placement. Depending on the dead space, some pictures may work better in other locations.

These graphics ran on a professional hockey team's website. For being a beginner to Photoshop, self-learning got me to a good point. Luckily I also have a good Director of Media who taught me a few other things along the way too.

Handling The Lasso

Last time focusing on this guy:

The final part of this graphic is my favorite thing to do: lassoing extra pictures. 

Adding Jim from The Office and the thumb emoji are extra touches that can be put into a graphic in order to make it stand out more. Is it necessary? No. Can it be overdone? Yes. Use this with caution. 

You can find a picture to use and simply put it on the main graphic like we did with the player photo. The downside to this is a less clean look and more empty space. By taking out a background and white border, it allows the pictures to be worked in seamlessly. 

Let's start by being on the Magnetic Lasso. There are several different lasso options but this one will be good for starters. The magnetic lasso sticks to the color scheme it is working on and cuts out what is needed. 

In this case, the fact that the thumb emoji is yellow and the background is white is helpful. In order to get this outline I did not even have to focus on where I was moving my cursor. Once you close off the lasso, right click the picture and make a Layer via Copy. This will cut out just the thumb like seen below:

You can make the background layer invisible and then have the ability to move the thumb isolated on it's own to the main graphic. 

Another way to use the lasso can be shown with The Office picture. While the magnetic lasso is helpful, it can also pick up on the wrong colors and outlines. In order to make it's job easier you can also take out the background in another way. 

Choose to change the lasso to the original Lasso Tool. From there pull up the picture you will be working with. 

The Magnetic Lasso tool will have issues catching bigger pictures sometimes. By using the Lasso Tool, you can take the background out first by outlining what you want to get rid of and deleting it.

Keep going with this until you are able to isolate more of the picture to allow the magnetic lasso to work more. The reason I keep going back to the magnetic lasso is because of the convenience. In order to make it look more professional, the magnet picks up more and I don't have to worry about my hand cutting off some of the picture while it is shaking. 

To learn more about the lassos check out this video. 

From there you can just add the pictures to the graphic! Again, look into different blending options when adding the pictures to give the graphic more depth. 

Now that we have the first graphic set- it will be easy to change things out with some organizing and movement! 

The Wide World of Text

OK, a reminder of what we are working for here:

Let's take this post to focus on text on Photoshop since honestly it is one of the more overwhelming parts for me personally. 

We can start with the color... choosing the colors are vital. For this graphic, it will be seen by a lot of people and needs to be an easy read in a quick moment. With that in mind I had to go with strong colors. 

The color of the player's name actually is the color that is located on the team jersey. In order to find that exact shade, I took the Eye Dropper tool on the tool bar and used it to get the shade of gold that was needed. As for the other colors, solid black and white managed to stand out enough but still show some diversity. Looking how the colors come off when you put your graphic on a computer/phone screen in vital so always make sure to check.

Which brings us to font. Fonts can be overwhelming and hard to choose from. Want to make it harder? This is a website that allows you to download more fonts. Go crazy.

Once you get back from being overwhelmed let's talk about different ways to look at the fonts.

When you find the font you want you will see some extra options like we see above. The drop box with Bold and also the Strong are two different ways you can harden or soften the font depending what you are looking for. 

* Shortcut: When you are looking for the size of the font, change it like you resized the picture. This allows you to see the difference as you move it as compared to having to guess with the set font sizes*

When it comes to adding the text, playing around with the placement is key. As will be seen in future graphics, you can use the same question but find a different way to place it so the graphics will read different. 

In order to move between the writing and the arrow tool (to move your text around) just be aware of what one you are on. No life threatening mistakes will be made, but it will get super annoying after a while when you try to type and nothing happens. 

As a side note: while you can change font throughout a graphic, just don't go to crazy. You want the graphic to be legible and simple when it comes down to it. The easier it is for the audience to read it, the better your graphic comes off. 

This brings us to the final step of the player's graphic: the random pictures added in. The magical magnetic lasso earns a post all of it's own though. 

Adding More Detail While Staying Basic

Ready for a challenge (by our standards)?

This is our end goal.

For some people this may not look hard. For a beginner it may seem like a lot though. 

The upside about Photoshop is a lot of it can be copy and paste once you get it set when it comes to these types of graphics. Let's start with the background:

This is easy enough to do! Just choose to fill the main background with a color. You then can insert the logo (File, New, Open File) in a separate page. Use that tool that allows you to drag to bring it to the layout you are working on. In order to fade out the logo, I changed the opacity as is seen below:

It's nice to play around with this until you find what you like. For my purpose, the logo was not needed because of the text over it, but I chose to add it to put the team's logo on the work and also to make it look cooler. 

The next task was adding a picture. First of all, always try to find a flattering picture in these situations. Go through the same process to put the player picture into the graphic you are working with like we did above. If you have to change the size of the picture, make sure to link the proportions on top!

* A short cut to help you size pictures: when you bring the picture on the graphic you will notice the borders. click one of the boxes located on the side or corners and it will automatically bring you to transforming pictures *

 In order to get that shadow between the background and the picture, you want to add a Blending Option to the picture. Right click on the layer you want to use, in this case the picture, and choose blending options. You can play around with the different options, but I usually lean towards Outer Glow or Drop Shadow. These will the the illusion that the picture is floating over the background. 

This then brings us the remainder of the writing of the left side. It may seem like a lot, but once you get the first two parts done it will be a walk in the park! 

Photoshop Basics

OK to start: Open the program

Just kidding. Sort of.

But seriously, let's focus on doing our template at the Instagram size. While Instagram has updated so pictures of any size can be uploaded now, there is still a specific size that will be best to be viewed on smart phones. If you will be using Photoshop to work your pictures specifically for Instagram, this will be beneficial for you.

With the new upgrades, you want to make your canvas size 1080 pixels by 1080 pixels.

This screen will pop up when you go to make a new page. Just make sure to change the drop boxes on the right side to pixels in order to get the correct format. 

Once you have your layout all set, the next thing I have picked up in my research to do is unlocking the background. The reason for doing this is to allow more movability in the graphic you are making and freedom. By unlocking the background, you have the option to get rid of the blank color template and start fresh. 

Right click on the locked background layer and select the option Layer From Background. It will automatically make the name "Layer 0" and successfully unlock it so you can do what you please with your base of your graphic.

Let's look at the basics on the toolbar we will be using primarily:

VITAL TOOL: First and most important, this tool allows you to grab a section and move it


VITAL TOOL: Third down on the bar is the lasso. This is will be necessary later on in our learning. It can just be a normal lasso tool or a magnetic lasso, which if you are like me, you'll fall in love with.

VITAL TOOL: Fifth down is the crop tool that allows you to take extra space off pictures
Sixth down is the eye dropper tool which comes in handy if you want to make sure to have the same exact color throughout your graphic.














VITAL TOOL: Second down in this section is the text tool which will become your best friend if you are making a graphic that needs words.








This last tool allows you to work with two different colors and leave them on your swatch if you plan to use them in the future also.

If you would like an explanation of the entire tool bar in detail check out this helpful site here.

Another basic is how to work the layers when you have more than one item on your graphic.

For the sake of the demonstration, I have added pictures to show the difference in layers.

The further the down the picture, text, what have you is, the more it will be covered in the graphic. For example, Layer 4 will show up on my graphic over Layer 1. One way you can hide a layer is by clicking the eye next to the picture. This will keep the layer in the graphic, but make it invisible. This will become important when we start graphics that are essentially fill in the blank.

My purpose for learning Photoshop is to use for my future working in sports. I will be demonstrating different ways to use Photoshop through several Player Graphics, Pregame Graphics and GIFs.