Glow Up

1Open a New Document

3 min · core

1. Go to the menu bar and click File > New. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+N (Cmd+N on Mac).
2. A large dialog box opens. Ignore the preset tabs across the top (Photo, Print, Web, and so on). You are going to type your own numbers into the fields on the right side.
3. In the Width field type 1080. Check the dropdown menu directly to the right of Width and make sure it says Pixels, not Inches. If it says Inches, click it and change it. This is the single most common mistake in this step.
4. In the Height field type 1080.
5. In the Resolution field type 72. The dropdown beside it should read Pixels/Inch.
6. Set Color Mode to RGB Color and the dropdown next to it to 8 bit.
7. Leave Background Contents on White.
8. Click the blue Create button in the bottom right of the dialog.

2Place Your Subject Image

3 min · core

1. Go to File > Place Embedded in the menu bar.
2. A file browser window opens. Navigate to wherever you saved your subject photo, click it once to select it, then click Place.
3. Your photo drops onto the canvas inside a box with small square handles at its corners and edges. It is not committed yet.
4. Drag any corner handle to resize the photo so your subject fits comfortably on the canvas. Drag from inside the box to move it around.
5. When you are happy with the size, press Enter (Return on Mac) to commit it. The handles disappear.

3Remove the Background

10 min · core

This is the most important skill in today's class. Take your time.

1. Look at the Layers panel and click once on your photo layer to make sure it is the layer you are working on. It will highlight.
2. Go to the toolbar on the left. About four icons down you will find the Quick Selection Tool, which looks like a paintbrush with a dotted circle around its tip. It shares a slot with the Magic Wand Tool (a wand with sparkles) and the Object Selection Tool.
   • If you see the wand instead of the brush, click and hold that icon for a second. A flyout menu appears listing all three tools. Click Quick Selection Tool.
   • Keyboard shortcut: press W. Press Shift+W repeatedly to cycle between the tools sharing that slot.
3. Look at the options bar at the top. Find the brush size control (a number next to a small brush icon, usually near the left). Click it and drag the Size slider, or type a number. Start around 30 to 50 pixels. You can also press the [ and ] bracket keys on your keyboard to shrink and grow the brush without leaving the canvas.
4. Click and drag across your subject. Photoshop detects edges as you go and a moving dotted outline (people call these "marching ants") grows to follow the shape. Work in short strokes rather than one long drag.
5. The selection will not be perfect on the first pass. Fix it:
   • Missed a piece of your subject? Hold Shift and drag over that area to add it to the selection.
   • Grabbed too much background? Hold Alt (Option on Mac) and drag over the extra area to subtract it.
   • These two modifier keys work with nearly every selection tool in Photoshop, so they are worth memorizing.
6. Zoom in with Ctrl+Plus (Cmd+Plus) to clean up tight areas like between an arm and a body. Press Ctrl+0 to zoom back out.
7. When the marching ants follow your subject reasonably well, look at the very bottom of the Layers panel. There is a row of small icons there. Click the Add Layer Mask icon, which looks like a gray rectangle with a white circle inside it (third icon from the left in most setups). Hover over the icons and a tooltip will name each one.
8. The background disappears and your subject is left floating on white.

4Position Your Subject Off-Center

3 min · core

1. Select the Move Tool, the very first icon at the top of the toolbar (a four-way arrow with a small cursor). Keyboard shortcut: V.
2. Press Ctrl+T (Cmd+T on Mac) to open Free Transform. A box with handles appears around your subject.
3. Drag a corner handle to resize. Drag from inside the box to reposition.
4. Place your subject toward the left third or right third of the canvas, leaving open space on the other side. That empty space is where your headline goes in Step 6, so do not fill it.
5. Press Enter (Return) to commit, or Esc to cancel out of Free Transform without applying changes.

5Create a Radial Spotlight Background

7 min · core

This is the step that makes your poster feel lit rather than pasted together.

1. At the bottom of the Layers panel, click the Create a New Layer icon (a small square with a plus sign, second from the right). A new empty layer appears above whichever layer was selected.
2. Drag that new layer below your subject layer in the Layers panel, so it sits behind your subject. Click and hold on the layer name, drag down, release when the highlighted line appears in the right spot.
3. Make sure your new layer is selected (highlighted) before continuing.
4. In the toolbar, find the Gradient Tool, an icon showing a small square fading from dark to light. It shares a slot with the Paint Bucket Tool, so if you see a tipping bucket instead, click and hold the icon and choose Gradient Tool from the flyout. Keyboard shortcut: G, and Shift+G cycles between the two.
5. Look at the options bar. Directly right of the tool icon is a wide rectangle showing a color gradient preview. Click it to open the Gradient Editor.
6. In the editor, look at the horizontal bar near the bottom. There is a small square color stop at each end. Double-click the left stop to open a color picker, choose a bright warm color (a yellow or warm orange works well), click OK. Double-click the right stop and choose a darker, cooler color (a deep blue or teal). Click OK to close the editor.
7. Back in the options bar, find the row of five small gradient style icons. Click the second one, Radial. It shows a circular glow rather than a straight fade. This is what creates the spotlight effect.
8. Also in the options bar, check the box labeled Dither. This prevents visible stripes in your gradient.
9. Now click on the canvas at the spot where you want the glow to be brightest, roughly behind your subject, and drag outward to the edge of the canvas. Release.
10. Not happy with it? Press Ctrl+Z and drag again from a different starting point. Short drags make a tight, dramatic glow. Long drags make a soft, gradual one.

6Add a Headline

5 min · core

1. In the toolbar, click the Type Tool, the icon shaped like a capital T. Keyboard shortcut: T.
2. Click once on the canvas in the open space opposite your subject. A blinking cursor appears and Photoshop automatically creates a new text layer.
3. Type your band or artist name. Make it up, this is a fictional band.
4. Select your text by dragging across it with the cursor, the same way you would in a word processor. It has to be highlighted for the next changes to apply.
5. In the options bar, use the dropdowns to change:
   • Font family (the widest dropdown, on the left). Pick something bold and heavy, not a thin or script font.
   • Font size (a number field with a small "T" icon). Type a large number or pick from the dropdown. Album titles are usually big.
   • Text color (the solid color rectangle toward the right). Click it, pick a color that stands out against your background, click OK.
6. When you are done editing, press Esc or click the checkmark in the options bar to commit the text.
7. To move your text, switch to the Move Tool (V) and drag it into place.

7Duplicate Your Subject to Build a Reflection

8 min · core

1. In the Layers panel, right-click on your subject layer and choose Duplicate Layer from the menu that appears. Click OK in the dialog. Keyboard shortcut: select the layer, press Ctrl+J (Cmd+J).
2. You now have two identical subject layers. Make sure the new copy is the one selected in the Layers panel.
3. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical in the menu bar. The copy flips upside down, but stays in the same spot on the canvas.
4. Switch to the Move Tool (V) and drag the flipped copy straight down so it sits directly beneath your original subject, like a reflection on a wet floor. Try to line up the feet.
5. With the flipped layer still selected, look at the top-left of the Layers panel. There is a dropdown that currently reads Normal. This is the blend mode menu. Click it and choose Multiply.
6. Directly to the right of that dropdown is a field labeled Opacity, set to 100%. Click the number and type 50, or drag across the label to scrub the value down. Anywhere in the 40 to 60 range works.
7. Try switching the blend mode to Soft Light instead of Multiply and see which one looks better with your colors. There is no wrong answer.

8Blur and Fade the Reflection

7 min · core

1. Make sure your flipped reflection layer is still selected in the Layers panel.
2. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur in the menu bar.
3. A dialog opens with a single Radius slider. Drag it right to increase the blur, watching the live preview on your canvas. Something in the 4 to 10 pixel range usually looks right. Click OK.
4. Now click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel (same rectangle-with-circle icon from Step 3). A blank white mask thumbnail appears next to your reflection layer.
5. Click directly on that new white mask thumbnail to make sure you are painting on the mask and not on the image itself. A thin border appears around it when it is active.
6. Select the Brush Tool from the toolbar, the icon shaped like a paintbrush. Keyboard shortcut: B.
7. Press D on your keyboard. This resets your foreground and background colors to plain black and white, which is what you want for mask painting. Check the two overlapping color squares near the bottom of the toolbar to confirm black is in front. Pressing X swaps them.
8. In the options bar, click the brush preset picker (the small brush icon with a dropdown arrow, far left). Two sliders appear:
   • Set Hardness to 0%. This gives you a soft, feathered edge instead of a hard circle.
   • Set Size fairly large, around 150 to 300 pixels, or use the [ and ] keys.
9. Still in the options bar, find the field labeled Flow and set it to 30%. Note this is Flow, not Opacity, they are two different fields sitting near each other. Low Flow lets you build up the fade gradually with repeated strokes instead of erasing everything at once.
10. Brush across the bottom portion of your reflection. It fades away as you paint. Keep going until the reflection has disappeared completely by the bottom edge of the canvas.
11. Painted away too much? Press X to switch to white and paint it back in.

9Save and Export

5 min · core

You are saving two separate files: a working file you keep, and a JPEG you turn in.

1. Go to File > Save As. Shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+S (Shift+Cmd+S).
2. In the Format dropdown choose Photoshop (*.PSD). Name it and save it somewhere you will find it again. This version keeps all your layers editable.
3. Now go to File > Export > Export As.
4. In the panel on the right side of the export window, set the Format dropdown to JPG.
5. Set the Quality slider to somewhere between 8 and 10.
6. Click Export and save the file using the naming format at the top of this page: LastName_AlbumCover.jpg
7. Upload that JPEG to Canvas.

Troubleshooting

• My canvas disappeared or looks huge. You are zoomed in. Press Ctrl+0 (Cmd+0) to fit it to the window.
• My mask thumbnail is solid white and nothing got cut out. Your selection was empty when you clicked Add Layer Mask. Undo and redo the selection in Step 3.
• I clicked a tool but nothing happens when I click the canvas. Check the Layers panel. You are probably working on the wrong layer. Click the layer you actually want to change.
• My gradient covered up my subject. The gradient layer is above the subject layer. Drag it below in the Layers panel.
• My reflection looks like a flat second copy. Confirm you changed the blend mode away from Normal and lowered the Opacity. Both are needed.
• My reflection has a hard edge instead of fading. Your brush Hardness is above 0%, or your Flow is too high. Check both in the options bar.
• My gradient has visible stripes or bands. Turn on the Dither checkbox in the gradient options bar and drag the gradient again.
• My text will not go on the circle path. You clicked inside the shape instead of on the outline. Delete the text layer and try again, watching for the cursor to change shape.
• A panel disappeared. Open the Window menu and click its name, or use Window > Workspace > Reset Essentials Classic.