Name:_____________________________

COLOR ME CRAZY PROJECTPhotoshop

Using the instructions provided in the example attached as a guide, create a poster design similar to
the one shown but using your personal photos. Use 3-5 photosone that is extremely close up and
one that is waist up in a pose of some sort (the rest are up to you, but vary the poses and angles). Feel
free to dress up, wear sunglasses, use props, etc., and express your personality! You may choose to
use your own colors and text for the project.

Requirement
Set new image size to 6 for width and 9 for height;
resolution should be 150 ppi (Save as CMC.psd)
Gradient is used for background; portions remain visible at
project completion to demonstrate gradient was used
At least three personal images are used; selections are
clean and precise (zoom in closely!!)
Selection of images (varying poses and angles)
At least three shapes are used as clipping paths with
images; shapes are transformed with warp tool
Shapes include a white stroke
Photos are desaturated and linear light applied for color
effects (each shape may use a different color fill or the
same; its up to you)
Levels/contrast are modified to increase overall sinister
tone of project
Text is added to image and includes at least THREE of the
special layer effects, such as satin, bevel, drop shadow,
glow, etc.
WRITE BELOW WHAT YOU USED:
Overall quality of project
Project printed in color and attached to scoring guide
CALL TEACHER OVER TO SIGN THIS BOXit is for points!
Layers are verified (to show clipping paths)
Questions (see below)
TOTAL

Extension Project: If you finish early, use this

information to create another project illustrating the
features. You can use pictures from the internet for
this. Print in color and staple to this scoring guide,
too. Have fun with it!
Questions to Answer: (5 pts eachwrite on a
separate sheet)
1. What is a clipping mask? Why would it be
used?
2. Explain how increasing contrast changes a
photograph.

Points
Possible

Deduction
s
5
5
10
10
10
5
10
5
9

6
5
5
20
105

Must fill out or

half points

Be sure to get
teacher
verification

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3. What does the linear light blending mode do?
4. What does desaturate mean?

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COLOR ME CRAZY EXAMPLE INSTRUCTIONS

1. Create a new RGB document (File, New) and set
width to 6, height to 9, and 150 ppi resolution.
Save as CMC.

2. On background layer, select the Gradient tool (set foreground to color and
background to colors of your choice first) and draw a linear gradient across
the document.
3. Open the images you are going to use (as separate documents). Remove the
background (as needed) for the images (extreme close-ups may not require
any special selection). Use the Move tool to drag the selections into the CMC
project file. They will create their own new layers.
4. Once moved, use the Move tool or Transform tool (press Control-T to change
the control bar to the transform tool) to position/scale the images.
5. Click the eye icons to turn off visibility of the image layers.
6. Click the background layer and then click the Create a New
Layer icon to place a blank layer above the background layer.
7. With the new layer active (probably will be Layer 3), choose the
Rectangular Marquee tool and draw a selection from the top to
the bottom of the document. You will edit it later. Choose
a color and then click Edit, Fill (or Shift+F5) to fill the
marquee area with color. (see image bottom right)
8. Next up, add a layer style (bottom of Layers panelfx)
and choose Stroke. Set the color white, position to
outside, and size as you see fit (5 px+ works pretty good). You should see a
nice little white border around the marquee area.
9. Press Control+T to bring up the transform controls. Position
as needed (you can always move it later, though). Click the
skew button to add curves or change the location of points
(play with this a bit.. its fun). The skew button is by the
cancel button (and the checkmark up there). When you

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get it positioned, be sure to press the check to go on.

Name:_____________________________

10.Control+D to deselect the marquee area and get on with your life.
11.Now the fundesaturate the first photo and create a clipping mask. How you
ask? Make the first photo layer active (click it, Layer 1) and click its eye icon
to restore visibility. Press Shift+Control+U to remove the color information (it
should go grayscale when you do!).
12.Next, hold the Alt key and point between the
layers (the picture and the shape) and look for a
little lock looking icon to appear. Click. Notice
that the first layer will point to the layer below it
to show that a clipping mask is applied.

13.Now, click on the image layer and set the blending mode (as shown in the
graphic above) to Linear Light. Check out that effect! (NOTE: Try using a
blending mode of Linear Light before you do a clipping path to give you other
ideas about how you can use Linear Lightfun times!).
14.Increase the contrast of the picture. Press Control+L to bring up the Levels
adjustment. Play with the sliders until you get the look you want.
15.Repeat this process for the rest of your photos (make a new layer for each
shape). Experiment with different shapes/warp, shape
colors, etc. You can cheat and make a copy of the
shape layer (Control+J on the layer) and then just
change the fill and shape! BUT WAIT!!! DO NOT
CHANGE THE FILL COLOR UNTIL YOU LOCK
TRANSPARENT PIXELSits in the Layers panel under
the blending mode. Then, reposition using the
move/warp tools.
16.To finish off the design, add some text. Just a few notes on text
a. Click the Type tool and then click and drag to draw a text box; make it
big enough to fit (youre probably going to want to use a pretty big
font!)
b. Add Layer styles to the type layer to get it to look cool (Layer, Layer
Styles) such as shadows, glows, bevels, gradient fill you get the
picture.

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c. Under Window, Character you can bring up a settings box for text to
scale/stretch, etc.
d. For vertical text, click the Text Orientation button up on the control
panel.