Sermon Graphics in 10 Minutes
The following article is a companion to John Falke’s article in the November/December 2007 issue of COLLIDE Magazine. Click here to download this tutorial in PDF format.
A Step-by-step Tutorial Using Photoshop
My Senior Pastor, Rod Stafford wanted to do a series called “Seek Justice” in which he was going to spend four weeks talking about the unfamiliar passions of God. He wanted to talk about people who are victims of injustice, bonded slavery, violent land seizures, forced prostitution and more. He wanted to give everyone practical ways to make a difference in the lives of these disenfranchised people. As part of the series, he asked Gary Haugen, the president of International Justice Mission (IJM), to speak about the importance of this kind of outreach. The steps outlined in this tutorial will allow you to re-create this graphic using Adobe Photoshop. If you don’t have Adobe Photoshop, you can download a trial version from http://www.adobe.com/downloads/. Select Photoshop or Photoshop Extended and follow the installation instructions.
(1) Start a New File
Open Photoshop, create a new file and make it the size of your projector resolution or larger. I decided to make mine 1600x1200, 72 pixels per inch, RGB mode.
My idea was to find a texture with earthy tones and mix in people’s faces that would reflect the victims that we would be discussing. After browsing several stock photography websites, I found the image shown here. Open a similar texture in Photoshop and then using the Move tool (V), drag it into the new file you created.
(2) Size the Image
Press Control-T (Free Transform). In some cases the image is too big to see the transform handles, so press Command-0 to change the View to Fit on Screen. Then Photoshop will zoom out. Hold the Shift button while adjusting the handles to keep it proportional. Then merge this layer with the background by pressing Command-E (Control-E on the PC).
(3) Insert Additional Supporting Images
Next, find an image of a chain to represent people in bondage. Since I didn’t want it to go through the middle of the screen, I placed mine in the bottom right corner and rotated it by pressing Control-T again for Free Transform. Name this layer “chain.”
Layer Masks
A layer mask is applied to a layer to allow portions of the layer to be seen. You can add a layer mask by clicking on the icon on the layer palette (shown right) or from the Layer menu (shown below). A layer mask cannot be added to the background layer.
In the layer mask, wherever there is white, you can see the contents of the layer. Where there is black, the contents of the layer remain hidden. Where there is gray, a combination of the masked layer and the layer underneath is visible. The darker the gray, the less is seen, the lighter the gray, the more is seen.
All the Photoshop tools work within a mask, that means you can create gradients, brush strokes, and other effects in them. The figure in the top right shows two layers, one with a layer mask assigned to it. The chain layer has a layer mask that is hiding the edges of the image and only revealing the chain.
(4) Add a Layer Mask
Now while on the chain layer, press the icon at the bottom of the layers palette to Add a Layer Mask. A white box should appear next to the chain thumbnail.
(5) Blending Options
Change the blend mode of the chain layer to Soft Light and lower the Opacity to 70%. Now the chain is subtle and fits in with the existing texture.
(6) Another Photo
Now, open a picture of a boy (my image is shown here) and drag it into the top left corner of your collage. I’m going to increase this image about 40% using Free Transform. Then create another Layer Mask to remove the edges of the photo and change the blending mode to Soft Light. Repeat this effect to add another image in the top right corner.
(7) The Title
Now, to remove those weird characters, place the title there in the highlight section. I chose Garamond and used all caps to resemble IJM’s seek Justice look. My font is 256 pt and I decreased the space between lines.
(8) The Outer Glow
Next, Add a Layer Style to the text to give it an Outer Glow. Choose Layer>Layer Style>Outer Glow from the menu or click on Outer Glow in the Add a Layer Style menu at the bottom of the Layers palette (the black circle with an “f”). Change the default color to white, increase the opacity to 100% and change the size to 32 to increase the glow.
(9) Adding Design to Place Text
One of the challenges of placing text in a collage is making it look like it is part of the image instead of just slapped on top. To do this, copy in the background texture again and use the bright area to highlight the words. Place it where you want it and then Add a Layer Mask by choosing Layer>Add Layer Mask>Hide All. Now switch to the Brush Tool by pressing B and then press D to restore the default colors (making white the foreground color). Paint in the glow behind the letters using a soft brush.
To further enhance the glow create a new layer by pressing Command-Shift-N (Control-Shift-N on the PC) and paint with the brush.
(10) Add One Last Photo
Insert one last image to fill in the space in the bottom left. Use a Layer Mask again to remove the hard edges of the photo.
(11) Create Smaller Icons of Photos
For a finishing touch, create a few icons of photos used in the image to place below the title. To do, fi rst copy in the photos previously used. Drag these photos to the top of the layer stack so that it covers the existing layers. Press M to switch to the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Drag to make a small horizontal rectangle. Now click the Add Layer Mask icon. Notice this hides the entire image except for the selection.
Now, click on the chain between the layer and the mask and unlink the mask. Push M for the Move Tool and drag around the contents of the layer and the mask will not move. Using Free Transform will not effect the rectangular shape of the mask as long as the layer and mask remain unlinked.
Add a few layer styles to icon. First, add a stroke to outline the edge (see figure below).
Next, add a drop shadow to make it pop (see figure below for settings).
The final step with this icon is to use an adjustment layer to change the color. Go to Layer>Add Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. This will change the color of the box. Click on the Colorize checkbox to make everything one color. Move the Hue slider until you find a color that fits with the color scheme. The settings I choose for this photo are shown in the figure to the right. It’s important to notice that right now the color is effecting the entire image. To isolate the adjustment just to the icon layer, create a Clipping Group.
The Clipping Group
The Clipping Group is a very handy feature for layers. The way the Clipping Group works is one layer acts as a mask for the other layers in the group.
All the layers above the base layer of the group that are contained in the group will be seen only through the active pixels in the base layer. Where there are no pixels in the base layer, the above layers will be invisible. The base layer’s transparency information is used as the mask.
The easy way to make a Clipping Group is to click between the layers you want to group in the Layers palette while pressing the Option key (Alt on a PC).
Now, using the Move Tool, place it right under the Seek Justice words. (Make sure to link the layer with the mask before moving it.)
Repeat these steps to make two more small icons below the Seek Justice title (as shown above). Use the Copy Layer Style feature to recreate the same shadow and stroke settings on the other two rectangles.
(12) Create Curves Adjustment Layer
To enhance the colors and to make it brighter on projection screens, let’s create an Adjustment Layer using Curves. Make the curve slightly to the left and you’ll notice the colors start to brighten up. Click the Preview check box on and off to see the before and after difference (see the figure to the left).
(13) Group the Title and Icon Layers
Because you might want to use this graphic without the Seek Justice text and icons, place all of those layers into a group. To do this, click on the Seek Justice layer and while holding the Command key (Control on a PC) click the icon layers and adjustment layers. If all the layers you want are in a row, you can press the Shift key instead and click on the first and last layer to select all of the layers in between. Then drag all of these layers to the Create a New Group icon on the Layers palette. Double-click on the Group to rename it “Title.”
By clicking the eye icon next to the group, it turns off the group of layers visibility. This will provide a version without the Title information.
Finally, duplicate this group and use the Free Transform Tool to create a Notes version. Reduce the size to 70% and turned off the visibility of our white layer. The final versions of the graphic are shown in the figures below.
John Falke is the Graphics and Communication Director at Fairfax Community Church in Fairfax, VA and the author of the Photoshop For Ministry seminar tour (www.photoshopforministry.com).
