Design a Horror Looking, Extreme Grungy Style Poster in Photoshop

Posted on May 17th, 2009 in Photo Effect.

Tags: abstract, effect, grungy, horror, intermediate, photo

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In this tutorial, I will show you the processes involved in creating this Horror Looking, Extreme Grungy Style Poster in Photoshop.

Along the way, we will be using Photoshop techniques such as the Extract filter, layer blending effects, masking, a variety of photo filtering tools and image adjustment tools. I would like to put emphasis towards the Extract Filter and show you what you can do with the tool when it comes to complex selection (e.g. hair selection).

This is an intermediate tutorial and can be a bit tricky, but why not have a try :)

Here is a preview of my final effect:

Alternative version:

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OK let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Wedding Skirt Stock

Grungy brushset

Step 1

Load the “Wedding skirt stock” image into Photoshop. Now what we need to achieve is to take the model out and seperate it from the rest of the image.

You may use any selection tools you like (Pen Tool, Lasso Tool, Magic Wand) to do this, however I feel the most convenient tool here is in fact the Extract Filter (located under Filter > Extract or shortcut Ctrl + Alt + X). The reason is because with Extract Filter, you can easily make a selection around the model’s hair – which would be difficulty if you use any other selection tools.

So Go to Filter > Extract and click on the marker on the top left corner: (I used a brush size of 40px)

Mark around the model as shown below:

Then click on the Paint bucket under the marker:

Fill the inside area as shown below:

Click on the “OK” button and you will see the background around the model disappears. Now create a new document sized 2400px * 3600px with 200 dpi resolution, use the Movel Tool (V) and drag the model onto the new document.

Now you may see under the model’s right arm there is a portion of the texture isn’t removed. We can easily fix this by using Magic Wand tool to make a selection:

Go to Edit > Clear and you will see it’s now removed:

Here is the overall effect so far – you may see the edge of the model appears to be torned. I was going to the correct this, but in the end decided to leave it as it is for the final effect. Be aware this was created from the Extract Filter and because the brush size I used. You can avoid this by changing the brush size to a smaller one in Extract Filter.

Name this layer as “Model” and prepare for some Photo Retouching fun!

Step 2

Duplicate this model layer Once. Apply the following blending mode to the duplicated layer:

Blending Mode: Multiply

Opacity: 100%

Go to Filter > Brush strokes > sumi -e and apply the following settings:

Then apply the following Layer Mask to this duplicated layer: (Tip: use the Gradient Tool to achieve this effect)

Duplicate this layer twice, keep the blending mode of those two layers as “Muliply”, but drop their opacity to 60%. You will have the following effect:

Step 3

Duplicate the original “Model” layer once again and drag this duplicated layers on top of all other layers.

On the first (bottom) duplicated layer, apply the following Gaussian Blur settings:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Screen” and add a layer mask to it. On the mask, use the Eraser Tool to ereser some random areas on the shirt so to create some lighting depth:

After erasing, duplicate this layer once and change the blending mode to “Soft light”, here is th effect so far:

Step 4

Duplicate the original “Model” layer one more time and drag it on top of all other layers, apply the following High Pass filter (Filter > other > high pass) to it:

Change the layer blending mode to “Hard Light” and you will have the following effect:

Optional Step: to add some extra smoothness and lighting contrast to the image, you can duplicate the original “Model” layer one more time, apply the following Gaussian Blur settings:

Change the blending mode to “Screen” and add a layer mask to the layer, erase the following parts on the mask:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 5

On top of all previous layers, add the following two adjustment layers (Layer > new adjustment layer > …)

Levels

Black and White

Create a new layer called “colour” on top of those two adjustment layers, set its blending mode to “overlay” and opacity to 40% and use a dark brown brush to paint over the following area:

Add another Curves Adjustment layer on top of the “colour” layer, apply the following settings:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Now let add some background textre to it. Create a new layer just above the background layer, use the Grungy brushset to over it (try out different brush flow and opacity settings), here is my effect so far:

To add a bit more texture effect, we can create a new layer fill with Black colour, go to Filter > Render > Fiber and apply the following settings:

Change the blending mode to “Soft light” and drop the opacity to 55%, you will have the following effect:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! You can of course add some of your own texture or filter effect and see what the end results are!

Here is my final image for this tutorial: (I slightly adjusted the colour contrast and add some motion blur effect) – Click to enlarge:

Alternative version:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

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