hi chan! i was trying to attempt my own graphic and i had a question: on the graphics for vision, @/unforgive, and your aurra promo, how did you do the background? your aurra promo background seems to have a negative effect and for the life of me, i can't figure it out shjkdf so i was hoping you could give a bit of help or tutorial, if that's okay? also, how did you do the circle on your lois header? and do you have any tips on how to color without using a psd? i'm trying to follow your tip of avoiding crunchy psds when making promos. for example, i want my promo to be red based, so how would i make sure that it pops? i hope these are okay questions to ask! thank you so much for all you do :)
hi!! omg truthfully as a whole these questions are a little loaded, so i'll try to answer in as best detail as i can!! answering your first: the negative effect!! i'm assuming you meant this:
while its easy to just simply invert + add b&w to your image, i tend to use to gradient map adjustment instead!! it gives you a LOT more control over the details youre seeing and customisation! the first image you can see the sorta classic inversion, but in the second, with a couple adjustment to the gradient map, the image can look super different and change my result entirely!! also, for comparisons sake, below is the inverted image with a black+white filter vs a gradient map!
the differences are super subtle, and its definitely possible to get the same effect with the back+white filter with a few adjustment layers, i just feel like messing with a gradient map gives a much more solid inverted look + gives you a lot more freedom with customisation with a limited palette. its a matter of preference and you should give both methods a try to see which better suits your editing style, but this is how i personally do it! :] i know i havent explained this in much detail which i apologise for!! but the tool is relatively straight forward and easy to get a hang of. regardless, if you have any questions or need any help, just shoot me another ask and i'll see what i can do!
the circle on my lois header was actually from a bought texture pack that you can find here!! but i'm more than certain there's similar things to find on google; maybe try something like hand drawn circle assets or pngs? hopefully you'll find something useable!! refining the search with the tools also helps!
and as for tips for editing without a pre-made psd, it's just a matter of really getting to know the tools that are at your disposal!! using clipping masks or layer masks are a godsend if you only want to edit certain assets of your image, but it's otherwise just a matter of trial and error i'm afraid! curves, levels, hue/saturation and selective colour adjustments are my absolute best friends, and i personally think that getting yourself familiar with those tools especially is a pretty solid place to start!! thankfully reds are a lil easier to work with in the sense that you dont have to worry as much about losing things like skin tones in your image, so its a pretty good colour to start off with in regards to experimenting with your photoshop skills!!
i'm sure you were hoping for something a little more than this, but hopefully it helps you out a little bit at the very least!! if you have any follow up questions or you need a lil more depth on my sloppy insight, please feel free to reach out!!