Having seen this effect whilst browsing random websites, I thought i'd see if I could recreate the look. Photoshop makes this very easy to achieve. The original photograph was taken by Andrew Semansco and can be found on Flickr. Here is how to create the comic book version in 5 minutes.

The first thing to do is create a curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) and create an "s-curve" resembling the one below. Some image detail will be lost, but reds will now appear slightly more vibrant - ideal for a comic panel.




The next step is to create a copy of the original image (right-click > Duplicate Layer on the PC).  Drag this copy above the curves layer in the layers palette. A halftone effect is then applied to the copy (Filter > Pixelate > Color halftone). For whatever reason, there is no preview option for this filter, so just experiment. A Max Radius of 4 was used for this tutorial, with all other settings left at their defaults.

The resulting effect is too severe, so change the layer mode from Normal to Multiply, and drop the opacity down to somewhere in the region of 20% - 40%. You should now have something that looks like this:




All that is left to do for the background image is to add a border. To do this, right-click on the original image layer (not the semi-transparent one from the previous step) and select Blending Options. Click Stroke, set Size to somwhere below 5, Position to Inside (or the border will be outside the visible image area) and Color the black.




Now onto the text box. Create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer) and use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select an area of a similar size to the white box in the image below. Don't worry about its positioning too much at this stage. Next set the foreground colour to white, select the Paint Bucket tool and fill the area previously highlighted with the Rectangular Marquee tool.

As with the background image, create a black border around the white rectangle by right-clicking on the new layer and selecting Blending Options. Click Stroke and set up as before - Position is not important this time around.

Feel free to move and rotate the white rectangle to a position that suits you. Once this is done, use the Type tool to add some text to the box. Blambot.com has a good selection of comic-style fonts, many of which are free to download. Letter-o-matic was used for this tutorial.




Finally, add a caption in a colourful font to finish things off. Here Stroke was used again to add a black border, drop shadow was applied to make the text appear to be sitting slightly above the text box. A gradient overlay was added from Blending Options to complete the look. Play around with the gradient colours until you find something you like.



Here, for comparison, are the before and after versions of the image.




The Photoshop document for this tutorial can be found in the downloads section here.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (1)

Show/Hide comments

...
written by chrisd87 , June 30, 2008

cool effect man.

Show/Hide comment form