Photoshop Tutorials

Final Result Preview

Find a great source image

If you're starting with a specific image you want to use as your poster, you'll need to locate a source image of a background of roughly the same proportions of the image you want to use. Otherwise, you'll risk skewing your image to undesirable proportions.

Import your image

To import the image I wanted to use for my poster, I selected File > Import Image and this prompted me to upload a new picture. I selected my Aviary poster and clicked Ok. When the upload was complete, it was automatically put on a new layer above the background image.

Locate the Distortion Tool

To distort the poster so it fits the perspective of the bus stop sign, I selected the Distortion Tool. As soon as you select this tool, four control points will appear around your image, one on each corner. I dragged these corners to their respective counterparts on the original bus stop sign. So that the top left corner box on my Aviary image will line up with the top left corner of the bus stop, etc.

Create a reflection

I was happy with the general placement of the poster, but I wanted to situate it into it's environment even better so I pretended this poster was protected by a sheet of glass. To create a reflection of the bus stop roof on my poster, I used the Lasso Tool to create a rough selection around the exposed tip of the roof. I selected Edit > Copy, then Edit > Paste. This copied my selection onto a new layer for me.

Situate your reflection

To reverse the glass to make it more suitable for a reflection, I selected Edit > Transform > Flip vertical. Then with the Transformation Tool, I dragged this selection to sit over the poster. I then used the Eraser Tool to remove the parts of this selection that wouldn't be affected by our glass.

Add some shadows

To further integrate this poster into the bus stop sign, I wanted to add a little bit of shadow along the edges. I selected my poster layer again in the layer palette menu. I then clicked the Magic Wand Tool on a transparent surroundings of the poster.

Then, I applied Select > Invert Selection to give me a selection around the poster. I created a new layer above the poster's. Using the Line Tool set at 7 pixels wide, I dragged along the right edge and bottom edge of the poster.

This created a shadowy effect giving the appearance of sinking the poster deeper into the bus stop sign. I lowered the Alpha of this layer to 50% so it wasn't overly dark.

Reflect onto the sidewalk a tiny bit

And finally, I wanted to add a subtle reflection of the sidewalk onto the poster. Again, I used the Lasso tool to select a nearby area of sidewalk, flipped the selection vertically, then used the Distortion Tool to follow the perspective of the rest of the sidewalk. I erased the portions of this selection that weren't on the poster. Then I lowered the Alpha of this layer to 50% to make it more subtle.