Giving a Mafia-Look to a Business Photo

Print advertisements - is one of the most interesting kinds of advertisement known. It attracts your attention by means of interesting effects and bright, clever and striking slogans. One of those attracted my attention lately. We often notice interesting prints in different places. The good and reasonable combination of the idea and its clever realization brings striking effect. From time to time, when I see interesting prints, I think that it is possible to make something resembling those at home using Photoshop.

My last impression is this advertisement:

I found out that this advertisement has been made by the team Stanescu/Dumitrescu/Pilat for the Mccann Erickson Agency. This print won the 8th edition of AdPrint festival in the nomination Best Use of Copywriting. So, I decided to create something of that sort and make a detailed step-by-step instruction of my work. My aim was to create special mood, which is slightly alike with that seen in original, and texture using Photoshop tools. Here’s the result:

I needed a photo of a girl to work with. I found the one necessary using the search on the www.bigstockphoto.com. I have chosen a matched photo from those presented on the website according to the query “business attractive young girl”.

The first step of my work is to create a new document with black background sized 700px by 900px. Place the photo of a model so that the girl would be visually in the centre of the document.

Now you should delete the background of the photo. To delete the background use extraction using Path tool or any other tool you got used to. Note that the cutting should be made carefully so that the photo could look good on any background of any color.

Now give the image a milder texture by means of laying Surface Blur Filter (Filter>Blur>Surface Blur). Select necessary parameters: Radius - 3pixels, Threshold - 6 levels. This effect will visually smooth the image and it will also hide slight defects of the cutting.

The next step is desaturating the image (Image>Adjustments>Desaturate). Afterwards you should deepen the image and give it some intensity. Make the light fields more intensive, as well as those dark too. Go to Image>Adjustments>Selective Color. Select Colors: Blacks, set Whites to -100% and select Colors: Whites, set Blacks to +53%. Press Оk.

Now give the photo some azure, it will give your work the effect of slight coldness. Use Photo Filter (Image>Adjustments>Photo Filter). Set the necessary parameters for the Filter you use: Color#266850, Density 70%.

You should blur a little the shapes of a girl on the photo. Use Gaussian Blur Filter (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur), sized 5px. To reach the effect needed you should edit the photo using Fade Gaussian Blur (Edit>Fade Gaussian Blur). Set the following parameters: Opacity - 29%, Mode - Linear Light. Now add a little texture using Film Grain Filter (Filter>Artistic>Film Grain). Also set: Highlight Area 3 and Intensity 3.

Add more details. Duplicate layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer…), set 40% opacity and use Brush Strokes (Filter>Brush Strokes>Angled Strokes). Set the following parameters: Direction Balance 77, Stroke Length 8, and Sharpness 2. Merge Down layers (Layer>Merge Down).

Now the shapes of the girl look the way they should according to my idea. We also should point out some element on the photo to make our girl more “mafia-looking” as it was in the original. Let it be the girl’s tie in our case. So, go to the Paths (Window>Paths). Press the button and create a new Path. Use Pen tool to draw out the tie.

Click the right button of your mouse and choose Path>Make Selection. Go back to the layers (Window>Layers). Copy the selected (Edit>Copy). Then you should create the new layer (Layer>New>Layer) and paste the selected from the clipboard (Edit>Paste). Now set foreground color #000000 and background color #880000. Draw Linear Gradient from right to left.

Add some more details: give some intensity and texture to the tie. Use Noise Filter (Filter>Noise>Add Noise) sized 3px. Now add Angeled Strokes (Filter>Artistic>Angeled Strokes). Set parameters: Direction Balance 77, Stroke Length 8, and Sharpness 2.

Create new Layer (Layer>New>Layer). As a next step, create Clipping Mask (Layer>Create Clipping Mask). Now Draw Linear Gradient (Foreground to Transparent) from the bottom of the tie to its middle. Make sure that the foregroud color is #2e1b1c. Now choose a Brush sized 30px-40px and move on the left from a tie so that the left part of the tie was affected a little to get a necessary overtone.

We got the effect needed. Now we need to make a frame and add some text. Download the font and install it into the folder Fonts in Windows. Add the text (”the painted one”) sized 45px to the top.

Now you should choose the bands. Choose #e2e2e2 color and draw a line from the left top angle to the middle of the photo using 1px pencil. Then use Motion Blur (Filter>Blur>Motion Blur) with Distance 100 and Angle 0 degrees. Delete little piece on the left.

Draw a line from the right down angle to the middle of the photo using 1px pencil. To make two vertical lines use grade angle 90 degrees.

So, we seem to finish our work. We have successfully made mafia-style girl from a business-looking one. Now you see that you are able to create an interesting work on a basis of a usual photo from any clipart. You should just have enough patience, instructions from this tutorial and some inspiration. Don’t be shy - do it! J. Good luck in your work!