Photoshop CS3 Photo Effects Cookbook

Recipe 2.2. Psychedelic poster effect

Every now and then, as creatives, we crave images that break away from the norm and have a bit more impact. As I've said so many times in this book, with Photoshop as your chosen tool, the possibilities for bending the rules are limitless. In this exercise, we'll take a fairly run-of-the-mill image and give it a touch of 60s Psychedelia. Here we'll replicate the effect of an iconic 60s poster, complete with halftone printing patterns. To create this image, we have to first convert it to a bitmap so that we can generate the halftone pattern. This is a very handy process that you'll find a use for over and over again.

1 First, open the start image in Photoshop and desaturate it via Image > Mode > Grayscale. We need to tweak the contrast a little, so go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Increase the Brightness to +10 and the Contrast to +38.

2 We need a halftone printing effect on the image, and we'll achieve this by converting it to Bitmap Mode. To begin that process, go to Image > Mode > Bitmap. In the Bitmap dialog, set the Output resolution to match the input (here it's 300 dpi), and choose Halftone Screen for Method. Click OK. In the next dialog, set the Frequency to 20 lines/inch, Angle to 45, and Shape: Round. Click OK to ...