This Photoshop tutorial is all about how to create a cool effect where type is intertwined through a floral bouquet. We’ll cover how to layer masks and shadows to build a complex effect that has depth and shape. We will also create a type of parchment paper beneath the floral design to make sure the whole effect sits on a beautiful background.
Finding the Photo, Extending the Canvas, & Masking
You can search around and purchase a stock photo of a bouquet, or you can throw a white background on the ground and stand over your own bouquet and snap a photo and bring that into Photoshop. I used the Crop tool to drag out the edges of my image to get the perfect size and ratio for my image. I also added a background using Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color and chose the color #fffebb. With the flowers photo placed in the PSD, I went to Select>Color Range and selected the white in the background with the eyedropper tool and used the Fuzziness slider to get the perfect selection and then go Layer>Layer Mask>Hide Selection.
Adding the Border and Masking Under the Flowers
Use the Rectangle tool and drag out a shape over the bouquet and get rid of the fill and use the stroke options and set the stroke to the outside and set the stroke color to #d42844. Add a Layer Mask to this shape layer and zoom in and use your Brush tool to paint black over any yellow flowers that should be sitting “on top of” the border. This part takes a little time and precision. Take your time, when it’s done right, it looks so amazing!
Painting Shadows Under the Flowers
After the mask is complete and you can see the flowers above the border, it’s time to add a shadow beneath to help build this depth. Grab the Brush tool and set the opacity of the tool to 20%. Paint with your foreground color set to black. Create a new layer and paint where you think shadows should be (don’t worry if the shadow appears on top of the flowers, we’ll mask this to make it look perfect.) TIP: Using a large, soft brush usually works best for painting the shadows. Add a mask to this layer and Cmd/Ctrl + click the mask that was created to hide part of the border “behind” the flowers to load it as a selection and then inverse the selection by hitting Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + I and then paint the color black into this complex selection to hide the bits of shadow which fall above the flowers. This is fairly complex to explain, it may be easiest to check out the video around the 12:44 minute mark.
Adding the Text
Grab the Text tool and set the text size to 175pt, I used the font “Novecento Bold” which is a free font and you could either use the color we used for the border or just simply use white. I created one letter at a time and then used the Move tool (V) to move the letters into a position that I thought looked pretty good.
Adding Text Shadows, Blending the Text into the Bouquet, Shading, & More
Use the techniques that we have already used to add shadows beneath the text where it overlaps the border, we also want to use a mask and paint away edges of the text where we can to make it appear as if the text is tucked beneath leaves or petals and then create another layer and paint shading into the image where the text is tucked into the bouquet and mask this layer to just the areas of text showing. We also go on to add accent text, a drop shadow, and much more. Because of the number steps used to create this effect and the complexity of creating selections for the different masks, you’ll definitely want to check out the video at the top of this post. Thanks for checking out this tutorial!
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