First time trying to do a tutorial, but I got asked more than once about this header already and I thought I just try to do a tutorial about it.

I am trying to get you from...

THIS:


to THIS:


using Photoshop CS2.


+ So first of all get your imagine and crop it how you like it best. Since I didn't wanted to cut off too much of all the guys legs I made mine pretty big and sharpened it once. The base was so huge that it got all blurry as I resized it, that's why I sharpened it, like it better that way.


Not how I cropped it, just a small preview of how the pic is processing.


+ Then I put a Color Balance Layer on top of the base. With the following settings on Midtones...

-13
-1
+22

Keep Preserve Luminosity checked.




+ Added this texture by peoplemachines. I did move it a bit like I wanted it best and set it on Screen with 59% Opactiy.


+ Now we get to the circly-things people asked about...
I put this texture on top (I forgot who made it, so if it's yours tell me and I'll change it here), set it on Screen, Opacity 58%. I erased the parts that I didn't wanted to have on there. Mostly the parts on the guys. Then just duplicate that layer, but now set the Opacity to 100%.




+ Go on with two color layers.
For the first make a new layer and fill it with #09072e and set it to Saturation, Opacity 30%.
Fill the second layer with #fce8ce. Set this one on Color Burn.




+ I made a new layer then, picked the brush with the background color to paint a bit on the top of the right side, because I wanted the header to have like a frame around it and there was too much of the lighter background on this site.


+ Now on to the last step which is a Hue/Saturation layer. Add it on top with the following settings...

Master: +12
Reds: -26
Yellows: -56
Greens: +1
Cyans: +11
Blues: +27
Magentas: +33




And that's it. You can add text and whatever else you want from now on, I just don't like to have too much stuff on a header. It only distracts from the picture itself.


Remember that these are only guidelines and don't work well for every picture that's out there.