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[Bunny Dojo]

Key Largo (1948) Blu-ray Custom Cover

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[Wrench]

Nice job Tim

[chouette]

A real beauty!

[Jazzy]

Outstanding  

[StrangeMan]

Really nice one

[ctaulbee]

Outstanding work on this Tim, I just love it buddy

[alienmem]

Very cool cover

[VincentLupo]

Great cover Tim!

[bankska22]

Great work, Tim! That's a battle Royal winner!!!!

[stardragon9]

Fantastic work!

[Kellevra]

verry nice design !

[topmeasure]

Beautiful cover.

[tmscrapbook]

EXCELLENT - as always

[M0vieM0nster]

Simply amazing work as to be expected! Oh speaking of Battle Royale... could that be an option during these time?

[redt8tr]

Very nice cover!

[wysmommy]

Stunning design. I love it.

[bewarethebeastman]

That's some amazing work on those actors especially. Have you by chance posted any tutorials on how you get these old crappy photos to look like this?

[Sassy]

What a beautiful cover I just love it

[Bunny Dojo]

That's some amazing work on those actors especially. Have you by chance posted any tutorials on how you get these old crappy photos to look like this?

Sorry I missed your question before!  For me, it's just an accumulation of a lot of little things gradually learned over the years.  Generally...

Step 1: Figure out which image you want to use

Step 2: Clean up the image, removing dust, crease marks, etc. -- I mostly just use the old Clone Stamp Tool

Step 3: Colorize the image

3a: For skin tones, I use a series of Gradient Maps, Color Balance adjustments, and manually drawing in color (a little red on cheeks, a little grey on a five o'clock shadow, etc.)

3b: For clothes and other items, it's sometimes as simple as a single layer of color on Color or Overlay blending mode

So, you have your original image untouched, then a layer (or a folder of layers) for the cleanup, then a folder for color.

Step 4: Treat it like a normal photo from that point on, with things like Levels or Contrast adjustments, etc.  You can also do this before the color stage -- I usually try to make the black and white image look as good as possible, then once you add in color (and figure out the overall atmosphere of the cover), that usually opens up additional areas for improvement.

Here's a progression of the cover:

Key-Largo-a-b.gif (892.54 KiB) Viewed 3042 times

Here's my DVD cover for the same title from a dozen years ago -- a lot learned since then and a lot left to learn:  

Key-Largo-DVD.jpg (238.82 KiB) Viewed 3042 times

[Jazzy]

Wow.... just Wow!

[bewarethebeastman]

That’s pretty amazing, thanks for the breakdown. I’m gonna have to check it out closer when I have photoshop open and try out a few
things. That first step of making the black and white photo as best as you can seems the trickiest.

That's some amazing work on those actors especially. Have you by chance posted any tutorials on how you get these old crappy photos to look like this?

Here's a progression of the cover:

Key-Largo-a-b.gif

Key-Largo-DVD.jpg

[topmeasure]

Amazing stuff Tim.

[chefjoe]

Super covers as per usual with you my friend, and a TUT to boot, Nice!!!

[bankska22]

Just perfect!!!!

[ctaulbee]

Nice follow up post Tim, I just saw it