Posted on January 20, 2009 - by Khaled

Easily Create “Obama style” graphics with Photoshop

Easily show your support! This tutorial will show you how to use Photoshop to quickly turn your photograph into a graphic that has the “Obama style”. WIth Obama the internet was used at its fullest so this tutorial seems to be something in tune with his campaign! especially that today is his inauguration day. Start with your photograph, set the mode to CMYK.

Hit ctrl+M to pop up the curves window. Set channel to black, output to 70 and input to 35.

Then go to filter > Blur > Smart Blur. Set Radius to 2, threshold to 50 and quality to high.

Revert back to RGB Mode. Go to Image > adjustments > Gradient Map. Set the first color at location 0% (blue color: #03334c ), the second color at location 25% ( red color: #d91a21), the third point of the gradient at location 60% (color: #70969e) and the last one at location 100% (color #fce3a6). and hit OK. You will obtain this:

Add some ornaments and text to customize it more.

Tweak it a bit more with Mask layers, dodge and burn tools and you’re quickly done.

This was a tutorial written on the fly for the occasion of Obama’s inauguration day! Let’s say we’re full of hope right now for the future.