Create a web banner with Photoshop

Allthou many could say that Adobe Photoshop is way too complex to use it to create web banners, much many would rather stop working than using any other DTP software. So let’s see how we can create a banner for a automotive website.

First things first: create a new document and fill it with color.

Then bring a car into the composition. You can isolate a car from anywhere or bring it with the background and add a layer mask to it, like I did here. For the effect I’m looking for, I will need a picture with a car that is coming towards me.

On a new layer on top, add an image with clouds (the more, the better), dark clouds like smoke. Desaturate the layer by pressing Ctrl + Shift + U. Add a layer mask to this layer and using a big brush with soft edges (over 120 px diameter) hide the clouds in front of the car so it looks like the car is coming from them.

Find a racing flag and bring it on top of everything and duplicate it by pressing Ctrl + J.

For the bottom layer with the flag add a Gaussian Blur.

For the top layer with the flag change the Blending Mode to Screen and everything should look like this:

The layers should look something like this (more or less the layer masks):

Add some text and the final result is not bad at all:

Tags: automotive banner, banner, photoshop banner