It can probably be done in PSE, but you'll be better off using a publishing program like Word or a Web page building program.

Ken

It all depends on how much "handling" you want to do to the photos.  PSE can do a whole heck of a lot, but for a Facebook page you might only need what Word can do to enhance photos.

If you've seen similar projects on Facebook, you can ask their authors what they used.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not trying to discourage you from using PSE, but it does cost real money (even when it's discounted), and if you're not going to be doing much to the photos why not save some money by looking at some different tools.  For example, if you're running Windows, there's the free Paint.Net image editing program:

http://www.getpaint.net/

Ken

jrdakine wrote:

 

Ken...Photodrawken, thank you so much for taking the time to help me and answering my questions. I really appreciate it !! I am using an iMac with Microsoft word installed with PowerPoint Word and excel installed. I would probably be doing some Photo enhancements, nothing extreme just the basic stuff. Are you familiar with Gimp? Would that be worth using? I've ask one person who made flyers and all he would say was photoshop. No help.

 

Thanks again Ken,

 

Jr

As a matter of fact, Gimp can do even more than Elements, especially with text. You'll probably get less help with Gimp than with Elements.

For projects like flyers, many kind of software can do the job as explained above. Not only page layout programs like InDesign, Qarkexpress or the free Scribus, but vector drawing ones like Illustrator or the free Inkscape as well as general purpose ones like Word or Openoffice.

All the stuff with text can be done in Word -- you can place the bits of text wherever you want and Word has quite a lot of text effects, like the gradient used in the "After Party" text.

The background image is quite complex, with the main figure pulled out of another photo and silhouette figures added and streaks and the glowing swirl, etc.  You'll definitely need PSE for that.

Ken

That swirl effect is an interesting one.  I "cheated" and created the swirl in CorelDraw (vector graphic) and exported it as an EPS file, then imported the EPS into the image in PSE.

Given this original image:

This is the swirl:

Here's the result:

The layers look like this:

The steps:

1. Opened the original image of Katie.
2. Double-clicked on that background image to convert it to a normal layer.
3. Used the Quick Selection tool to select her.
4. Inverted the selection and hit the Delete key to remove the background.  This became layer "Katie base".
5. Duplicated the layer.  This became layer "Katie erase".
6. Used File...Place to import the EPS swirl.  This is the hidden layer "swirl".
7. Made two duplicates of the swirl layer and simplified both layers.
8. The "swirl copy sparkle" layer had the Outer Glow...Noisy effect applied with a size of 10px, an opacity of 100% and a pure yellow colour.
9. The "swirl copy 2 inner shadow" layer has these effects:
   Inner Glow -- Size: 6px, Opacity: 100%.
   Bevel -- Size: 2px.
   Inner Shadow...Reverse Shadow.
10. Then I used the Eraser tool with a hard-edged round brush on the "Katie erase" layer to reveal the swirl and its sparkle in specific areas.
11. I added a new layer at the bottom of the stack (the "Background" layer) and applied the Filter...Render...Clouds and Filter...Stylize...Wind to it.
12. Added a Hue/Saturation layer clipped to the "Background" layer to adjust its colour.
13. Added a new layer at the top of the stack (the "Starburst" layer) and used the Assorted Brushes...Starburst Small brush with white at 123px size, with its angle changed to 28d to create the starburst, clicking 3 times to get the opacity I wanted.

As far as I can remember, that's it!

I think the swirl can be drawn directly in PSE using a tablet and pen to get the width variation, but I was too lazy to hook it up....

Ken

Glad to help.  Have some fun!

Added:

If you want the swirl to appear rounded (instead of looking like a flat ribbon), on the "swirl copy 2 inner shadow" layer use the "Wow Neon" effect:

Ken

Message was edited by: photodrawken to add example.