For today’s exercise, I’d like you to take one or two images and create a brand new image. (If you don’t use your own photos, try to source a Creative Commons image. Pexels & Unsplash are also good royalty-free image collections.) Here are some of the things you can try. Have some fun with it, if you want, but I’m also cool with you making something useful such as a Facebook cover image. Here’s some things to try:
- mash the images together
- adjust the image levels and colours
- change the colour profile
- add new backgrounds
- add text
- manipulate using layer effects & filters.
Once you’ve created your masterpiece, I’d like you to:
- compress for the web
- post on your publish homepage.
What might this look like?
How about adding aliens to an old postcard:
Or creating a graphic you could use on Twitter:
Perhaps make a something of a famous quote:
Sizing
Or maybe you want to create something for one of your social media accounts? A new banner for Twitter or Facebook? First of all, you’ll need to figure out the required sizes. For example:
- Twitter: they recommend 1500 x 500 px, but it’s tricky. This article has some tips for mastering it.
- Facebook: this is even crazier. The “cover photo” should be set to 851 x 315 px, but that is for a personal profile. Pages, events and other uses such as the carousel are all different. This cheat sheet may be helpful.