In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a grunge style album cover for a music album using various textures and stock images.
Materials for the lesson:
First you need to find the right image for your album cover. I used the photo.
Note translator. At this stage, change the size of the future album cover to a suitable one, if necessary, crop the image.
There is noise in this photo, we’ll get rid of it. Select for this in the menu Filter> Noise> ReduceNoise (Filter – Noise – Reduce Noise) with the specified settings.
Add an adjustment layer Levels (Levels) to enhance contrast. Click on the icon of the adjustment layer at the bottom of the layers palette and select from the list Levels (Levels).
In the settings for the adjustment layer Levels (Levels) There are black, white and gray color pipettes. Use them to define black, white and neutral tones in your photo, i.e. take each pipette and click on the corresponding point on the image.
Note translator. To accurately find the white (black) dots on your image, hold down Alt, Start moving the white (black) slider below the histogram to the left (right) until the first details appear in the image. Specify these points as white (black) points with the help of color pipettes.
Add clipping mask for the created layer. Levels (Levels), so that the correction is applied only to the layer with the photo. To do this, press Alt and click between these layers on the layers palette.
The first texture that we add to the work, you can download the link in the archive.
After loading, open the texture in Photoshop, place this layer on top of all layers, if necessary, transform the texture to the size of your work (You can use the command File> Place (File – Post) and specify the desired texture).
Change the blending mode for the texture layer to Screen (Screen / Lightening), Lower the Opacity of the layer to 60%.
Now add the texture of the starry sky, which can be found on the NASA website.
Place this texture over the sky area in your work.
Select Image> Adjustments> Levels (Image – Correction – Levels) and use the color pipettes again to enhance the black and white tones in the image.
Add a mask to this layer by clicking on the corresponding mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
While in mask mode, paint over with black Brush 
(Brushtool) the lower area of the image is where the stars are not needed. Change the blending mode for this layer to Screen (Screen / Lightening).
Now add a highlight to the work. To do this, first create a new layer and fill it with black.
Select from the menu Filter> Render> LensesFlare (Filter – Rendering – Blick) and make the specified settings. Position the flare as shown in the screenshot.
Change the blending mode of the layer with the glare on Screen (Screen / Lightening).
Now we need another grunge texture.
Place the texture layer on top of all layers (if necessary, transform this layer to the size of your work). Bleach Textured Layer Image – Adjustment – Desaturation (Image – Correction – Discolor). And slightly increase the contrast – Image – Adjustment – Brightness/Contrast (Image – Correction – Brightness / Contrast).
Change the blending mode of the texture layer to Overlay (Overlap).
To create a logo, we will use a brush with the image of a star, which can be taken in the archive.
Create a new layer using the tool Brush (Brushtool) and a brush with a star, draw a big white star.
Add a mask to the star layer.
Now we will again use our grunge texture to texture the star. On the layer mask, select in the menu Image> Apply Image, as a layer, specify the name of your layer with a grunge texture.
The result is that the grunge texture is placed as a layer mask.
While on the layer mask, increase its brightness and contrast by selecting for this Image – Adjustment – Brightness/Contrast (Image – Correction – Brightness / Contrast).
After that, right-click on the layer mask on the layers palette and select ApplylayerMask (Apply a layer mask).
Now add the name of the musical group to the logo with a star. You can use Allstar Font for this.
Choose a tool Texttool
(Horizontal Text).
Use the following settings.
When you are satisfied with the arrangement of the text, hide the visibility of the text layer on the layers palette. Go back to the star layer and add a layer mask to it.
As we did earlier, being on the layer mask, select in the menu Image> Apply Image, this time, specify a text layer as a layer.
Being on the layer mask, correct the appearance of edges and gaps along the edges of the text using the tool Brush ( Brushtool).
Note translator. The author corrected the lower right corner of the letter N and the lower left corner of the letter D.
Add another line with the text in the work – the name of your album.
You can use a standard font for this. CenturyGothic, but adjust the spacing between the letters as shown below.
At the end your layer palette should look like this.
This was the final result – the cover for the music album.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Thank you for reading the lesson.
