Graphics Tips

Adobe Photoshop Tip: Attack of the iPod People

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iPod People, iCharacters, silhouettes--whatever you call them, they are those cool people who dance around in the iPod TV commercials and show up in the posters and billboards you might have seen around town and I'm going to show you how to make your own in Photoshop CS (this tutorial will work in other versions but will require some digging on your own to find out how).

Prep 1: Choose a picture

You're going to need a photo of someone or something to iPodify and it should be reasonably high in resolution and size and should be in either RGB or CMYK mode. The picture I'm using here (used with the gracious permission of its subject, the lovely, brilliant and talented MacHottie from Inside Mac Radio and camera phone girl, Laura Burstein (read her blog)) is 1280 x 1707 pixels which works out to 4.25" x 5.5ish" at 300 ppi.

(Thanks for the pic, Laura!!!)

There are several elements to a silhouette poster and each of them should be considered when choosing a picture:

  1. Action: Your subject should be doing something. Even though this will be a still image, your subject should be doing something interesting. While many iPod users listen to their music while waiting for the bus, I have yet to see an iPod ad depicting a silhouetted form just standing around looking down the road for the 3 o'clock to downtown. Find a shot that looks dynamic. See above how Laura is striking a "Charlie's Angels" pose?
  2. The iPod: Now I'm not saying you have to have a shot with someone holding an iPod--not at all. But in order to really sell your finished image as an homage to the iPod silhouette ads, your subject should have something about them to highlight--something that takes on the importance of the iPod in your image.
  3. Detail: One of the most common mistakes I've seen in tutorials showing how to replicate the iPod ad style is that they make the silhouette a true silhouette when, if you look at the ads, the people actually do show detail...not a lot...it's really dark...but it's there. So if you've attempted to simplify the process by shooting a silhouette that shows only a hard outline of your subject with a solid black fill within, you've probably gone too far.
  4. Depth (optional): If your subject is going to be shown from head to toe (assuming it's a person), you will have to consider that we will be adding a cast shadow that will place your subject in the three dimensional iPod universe making it all seem a bit more "real." You'll want to allow for that shadow by adding canvas space to your image before we get to deep into the tutorial. As indicated, this is optional since some images will be head and shoulder shots that do not show the floor or, quite possibly, you could be making an iPod silhouette of some kind of supernatural being like a vampire and therefore a shadow would not be necessary.

Prep 2: Choose a color

Once you've got your picture chosen, you'll want to choose a color. A silhouette is nothing without a vibrant background by which to be silhouetted. The semi-somewhat-official iPod poster palette of colors goes something like this:

Sample Color CMYK RGB
Pink 9 - 83 - 12 - 0 235 - 82 - 150
Orange 5 - 51 - 100 - 0 245 - 145 - 16
Yellow 13 - 24 - 100 - 0 231 - 171 - 0
Green 43 - 6 - 95 - 0 164 - 201 - 60
Blue 78 - 34 - 0 - 0 0 - 148 - 224
Purple 42 - 69 - 8 - 0 164 - 106 - 168

Which one should you choose? I dunno, try them all! As you will soon see the changing the color is the easy part of this tutorial.

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