Let me show you how to make a simple poster with a special effect. I will call it the Shattered Axe Effect. You will need a number of images which you can download. I will give the links.
Step 1 : Open a New White Layer in Photoshop.
Step 2 : Click on the Foreground Color.
Step 3 : In the box shown by the red arrow type in ff200a. This is a bright red color. Click ok.
Step 4 : Press ALT+BACKSPACE and the White layer will fill with the chosen color.
Note that there is only a single layer in the Layers pallette.
I have opened this free stock image. You can download it here. You will only need to register.
And this. You can download it here.
And this. You can download it here.
And this. You can download it here. You can of course use your own images.
Step 5 : Open the axe image press CTRL+A. A column of marching ants will immediately surround the edges of the image. Now press CTRL+C.
Step 6 : Go to the Red layer image and press CTRL+V. The axe photo will be pasted on the Red layer.
Step 7 : Click the Move Tool and check the 'Show Transform Controls'. It is called Bounding Box in Photoshop 7 and is found in the same place. It is very important to do this otherwise you will not be able to see the corner handles around an image.
You can see the corner handles now.
Step 8 : Press SHIFT+ALT and drag any of the corner handles. It will increase in size proportionately till it covers the entire layer underneath.
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Step 9 : Now click the tick mark in the top panel to apply the transformation.
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Step 16 : Now click off the eye icon on Layer1.
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Step 39 : Now drag back the Opacity to 100%.Step 40 : Now click the Tick mark at the right of the top panel to apply the transformation.
Step 41 : Following the same steps copy and paste the other two photos onto to the axeimage.
This is how the Layers pallette looks like. Note that the top layer in highlighted. It means we are on this layer.
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Look in the Layers pallette. The Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer appears.
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Step 44 : In the dialogue box check Colorize. First drag the Hue slider to right a little at a time. I want a sepia tone. You can choose any color you want. Then drag the Saturation slifgtly to the left to increase the Saturation. Lastly drag the Lightness slider a little to the left. When ou drag each slider you will be able to see the effect on the image.
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This is the effect I have got. Note that the Background has obliterated the red background. Do not worry that will be fixed later.
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Step 45 : Now press ALT and press just at a point between Layer 3and 2. A small black
circle will appear. Let us see what happens.
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The girls's face has fitted onto the broken axe.
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Step 46 : : Now press ALT and click at the border between layer 3 and 4.
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The other girl's image fits into the axe.
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Step 47 : Do the same with the old man's image. 
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Step 48 : Now click directly on the Layer mask to select it. when you click the Layer Mask a border appears all around it indicating that the Mask has been selected.
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Look at the Foreground and Background Colors. They should be at the default Black Foreground and White Background. It it is not press 'x' and then 'd'.
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Step 49 : Click the Gradient Tool.
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Step 50 : Click where the arrow points to. It will bring up the Gradient Editor.
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The Gradient Editor comes up. Click on the second Gradient from the top left.
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Step 51 : Click on the left bottom Stop and the Color changes to Black. Click on the Black.
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Step 52 : When you clcik on the Black, Select Stop Color dialogue box opens. In the box at the bottom write ff200a. Click ok.
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The color changes to a bright red.
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Step 53 : Press SHIFT and draw from the top to the bottom. You will find that you can draw in a straight line. Then drag from bottom to top.
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This is the effect that I have got.
Step 66 : Press ALT and click between the border of Hue/Saturation layer and Layer 5. A black dot appears.
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And the red background layer shows through.
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Add some text and the poster is complete. Try it out.
Other Photoshop tutorials are here.
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