Making a Poster

In making a poster, you can make use of the gradient tool(mentioned at another post)... You can also use the brushes which function like stamps.... You can use different font styles and sizes for the words and catch phrases you will use...

Gradient tool

Gradients are a great way to add that little something extra to a background or image. According to Adobe, “The Gradient tool creates a gradual blend between multiple colors.” Pretty straightforward, right?
Like many of the other tools, the Gradient Tool (G) will not work if your document is in Bitmap or Indexed mode. So, you will have to change the mode of the image if you are opening an existing .gif or .bmp file. To determine what mode your file is in:

1. Click the IMAGE menu.
2. Choose MODE from the menu.

From here you will be able to differentiate between grayscale, indexed color, RGB, or lab. For all web and mobile images we are going to want to make sure we select RGB.
You can use the gradient tool for background for tarpaulins and posters...

Sharpen tool

Sharpen - increases contrast in the areas where you paint.

The Sharpen tool in Photoshop Elements increases the contrast among adjacent pixels to give the illusion that things are sharper. This tool should be used with restraint, however. Sharpen can quickly give way to overly grainy and noisy images if you’re not cautious. Use a light hand and keep the areas you sharpen small.

Blur Tool

Blur Tool - blurs the area where you paint.

The Blur Tool does what it says on the tin - it blurs out sections of your photo or artwork. For all of these tools you will need to select a brush that is appropriate for the job you are going to do. You can manage the strength of the blur with the strength option.

The Blur tool also erases some pixels so your picture will not look pixelated....

The Smudge Tool

Smudge - blends the pixels where you paint simulating the action of dragging a finger through wet paint.

This is how you use the tool:

The Smudge Tool spreads and mixes content of image areas:

• In the Toolbox, select the Smudge Tool.
• Choose brush size and style.
• Set the tool's strength.
• Drag on the image.
• In the Options bar, you can also specify the effect's "Mode"

 Sources:

Definition
How to

Editing; Auto-Contrast

The Auto Contrast command adjusts image contrast automatically. Because Auto Contrast does not adjust channels individually, it does not introduce or remove color casts. It clips the shadow and highlight values in an image and then maps the remaining lightest and darkest pixels in the image to pure white (level 255) and pure black (level 0). This makes the highlights appear lighter and shadows appear darker.

To visit the original site, click here.

Layers of Photoshop

Like a cake, photoshop has layer. It can be confusing sometimes but they make your work more manageable because you can easily erase the not-so-good layers and add another layer which you can work on again. if you are editing a picture, you can also create a new layer with the same picture and work on it so later you can compare which is better your edited picture or the old one.....