How'd they do that?

Hey all,

Have you ever seen a cool design and thought, how'd they do that? 

I am convinced that with our introduction to Photoshop, we can start to identify the tools used to create pretty detailed designs. Take for example the above poster from the University of Missouri. Football players are cutout (lasso tool), black and white with a transparency that allows the yellow background to show through (image>adjustments>desaturate, layer>multiply). There are shadows (drop shadow) and other effects we can describe...

Our next assignment will be to find some digital imagery that you really respond to (aka that you really like!) and try to recreate it in your own way - by identifying tools used and recreating your own version...