I'm not a designer, but I just made these banners (pics)
 

Let me know what you think, and what I should improve. They are static right now. I guess I better learn how to make them dynamic, lol!

http://www.nylonsblog.com/Images/tes...els200x300.gif
200x300


http://www.nylonsblog.com/Images/tes...els180x150.gif
180x150


http://www.nylonsblog.com/Images/tes...els160x600.gif
160x600

http://www.nylonsblog.com/Images/tes...dels120x60.gif
120x60


Shoot!

Pretty fucking nice!

not bad... :)
a little more practice on extracting and you'll be fine. :thumbsup

thanks, but what do you mean by that? extracting? My english skills sucks sometimes

extracting is cutting the model out from the image. Depending on which version of photoshop you have, there is an "extract" tool that will make your life much easier with that..

what he said :)

not bad for an amateaur...

Not bad at all..better than what I could do

You should color correct your model images. The top one in particual is to dark and washed out.

Also use a call to action on every creative. A button goes a long way to getting those CTR's up.

ah... Ok. What I do, is that i copy the girl into the banner, and use the eraser tool around her. If i zoom enough, I can remove every dot around her.. I thought I did that job good enoug, but I guess I need some more practice yes!

yup.. you did a good job for an amateur :thumbsup

Ok, I have infact not done anything with the brightness and contrasts! Will do that now!

true true. I don't think I will use that button for my site!

thanks!! :)

blue ones are pretty good.

not bad at all :thumbsup

Not too bad!!

Thanks a lot. I am almost blushing! Lol

Here's another one I made after making this thread.

http://www.nylonsblog.com/Images/tes...dels728x90.gif

But the quality was not too good. Perhaps I should store it as jpeg!? And that field on the right, needs to be dynamic! :)

They look pretty good to me :)

Alot also call it rendering. Depends on the circles you hang with.

im not a designer.... but the most important things to do in doing banner is to cut the images clean... the are two good ways to cut it clean... the pen tool and extract... and be sure to avoid stylish font or difficult to read fonts.. just use clean fonts as much as possible.. and the other thing will depend on your creativity my friend.. :thumbsup

As a general rule of thumb if there is a lot of flesh or color gradients than a .jpg is perferable to a .gif If there are a lot of flat solid blocks of color (or animation is needed) than a .gif is perfered.

With your "ENTER HERE" text make sure that you use a readable sans-serif font that contrasts well with the bgcolor.

You are getting there - just keep practicing :thumbsup

great tip! Thanks alot!!

That's a good start for you, man. Congrats. :thumbsup

well for not being a designer that is a great start!

not bad, not bad atall :thumbsup

very important tip for amateur designers: Just because you have effects, doesn't mean you have to use them.

All and all, not too shabby. Always ask yourself why you are using a particular effect. Does it help draw attention? Does it take a way from the message?

Good luck!

oh ... and this is a personal thing, but I never try to use more than 1 or 2 fonts per design (not including the fonts for the logo)

and for crying out loud use legible fonts

Not bad at all.

not buhd....

Pretty Nice!

Pretty good :thumbsup

A good start.
Room for improvement.
Definetly on the right track.

Great job!

Not too shabby man!

not bad sir!

Pretty nice just starting out, don't really like the brightness of the first one though that's just my shitty eyes no doubt :1orglaugh

I use cs2, can't find the tool. Imma wanting to be skoooled. thanks :upsidedow

not bad for a rookie

look good you need more practice
in you need photoshop

for not being a designer, these look great.

seen a lot worse from pro designers

Looking good :thumbsup

Not bad for a starter. More practice and it'll be perfect!!! :)

For not being a designer, they aint bad :)

good job, Rockatansky ! :)

If the image is of high enough res and the bg is neutral I use the lasso, slightly "underselecting" the shape, then feather to slightly soften the edge.

For the OP, painting out individual pixels still leaves a hard on/off line around the model which may look awkward (I can see it in your first banner)