Photoshop help please - thanks :-)

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

I'm trying to make "business cards" for the motorhome, so when we meet people we can give them a card with our info on it to keep in touch. What I would like to do is take this picture of us and the motorhome
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid198/pcd4f2118b529a44b0c3d7b4cce99b7b9/f0b5f13f.jpg
and make it light for a background, then print our info over it. I can't figure out how to lighten it. I don't want to just use the lighten/darken feature because that makes it look washed out. I know there's some kind of setting that makes it more....opaque? Is that the word I'm looking for?

Thanks! :)

[Cookiebaker]

Debby, I think you are thinking of "transparency". You can experiment around with it and find what you like best. Hope this helps. :)

[Karen]

There are several ways to do it.

1. Make a "New Adjustment Layer" (Under the Layer Menu) so you can experiment with it, choose Levels. Then mess around with the sliders until you like the look of it.

or

2. Create a new layer. Fill it with white. Then adjust the opacity of it - in the layers menu, where it says "100%" you can change that number, or use the slider.

[poofy]

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b212/lvpups/f0b5f13f.jpg

[Randi]

Debbie, I tried making it a bit brighter, but I'm sure it can get much better. However, to get it perfect, you need to work on the darker and lighter sections individually. Is this the original? I see it's 180 dpi. If you want to print it out, I think you want it at 300. :)

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Thanks so much everyone. What I was looking for is what Poofy did - thank you! I will try playing around with it because this is not the first time I've wanted to do something like this and if I play around myself, I might actually learn how to do it. ;)

Randi, thanks for the tip on printing. I did try and print these out for Christmas cards and it turned out really crappy - now I know why. :)

[Karen]

I would actually place some information in white type over the dark windshield of the RV! How much infor are you planning to put on the card?

[ChrisH]

I tried any of these effects? (pics attached) I don't have photoshop but I'm sure it must have something similar.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Took me about 4 hours of playing around, but I finally got one I'm happy with. I put our names in the bottom left and our phone and email addy's in the bottom right in arial narrow bold italic print - size 12. Looks great! The edging effect made the edges light enough for text, but still allowed us to keep some of the great color of the coach without it looking washed out. Thank you all soooo much! :D