It's a good quality image with an interesting background. It's a little dark so I apply a curves layer. I want to bring up the shadows so I make a point below midway and move it to the left and up a little and for the highlights I move the curve a little to the left on the top line of the grid.

 

 

Next I copy merge and change the new layer mode to Overlay. I apply the High Pass filter, set at 8.5. This brings out Derek's features nicely and also the background though at this stage I've no intention of using the background in the banner. It's all about the man.

 

 

Now it's time to add Stiles. I've already opened the image of Stiles I want to use, as a separate psd, and applied a similar treatment to it as to this one, though the High Pass layer I set to Soft Light and 3.4 and masked it from his face. I used the Polygonal Lasso tool to make a quick selection around Stiles and the Edit-Copy-Paste command to transfer him to my Derek psd.

 

 

Stiles needs to be bigger so I use Edit - Free Transform to enlarge him. I hold down the Shift key as I drag the upper corner to ensure that he enlarges in scale. I will need to cut out Stiles from the background of his image. There are a number of ways to do this but in this instance, I simply create a Layer Mask and use the Erase tool. My plan is to have Stiles leaning back against the central column of the stairs Derek is sitting on. I think this will give a good juxtaposition for the two men.  Using the eraser tool is fairly basic though you want to take a bit of time when you get in close to your figure. I frequently enlarge my image until I can see pixels and then using a hard brush of appropriate size, remove each pixel I don't want. Stiles has a nice spiky look to his hair and I can either use a cut out method called Refine Edge or, as I did in this case, leave a bit of his original background. Fortunately this fits into the finished image nicely with a little judicious erasing and blending and hopefully I will be able to blend it into the eventual banner as well.

 

 

Now I have my two characters together in a pose I like. I'm happy with the lighting, the size and the perspective and positioning of the men. I add a little shadow between Stiles and Derek, using Blending Style - Drop shadow, making it it's own layer through the command: Layer - Layer Style - Create Layer, a very useful tip given to me by . I erase this shadow as required to give a little 3D look to the couple. I decide they need a little more definition so I copy merge for a new layer which I set to Soft Light and apply the High Pass filter set to 3.5. This will bring out their features a little more and give a soft look to the image. I copy merge for a new image layer. This is the image I will transfer to my banner.

 

 

Making the image into a Portrait. I decide that I like this image by itself and will make a second piece just from it. First I use the Iris Blur filter to blur out the background a little. this is a lovely little effect that is quite adjustable so that you can achieve the look you want. It's especially effective on overly busy backgrounds that detract from the main part of the image. As you can see below, you have a shape with four equidistant points on it and one square point, four larger inner points and then a central bulls eye. Also, your cursor has become a black arrow head with a little pin. Outside the shape the image is blurred while inside there is a gradual blur from the solid white points to the the shape line and inside those points the image is unchanged. The solid white line around the central bulls-eye indicates the amount of blur to be applied outside the line. This is currently set at 15 which allows some of the image to remain slightly in focus. A lower value gives less blur and a higher value more blur. I leave it at 15.

 

 

I set the arrow cursor on the central bulls eye and drag it until it is centered on my two men - around the shoulder seams of Stiles tee. I want all of their heads to be clear so next I move the cursor to the top small point and drag it past the top of the image. The shape will change as I do this. Then I set my cursor on the white square and drag it out a little. This gives the shape a rounded square look to it. I want to remove the blur a little more from their heads so I need to move the inside gradual blur. Clicking on one of these white points will allow you to drag all the points at the same time. However I only want to drag the one near the heads so I hold down the Alt key and click on that one and drag it until I get the look I want. Press okay  to accept the changes to your image.

 

 

Now I have the faces as the centre of the image and still have some interest from the background but very muted. Because I want to make this a title banner, I decide I need some black on the right to go behind my text. For balance I will also add black to the left side. I create a new layer and fill it with black. I then add a Layer mask and using a fairly large, soft brush and Foreground white, I remove it from the centre of my image.

 

 

I then add a Gradient Map set to Black to White, set the Layer to Soft light and 100% Opacity. I mask out the heads and necks as I want the color and tone I've already got to show through in those areas.

 

 

Add my titles and my tag and I've a nice second picture from this project. The title is in typeface Harrington. The color is white and I simply added a Bevel to it through the Blending Styles dialogue panel which gave me a nice finished look to the type. The 'by' is Informal Roman and the author is Mistral. As I've said before, titles are very much a part of the overall work and a little time spent getting them right is a good investment to finish your work.