You’ll learn all kinds of techniques, such as working with perspective, applying texture and lighting and much more.

Let’s get started shall we?

What You’ll Be Creating:

Here’s a look at the outcome you’ll be able to produce by the end of this lesson:

Step 1

Start by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) for scene we are going to create. Let the document be 2500 pixels wide and 1681 pixels high. Firstly, fill (Shift+F5) the document with black.

Go to view in the menu bar and make sure to check ‘extra’ in the option box given. Then, click ‘show’ to come another option box up. Make sure to check ‘guide’ in the box.

Now create crossing guide lines as shown in the screenshot below:

Step 2

Proceed to create some other lines which will be used as guide lines to draw maze like shape. To do this purpose, activate the line tool in the tool panel. Set its weight to 3 pixels.

Start to create the guide lines as shown below. I used red for the color of the lines.

After creating the lines on the left part, merge the lines into a single layer. Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the layer and flip the duplicate horizontally. Move it to the right part of the document to have the guide line as shown in the screenshot. Merge the two line layers into a single layer. I named this layer lines.

Reduce the opacity of this lines layer to about 40%.

Step 3

Now we are ready to create the shape. Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N). I named this layer block shape 1. Take the pen tool and with the tool, create rectangular path on this shape 1 layer. Make sure to follow the guide lines to have right perspective of the shape. Right click on the path to show the path option box. Choose fill path.

Fill the path with color of #9a9a9b

Here is what we have now:

Step 4

Next we will create another rectangular shape on the left side. Create the other two guide lines crossing the leftmost corners (line 1 and 2) and another guide line (line 3) crossing the two lines.

Create a new layer below the shape 1 layer. I named this layer shape 2. By following the lines previously made, create rectangular shape with the pen tool as we did in previous step 3. I fill the shape with lighter color as shown in the screenshot:

Step 5

Finish the shape by creating the two other rectangular shapes. Remember to always follow the guide lines to keep the perspective of the shape. I created these two layers on different layers. I named these layers shape 3 and shape 4.

Here is the result I created:

Step 6

Proceed to give the shape some shading. Create a new layer above the shape 3 layer. Make sure to give this new layer a clipping mask.

Take gradient tool in the tool panel and choose linier gradient with opacity of about 15%. Make sure to set the foreground color to black. Open the gradient editor and choose foreground to transparent gradient.

Start giving some shading on the shape 3 layer by hold- clicking the gradient on the top of the image and drag downward a bit.

Give some shading to the shape 4 where needed as well.

Step 7

Now we will add some line on the shape 1. Go and select the shape 1 layer again. When we are still active on the shape 1 layer, go to layer > layer style > stroke:

Here is the result. Select all the shape layers and merge them (Ctrl+E) into a single layer. I named this layer front right block.

Step 8

Create another front block on the left with the same techniques as we did the previous front right block.

Step 9

Then, again create the middle front block. Select all the front block layers and hit Ctrl+G to group them into a folder. I named this folder front block.

Step 10

With the same way as we did in previous steps, create some rear blocks on the left side. Here are the first three blocks I created and named them as block 1,2 and 3.

I finished the rear left side by creating some other blocks:

Step 11

Proceed to create some blocks on the rear right side. I Created 7 blocks for this side.

Step 12

Next we will add some white light between the aisles of the blocks. Let’s start giving the light on the aisles behind the right front block. To achieve this, create a new layer behind the right front block layer. Take a very soft round brush set to 20-30% opacity. On the new layer, paint the soft white light as indicated by the blue arrows.

Give some white light behind the aisles behind the left front block as well.

Here is the result I created after I gave some light on the aisles of the rear left blocks.

Step 13

Do the same way to give some light on the aisles of the right rear block. After finishing the maze, select all the block layers and merge them into a single layer. I named this layer maze.

Step 14

Now we are going to create background for the scene. Take the linier gradient again. Make sure to set the foreground color to black and the background to white. Choose the foreground to background gradient in the gradient editor.

Next, change the black background by filling it linier gradient color of black and white. Here is the result I did:

Step 15

Open the texture image on the document. Position this texture image above the background layer. Take free transform tool and scale its size to cover the background.

Move the texture downwards so it is supposed to be the ground of the maze.

Reduce the opacity of the texture layer to about 65%.

Step 16

Give this texture a layer mask by clicking the mask icon located at the bottom of the layer panel.

Take a very soft round brush set to about 15-20% opacity. With black color, stroke the brush on areas around the texture to give it some masking. Here is the mask I created on the texture.

And here is the masked texture now:

Duplicate the texture layer and set the duplicate to soft light blending at 50% opacity.

Step 17

Open the sky image on the document. Scale its size and position it above the texture layer.

Give this sky layer a layer mask and mask some part of this sky image.

Step 18

With the sky layer still selected, go to layer > new adjustment layers > hue/saturation. Make sure to give this hue/saturation layer a clipping mask.

Here is the result:

Step 19

Create a new layer above the sky layer. Take again a very soft round brush at size of about 800-900 pixels. With color, paint some white light behind the maze. I named this layer light. We can duplicate this layer and set the duplicate to soft light to get more vivid light.

step 20

Proceed to work on the maze. Select the maze layer and mask some part of this layer as indicated in selection in the screenshot.

Here is maze will look after being masked.

step 21

Duplicate the maze layer and position the duplicate above the original layer with a clipping mask. Mask some part of the duplicate and set it to multiply at 75% opacity.

Then, duplicate again the texture used in the background. Place the duplicate above the maze copy layer with a clipping mask. Scale its size.

With the texture layer still selected, go to filter > other > high pass. Then set this texture layer to soft light at 70% opacity.

Here is the result. Select all the maze layers and group them into a folder. I named this folder maze.

Step 22

Create another new layer above the maze folder. On this new layer, paint soft white light in front of the middle front block as indicated in selection in the screenshot.

Here is what I created:

Step 23

Finally, we will alter the overall color of the scene. We do this by just simply giving new adjustment layers: color balance and photo filter on the topmost position in the layer panel.

Set the color balance layer to normal at 100% opacity and photo filter to normal at 50% opacity:

Congratulations, You’re All Done!

Awesome job making it this far! You should be proud of what you’ve created. Show it off to your friends and colleagues and get some feedback.

You can also comment here with your version, or any questions you had about the techniques used. We love to see what you guys create and we’re always here to give helpful feedback and tips to help you to improve.

The beauty of this tutorial is that the various source images we’re working with aren’t similar at all, but through some creativity and outside-the-box thinking you’ll learn how to turn a daytime scene into night, and rework a tractor/plastic toy into a believable sci-fi vehicle.

Not only will you learn some fantastic ways to blend your images effectively, but you’ll be creating an awesome sci-fi outcome. Time to get creatively geeky and create an outcome that you can wow your friends with.

What You’ll Be Creating:

Here’s a look at the outcome you’ll be able to produce by the end of this lesson:

Here are the images we’ll be combining to create our masterpiece.

Ready to begin? Great, let’s get started!

Step 1

Create a new canvas on photoshop with size of about 3000 pxl wide and 2400 pxl high. Open the stock image on the canvas. Scale its size with free transform tool (Ctrl+T). This image will be a new layer in the layer panel. I named this layer ‘vehicle 1′.

Step 2

Open the ‘vehicle 2′ stock image. Place this image above the vehicle 1 layer in the layer panel. I named this layer vehicle 2. We will join this layer to the previous layer. The target here is we will take the main body of the vehicle 2 to be joined with the vehicle 1. Reduce the opacity of the vehicle 2 layer so that it will be transparent. This will help us deciding where the part of the main body going to fall to fit the body of the vehicle. Make sure to scale the size with free transform tool to find desired size. As we can see, the selected part of the vehicle 2 is the one will be joined to the base (vehicle 1).

Here is the result I created so far:

Proceed to clean some unneeded parts of the base (vehicle 1). We just simply add a layer mask to the vehicle 1 layer and then mask the parts to hide them. Here is the result so far:

Step 3

Next, we need to repair the rear wheel of the vehicle. We can do this purpose by cutting out the wheel of the original image and then put the cut out on the rear wheel. Here is the result I created:

The purpose of adding the cut out of the wheel is not supposed to replace the wheel of the base (vehicle 1), however to create a mudguard for a wheel which is going to be added later in the next step. So that’s why, we should clean the lower part of the cut out. Here is the result I created to see what I meant :

Step 4

We will adjust the color of the vehicle 2 layer based on the vehicle 1. Select the vehicle 2 layer and then go to image > Adjustment > color match. Choose the vehicle 1 layer as the source to match. The screenshot below will show us the complete setting of the adjustment. Here is the explanation: The target of the layer to be matched is named vehicle 2 which is within the psd file named future transporter and the source is the image (named vehicle 1.jpg) with which the vehicle 2 layer will be matched:

Here is the result:

Step 5

In this step we will add a driver. Open the model image and extract it. Add the model to the main canvas. Scale its size to fit the vehicle we are going to create.

Mask parts of the model so it will look as if it is sitting in the vehicle.

Step 6

Proceed to finish the vehicle, now we will add the front wheel for it. We will use the gear image to create the wheel. Open the gear image. Scale its size and duplicate it two times. Join the duplicates and arrange them to create a wheel. Select all the gear layers and hit Ctrl+E to merger them. Place the gear in front of the vehicle.

Next, cut out the disk from the wheel of the original vehicle 2 image.

Using the free transform tool, arrange and place the cut out disk on the wheel.

Cut out the mudguard of the vehicle 2, we will use this part to add a mudguard to the vehicle going to create.

We need to alter the shape of the cut out to fit the perspective of the vehicle, to do this purpose we use free transform tool. Take the free transform tool, and use the perspective and distort to alter its shape:

Add the cut out to the vehicle. Mask unneeded part of it. Here is the result so far:

Step 7

Add more part of the front wheel. I cut out the mudguard of the vehicle 1 to be added to the vehicle

Here is the result I created:

Step 8

Next, we will add front shock absorber to the vehicle. We will use the steel frame from the original vehicle 1 to do this purpose. Cut out the frame and scale the size of it. Place the cut out beside the wheel.

Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N). On this new layer, create a black circle.

With the new layer still selected, go to layer > layer styles > bevel and emboss. Set the setting as seen below:

Here is the result:

Now activate custom shape tool and select one of the shape. With dark grey color create the shape on the circle previously made:

Step 9

Here is the result I created so far, after adding some shadow to my wheel structure:

With parts taken from the two vehicle stock images, I added a stir and some steel frames around the stir as we can see the result here:

Step 10

In this step on we will add a lamp for the vehicle. Open the stock image and cut out the metal tube on the image.

Add the cut out to the canvas. Take the free transform tool and activate warp tool. Alter the shape of the metal tube by warping it as seen in the screenshot below:

Now crate a new layer below the tube layer. On this new layer create a round selection and fill (shift+F5) the selection with white. I named this layer white:

Then, select the tube and the white layer and hit Ctrl+E to merge them. I named this layer lamp. Add the lamp to the vehicle. Place it beside the front wheel.

Step 11

Now we will paint the holder of the lamp. Create a new layer below the lamp layer. Create a round selection and fill the selection with color of #776663.

With the new layer selected, go to layer > layer style > bevel and emboss. Set the setting below:

Here is the result:

Create again a new layer above the previous new layer, create a smaller round selection on it. Fill the selection with color of #322e2e.

Give this layer bevel and emboss style:

Here is the result:

Create another new layer and a smaller round selection than those previously made. Fill this selection with #765c57

Then, create another new layer below the lamp and the three round layers. Take the brush tool and choose a very soft round brush. Set the opacity of the brush to 10-20%. With black color, paint the shadow of the lamp and the holder. We can use the combination of burn and dodge tool to define the shadow and highlight of the lamp and its holder. Here is the result I created:

Step 12

Finally, we will give the effect of motion to the wheels of the vehicle. Select the wheel layers and go to filter > blur > motion blur :

There we go, we have finished the vehicle:

Step 13

In this step we will a background on which the vehicle and the driver will be displayed. Start by creating a new canvas with size of 1936 pxl wide and 1718 pxl high.

Step 14

Open the desert stock image in the document. Convert this layer into a smart object by going to layer > smart objects > convert to smart object.

We need to alter the perspective of the background. To do this purpose, take the free transform tool and use the perspective and distort to get the result as below. Technically the shape of the background will be look like the one in the screenshot after being applied the tool:

Here is the result. We can see some blank spaces (marked in red) in the document after the transforming.

To fix the blanks, hit Shift+Ctrl+R to activate lens correction. Choose custom and set the setting as below:

Then, go to filter > blur > motion blur:

Here is the result we should create after being given the two filters. Activate the mask filter thumbnail and mask some part of the cloud:

Here is the result should look like:

Step 15

Now give the background color adjustment. Go to layer > new adjustment layer > black and white:

Here is the result:

Step 16

Open the other stock image in the canvas.

Mask the sky and ground of the image. We just need the rock to be added to the scene. Set this layer to normal at 52% opacity:

Give this layer a color adjustment layer: hue and saturation. Make sure to create a clipping mask to this hue and saturation layer:

Here is the result:

Create a new layer above the hue and saturation layer. Make sure to give this new layer a clipping mask. Take a very soft round brush at opacity of about 5-10%. With white color, paint the highlight on the top of the rock.

Duplicate the rock layer and move the duplicate to the left to fill the blank space and make a better composition. Set this duplicate to normal blending at 48% opacity.

Step 17

Now we will add some planets to the scene. Firstly, open the planet stock image. Scale its size and position it as the one in the screenshot.

Set the layer to screen blending and mask some parts on the cloud to reveal it more vivid.

Then, give this planet layer black and white adjustment layer:

Here is the result:

Finally, duplicate the planet layer. Set the original to screen blending mode at 100% opacity and the duplicate to soft light blending at 100% opacity to get the result like this:

Step 18

Open the other planet stock on the canvas. Scale its size and position it on the upper left corner:

Set the blending to screen at 100% opacity. Mask unneeded parts of the image.

Choose one of the cosmos images and add the image to the scene to add another planet. Scale its size and set it to screen blending at 100% opacity. Mask the unneeded parts of the image so let the smaller planet is being revealed.

Step 19

Create a new layer above all the other layers. Take a very soft round brush set at 5-10% opacity. On this new layer, paint soft white color around the left rock and ground:

Step 20

Now add the driver to the main scene. Convert this driver layer into a smart object. Scale its size and position it in the center.

Give this driver layer a hue and saturation adjustment layer with a clipping mask.

Here is the result:

With the driver smart object layer still selected, go to filter > blur > motion blur.

Then, after being given the blur, activate the mask filter thumbnail. Mask some parts on the vehicle and the driver to hide the effect of the blur filter.

step 21

Duplicate the driver smart layer and the hue/saturation adjustment layer. Make sure to keep the clipping mask for the hue/adjustment layer. Activate the mask filter thumbnail and mask some parts of the driver. Set the blending of this layer to normal at 86% opacity.

Now duplicate the second duplicate of the driver layer. Give this duplicate the hue/saturation layer with the same value as the previous ones. What we have to do next is alter the value of the blur filter for this duplicate as shown in the screenshot:

Finally, set this duplicate to normal blending at 66% opacity. Here is the result:

Step 22

We will add some tracks where the vehicle is passing through. Create a new layer. Take the brush tool. Choose the chalk 44 brush set to size of 80 pixel in the brush picker. Activate the brush preset and set the brush to the setting as shown:

Create a new layer. On this new layer create straight path with the pen tool. Right click on the document to show up the path command options box. When the box shows up, choose stroke path. Make sure to set the color of the foreground color to #555d5a.

Here is the result:

Then, duplicate the track. Set the original track to screen blending mode at 100% opacity and the copy to overlay at 98% opacity.

Do the same to create tracks for the other wheel courses. Here is the result I created so far:

Step 23

Now we will add some flash light for the front light. Create a new layer on which we will create the flash light. Take the pen tool and create path for the flash.

Next, make the path into a selection. Activate the gradient tool. Choose liniar gradient. Create a yellow to transparent gradient in the gradient editor. Finally, fill the selection with the gradient by clicking the gradient tool on the lamp, hold and drag to the direction where the flash light should falls:

With the gradient layer still selected, go to filter > blur > Gaussian blur:

Duplicate the gradient layer. Select the duplicate and fill it with white color:

Finally, set the original layer (I named it as yellow) to normal at 51% opacity and 26% fill. Then, set the duplicate layer (I named it as white) to normal at 53 % opacity.

Step 24

Next we will add flare to the lamp. Open the flare image and cut out one of the flares.

Add the flare to the scene. Position and scale it right on the lamp.

Set the flare layer to screen blending at 100% opacity. Mask some unneeded part of it.

Alter the color to the flare to yellowish tone by giving it a new hue/saturation layer. Make sure to give this layer a clipping mask.

Finally, duplicate the flare layer and place the duplicate to light next to the driver. Set this duplicate layer to screen at 100% opacity.

Step 25

Here is the result I created so far:

Step 26

In this step on, we will adjust the overall color of the scene. Start by adding gradient map adjustment layer. Set the gradient as shown in the screenshot:

Here is the result should be:

Mask the gradient on the center of the scene:

Step 27

Next, give the other adjustment layer. This time we will give photo filter adjustment layer as shown. Set this layer to normal blending at 11% opacity.

Step 28

Proceed to give the scene vibrance adjustment layer:

Mask some parts of the vehicle and areas around the rock. Make sure to use a very soft round brush set to 10-15% opacity to mask the parts

After that, duplicate the vibrance layer. Set the duplicate to normal at 45% opacity to get the result as shown below:

Step 29

Next give another layer adjustment to the scene. This time we will add color balance:

Here is the result after the color balance layer is set to normal blending at 45% opacity:

Step 30

Finally, add the last adjustment layer: curves

Mask the curves layer on some areas around the foreground and near the biggest planet as shown in selection :

Finally here is the result:

Step 31

While we are still selecting the top most visible layer in the document (curves layer), hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp all the visible layers. This will create a new single layer above all the other layer. I named this layer stamp. Select the stamp layer and go to image > apply image. Set the setting as shown below:

The result should look like the one in the screenshot. Then convert this stamp layer into a smart object.

Step 32

I decided to sharpen the image, to do this purpose, go to filter > others > high pass:

Finally, edit the blending option of the high pass smart filter to overlay at 100% opacity:

Here is the result:

Congratulations, You’re All Done!

Awesome job making it this far! You should be proud of what you’ve created. Show it off to your friends and colleagues and get some feedback.

You can also comment here with your version, or any questions you had about the techniques used. We love to see what you guys create and we’re always here to give helpful feedback and tips to help you to improve.

In today’s design lesson we will create a fantastically textured flaming portrait.

You will learn how to convert a regular portrait photo into a heavily textured, fantasy outcome. Within the lesson you’ll master skin retouching, painting custom hair, advanced image blending, filter application and lighting effects.

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

For earlier steps of this tutorial we will do some retouching and give basic overall texture on the model. Here is the image we will create:

Step 2

Start by opening the model image in photoshop. We will resize the image first. To do this purpose, go to image > image size and set the size of the model image as follow:

Step 3

Duplicate the image by hitting the Ctrl+J. Invert the duplicate by hitting Ctrl+I.

Then, with the duplicate image still selected, go to layer > smart object > convert to smart object. This will change the image into a smart object layer indicated by a smart object indicator on lower right corner of the thumbnail.

Next set the blending of the duplicate to overlay at 100% opacity.

step 4

Now go to filter > other > high pass. Set the amount of the radius to 6.0 pixels.

With the duplicate layer still selected, click the layer mask icon in the bottom of the layer panel to give this layer a layer mask.

Step 5

With the duplicate layer still selected, click the layer mask icon in the bottom of the layer panel to give this layer a layer mask.

Then mask the areas around the eyes, lips, nose and hair of the model. Use a very soft brush set to 30-40 opacity to mask the areas.

Here is the result so far:

Step 6

As we can see the skin lost its natural texture because of the high pass effect. It looks very soft.

We will give back the texture for the skin. To do this, firstly hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp all the layers. This will create a single layer above all the other layers. I named this layer model. Convert this model layer into a smart object layer. Then go to filter > others > custom. Set this filter blending option to normal at 50-60% opacity.

Here is the result should be:

Step 7

Now go to layer > new adjustment layer > hue/saturation. Set this adjustment layer to multiply at 17% opacity :

Here is the result should look:

Step 8

In this step we will colorize the lips. Select the lips of the model as the following:

With the lips still in selection, go to layer > new adjustment layer > hue/saturation as follows:

Set this adjustment layer to normal blending at 60% opacity:

Duplicate the adjustment layer and set the duplicate to overlay blending at 45% opacity to get the result as the following:

Step 9

Hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp all the layers and create a new single layer on the topmost position in the layer panel. Select the model image of the stamp layer and clean out its background.

Step 10

Go to layer > new adjustment layers > hue/saturation. Make sure to give this adjustment layer a clipping mask. Set this layer to normal at 50 % opacity.

Give another hue/saturation layer with a clipping mask above the first one. Set this layer to normal at 100% opacity.

And this is the result should we have:

Step 11

Open the rock texture in the document. Place it above the two hue/saturation layers.

Create this texture layer a clipping mask and set its blending to overlay at 40-45 opacity.

Finally, fill the selection ( Shift+F5) with color of #873fa0.

Step 12

Then, go to filter and give this texture image high pass filter as follows:

Here is the result we should have now:

Finally, duplicate the texture layer and set the duplicate to soft light blending at 40% opacity. Here is the result:

Step 13

Open again the texture image in the document and place it above the other texture layers. Scale its size and locate it in the right part of the model’s face:

Create this texture layer a clipping mask and hide the unneeded parts by masking them.

Then, give this texture image high pass filter:

Set this texture layer to overlay at 100% opacity to get the result like the one here:

Duplicate the texture layer and set the duplicate to soft light blending at 100% opacity. Here is the result we should have now:

Step 14

In this step we will create some high light in the hair. Create a new layer by hitting Shift+Ctrl+N. Give this new layer a clipping mask, set its mode to overlay and fill it with 50% gray color:

Activate the dodge tool in the tool panel. Set the tool to highlight with opacity of 100%. Choose one of the hair brushes as the brush of the tool.

Now activate the pen tool. With the new layer still selected, create a curve path on the hair. Right click on the path to show the path command options. Choose stroke path and use the dodge tool as the tool to stoke. Make sure to check the simulate pressure

This is the result:

Do the same way to add more and more highlight on the hair.

After creating the desired highlight, duplicate the highlight layer and set the duplicate to soft light at 100% opacity to get the result as the one here:

Step 15

We are done with the model. Now we will proceed to create a background for the model. Create a new document with the following size:

Step 16

Fill the document ( Shift+F5 ) with black and paint a big soft white spot in the center of the document:

Step 17

Create a new layer and paint some pink color on this new layer.

Set this new layer to overlay at 80% opacity:

Step 18

Open the texture image in the document. Scale its size and locate it to fit the document:

Set the layer to multiply at 100% opacity and mask some part of the texture as indicated by the selection in the screenshot below. Here is the result we have:

Step 19

Now we will add some fire to the document. Firstly, cut out one of the flames from the flame image stock. Add the cut out to document. Set this flame layer to screen blending at 100% opacity.

Create color balance adjustment layer with a clipping mask above the flame layer:

This is the flame will look now:

Duplicate the flame layer and flip it horizontally to get the result like this one:

Step 20

Open the model to the document.

Step 21

Create a new document above the model. Create a clipping mask for this new layer. I named this layer white. Take the brush tool in the tool panel. Choose a very soft round brush set to about 10-20% opacity. With white color, paint some highlight on the model:

On different layers, paint more white highlight. To get the best result try to vary the blending of each layer among normal, screen and overlay.

Step 22

Create another new layer with a clipping mask above the white layer. On this new layer paint more highlight. Use the color of #fc5203 to give some reddish tone.

Step 23

Open again the rock texture in the document. Place this texture layer above the highlight layers.

Mask some part of the texture:

Duplicate the texture layer some times. Scale the sizes of the duplicates and arrange them in such way that they appear as the background for the overall scene. Mask unneeded parts of the duplicates. Set their opacities varied to 10-15% opacity normal blending.

Step 24

In this step we will alter the color of the model’s eyes. Go back to select the model layer. Select the one of the model’s eyes. Hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the eye. Then, move the duplicate to the top most position in the layer panel. Convert this eye layer into a smart object.

Now, with the eye layer still activated, go to image > adjustment > variations. Click more yellow option some times to give yellowish tone for the eye. Some more clicks on the more red option for the reddish tone. Finally, give few click on lighter option to give brighter tone. Click ok if we have find the best result.

Next, set the variation blending option to color dodge at 100% opacity.

Finally, set the eye layer to overlay at 100% opacity.

Do the same to alter the color for the other eye:

Step 25

Duplicate the texture image used in previous step 18. Move the duplicate to the top most position (above all the other layers) in the layer panel. Set this duplicate to overlay blending at 45% opacity. Mask a bit on the areas of the face and body. Use a very soft round brush at opacity of 20-30 %.

Duplicate the texture image one more time. Set this duplicate to overlay at 45% opacity. Mask almost the whole texture layer affecting the scene except the areas around the model’s stomach and lower part of the scene.

Step 26

In this step we will set overall color adjustment for the scene. To do this purpose, we will give the scene curve adjustment layer:

Set the curve to normal at 100% opacity. Duplicate the curve layer and set the duplicate to normal at 80% opacity:

Step 27

Create another new layer above the curve layers. With soft brush color paint some black color on the lower part of the scene:

Step 28

We should adjust the color of the model’s lip. To do this, make selection on the lips as we do in previous step 8. After creating the selection, give hue/saturation:

Set this hue/saturation to over lay at 100% opacity.

Duplicate the layer and set the duplicate to soft light at 75% opacity.

Step 29

In this step we will give more highlight to the eyes. Firstly, create a new layer and on this new layer create a square filled with black. Set this layer to color dodge.

Paint yellow lines on the lower eyelid. Here is the normal layer and the result in color dodge blended:

Duplicate the eyelid layer one time to get the brighter result.

Step 30

Again, create a new layer and make a black square on this new layer. Give this black square lens flare filter by going to filter > render > lens flare:

Set this layer to color dodge. Make sure to position the flare on the eyeball.

Add the same flare to the other eye.

Step 31

Again, create more new layer filled with black and set the layer to color dodge. Take the brush tool. Choose a very soft round brush set to 5-10% opacity. Paint some with color and yellow on the areas around the body. Here is the normal layer for our reference.

And this is the result in color dodge blending. Now we have some flame effect on the rock.

Step 32

We will give more light to the flame created in the step 31. To do this, create a new layer on which we create a square filled with a flare in it like the one in the previous step. Then, alter the shape of the square by warping it. Finally, place the altered flare where needed.

Set the layer to color dodge to get the result like the one here

Duplicate the flare layer as many as needed. Alter the shapes of the duplicates by warping them. Place each of them where needed:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.

In this tutorial you will create a beautiful fantasy landscape of an angel playing in the cosmos.

You will learn how to manipulate simple stock images into a fantasy scene. You will learn skin retouching techniques, how to paint custom hair, blending, filtering and much more.

You’ll also apply a variety of custom lighting effects to create a bold, fantastic outcome:

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Start by opening the model image in photoshop. Go to image > image size. We will re-size the original image first.

Set the size of the image as the one in the screenshot below.

Here is the re-sized image.

Step 2

Next, duplicate the image by hitting Ctrl+J. There will be a new layer above the original image named background copy. With the background copy layer selected, hit Ctrl+I to invert the layer. Here is the inverted image will look like:

Change the blending of the layer to overlay at 100% opacity.

Here is the result after changing the layer to overlay.

Now go to layer > smart objects > convert to smart objects. This will change the layer into a smart object.

step 3

Next, we will give a filter to the background copy layer. Go to filter > others > high pass

Set the radius of the filter to 4.2 pixels. This high pass filter will be a smart filter with a white mask thumbnail placed below the background copy smart layer in the layer panel. Note: this amount of high pass filter is the one for the model image with the resolution set for this tutorial. This amount might not give the best result for the other different sized images. All we have to do is to adjust the radius amount for the best desired result if we use the other different images with diffrent resolutions.

This is the result after filtering:

Step 4

With the background copy smart layer still selected, click the layer mask icon located in the bottom of the layer panel. This will give the layer a layer mask indicated with a white thumbnail next to the layer.

Now Take the brush tool in the tool panel and choose a very soft round brush ( 0% hardness ). Set the opacity of the brush to 20-40% opacity. Next, with black color, stroke the brush on the areas around the eyes, lips, nose and hair to mask them.

Here is the result:

Step 5

Hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp all the layers. This will create a new single layer placed in the top most position. I named this new layer stamp.

Convert this stamp layer into a smart object layer. After converting the layer, go again to filter > sharpen > unsharp mask. Set the unsharp mask filter to the amount shown in the screenshot.

This is the result

Step 6

Now we will give color adjustment to the image. To do this purpose, go to layer > new adjustment layer > vibrance. We will give a new adjustment layer to the scene.

This is the setting for the adjustment layer. Make sure to set the blending of it to screen at 40% opacity.

This is the result should look like:

Step 7

Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) above the vibrance layer. Next take the smudge tool in the tool panel. Set the setting of the tool as shown in the screenshot below:

On the new layer, smudge the skin of the model. Choose a very soft round brush to do smudging. Vary the size of the brush according to the size of the areas to be smudged. This is the result I created. I named this layer smudge.

This is the final result should look:

Step 8

Next we will set another color adjustment for the scene. We give the filter adjustment layer for this purpose. Use color #9b1dea for the filter and set its density to 30%. Use normal as the blending mode at 100% opacity.

This is the look of the result:

Step 9

Extract the model from its background. Use any extracting tool we like to do this purpose. I, myself, used pen tool to extract the model. Here it is:

Step 10

Create a new layer above the cropped model layer. Take the pen tool and create path in this new layer like the one shown in the screenshot. This supposed to be a stick hold by the model. I named this layer stick.

When the path is created, right click on the document to show the path command options. Choose make selection option to change the path into a selection.

Finally, fill the selection ( Shift+F5) with color of #873fa0.

With the stick layer still selected, go to layer > layer styles. This will lead us the layer style option. We will use inner shadow and inner glow for the styles.

Here is the setting for each style:

And here is the stick. Mask the part of the stick overlapping the fingers.

Step 11

In this step we will add custom hair to the model. Make sure we have installed the hair brush. We use the brush to paint the hair.

Create another new layer below the cropped model layer on which we will paint the hair. Choose one of the hair brush and paint black hair for the model.

Proceed to paint more hair as the one shown in the screenshot.

After painting the hair, duplicate the hair layer. This will add more hairy effect so the hair will look thicker. Hit Ctrl+T to activate the free transform tool and rotate the duplicate to alter its position.

Duplicate again the original hair layer. Place the duplicate below the original layer. With the duplicate layer still activated, press Ctrl key on the keyboard and click the thumbnail of the duplicate layer. This will select the layer. When the layer is selected, hit Shift+F5 to fill the selection. Fill it with color #3a2b23.

Do the same to create the other two different colored hairs. Place them below the original one.

And select all the hair layer. Hit Ctrl+E to merge them into a single layer. I named this layer final hair. Here is the hair will look so far:

Step 12

To complete the hair, we will add some texture to it. We will create this texture from custom filter in photoshop. To achieve this, firstly create a new document with size of about 800 pxl x 800 pxl. Make sure to set the foreground color to #261c19 and the background to #4d3b32. Create a new layer filled with any color. Then, go to filter > render > fibers.

This is the texture create from the filter:

Now we will alter the shape of the texture. To do this purpose, we will give the texture some liquefy filter. We can find this filter by going to filter > liquify (Shift+Ctrl+X). Choose forward warp and warp the texture:

Copy-paste the texture to the main layer. Place this texture layer above the hair layer. Create a clipping mask for the texture. Scale its size and arrange its position to fit the hair.

Here is the texture will look like:

Finally, duplicate the final hair layer and place the duplicate above the texture layer. Make sure to give this layer a clipping mask. Set the texture and duplicate layer to normal blending at 70% opacity. Here is the hair looks:

Create new layers on which we should add some hair strands as shown in the screenshot.

Here is the look of the model with custom hair:

Step 13

We have done with the model. Now we will manipulate a background for the model. We do this on a new document so create a new document with size shown in the screenshot. Fill ( Shift+F5 ) this document with black color.

Step 14

Open the cosmos image in the document. Scale its size to fit the document. To achieve this, take the free transform tool and click one of the transforming point, hold and drag it to scale up. Make sure to press Shift key on the keyboard while dragging the transforming point to maintain the pixel rasio.

This is the result should be:

Now convert this cosmos layer into a smart object and give it a smart filter: surface blur. This can be achieved by going to filter > blur > surface blur.

Here is the result:

Step 15

Then we will give the adjustment layer to the scene. We will give it curve as set in the following amount:

Set the curve layer to overlay blending at 30% opacity to get this result:

Step 16

In this step, we will manipulate a light surface supposed to be a place where the model is staying. To do this purpose, firstly open the other cosmos image to the document.

With the transform tool, alter the perspective of the image as the one I created in the screenshot.

Proceed to clean out the unneeded part of the image by masking the part.

Finally, set the layer to screen blending at 100%. Here is the result:

Step 17

Now we will manipulate another light surface to the scene. To achieve this, duplicate the cosmos image and cut out the center part of it.

Then, with the other cosmos image, create another light surface by cutting out the part of it as the one shown below:

Finally, place the first cut out layer above the second cut out. Set the first cut out layer to screen blending at 100% and the second to normal at 100%. Hit Ctrl+E to merge them into a single layer. I named this layer surface.

Step 18

Place this surface layer below the first light surface created in the previous step 16. Then, give this layer some surface blur:

This is the scene will look so far:

Duplicate the curve adjustment layer created in previous step 15 and place the duplicate above the surface layer. Make sure to give it a clipping mask. Mask a bit the lower part of the surface layer. Here is the result should look:

Finally, duplicate again the curve layer and place this duplicate above the previous duplicated one. Do not give this duplicate a clipping mask. So here is the result and the layers order so far. Select all the surface layers and hit Ctrl+G to group them into a new single layer group. I named this group surface.

Step 19

Now we will add another color adjustment above the surface layer. This time we will add color balance as set in the screenshot. Keep this color balance layer in normal blending mode at 100% opacity.

This is the result should look like:

Step 20

Proceed to add the model to the document. Place it in the middle of the brightest part of the light surface. Mask the lower part of this model so it will blend well with the background.

Step 21

Now create a new adjustment layer above the model layer. We will add hue/saturation to the scene. Make sure to create a clipping for this adjustment layer. Set it to normal blending at 70% opacity.

Mask some part of the hue/saturation layer to hide its effect to the model image. Mask the parts in selection as shown below:

Give another adjustment layer with a clipping mask above the hue/saturation layer. This time we give brightness/contrast adjustment layer. Set this new adjustment layer to the amount set in the screenshot below. Mask some part of this layer to hide its effect to the model.

Here is the result:

Finally, create again another adjustment layer with a clipping mask: selective color. Make sure to set the amount of this layer as shown in the screenshot. Set this layer to normal at 80% opacity.

This is the look of the model now:

Step 22

Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) with a clipping mask above the selective color layer.

Take the brush tool and choose a very soft round brush set to 10-20% opacity. Set the color #fc8a04. On the new layer, paint some highlight on the model layer. I named this new layer highlight.

Duplicate the highlight layer two times. Then, set the original highlight to screen blending at 60% opacity. Set the first duplicate to color dodge at 100% opacity and the second one to overlay at 100%.

This is the highlight will look like:

With the same color, make some more highlight on the other parts of the model.

Step 23

In this step we will colorize the lips of the model. What we should do is firstly select the lips.

While the selection is activated, go to layer > new adjustment layers > hue/saturation. This will create another hue/saturation layer with a layer mask. Set the amount of this layer as shown in the screenshot.

Here is the new color of the lips now. Select all the angel layers and hit Ctrl+G to group them. I named this group angel.

Step 24

To add more fantasy feels to the scene, we will give the angel a pair of wings. The wings is my own image that we can find in the psd file. We can use the other wing image we desire.

Step 25

Select the cosmos layer and duplicate it one time. Move the cosmos duplicate to the top most position in the layer panel. Set this duplicate to screen mode at 71% opacity.

Here is the result:

Proceed to duplicate the previous curve layer in step 15 and place this duplicate above the cosmos layer with a clipping mask. Then, add more adjustment layer: levels with a clipping mask above the duplicate curve layer.

Then, select all the duplicate cosmos layers and group them into a new single folder. I named this group light. Here is the result so far:

Step 26

Duplicate the light group layer one time. Create a layer mask for this duplicate group layer and mask some part of this group as shown in the selection below:

Here is the order of layers we have in the layer panel.

And this is the result so far:

Step 27

In this step we will set overall color adjustment to the scene. To achieve this, firstly, we give the scene a new adjustment layer: channel mixer.

Here is the result after the addition of the channel mixer:

Then, give another adjustment layer: vibrance. Set this vibrance layer to normal at 51% opacity. Mask the lower part of this layer. Select the two adjustment layers and group them. I named this group adjustment.

Here is the result:

Step 28

We will enhance the scene by adding light flare to it. Firstly, open the light flare image and cut out one of the flare.

Copy-paste the flare image to add it to the document. Place it above the adjustment group.

With the flare layer selected, activate the free transform tool (Ctrl+T). Choose warp and alter the shape of the flare by warping it. Follow the setting of the warp to get the result as shown in the screenshot.

Set the flare layer to screen blending mode at 100% opacity. Scale down its size. Position it on the model’s head and rotate to fit the head.

Then, alter the color of this flare by giving a hue/saturation adjustment layer with a clipping mask.

And this is the model with its light stick will look so far after being added a light flare on the top of the stick.

Step 29

Finally, hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp all the layers into a new single layer. I named this layer stamp. Convert this layer into smart object layer and give it high pass smart filter. Set the smart filter to overlay blending at 100% opacity.

Select the mask thumbnail and mask the part marked in the selection.

Here is the result:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.

Today you’ll learn how to create a fantasy floating island scene using various photo manipulation techniques. As well as creating a beautiful landscape, you’ll learn how to construct a detailed flying machine from scratch, using advanced drawing, texturing and lighting techniques.

Overall this tutorial will teach you important techniques for image blending, creating artificial lighting and how to use your creativity to manipulate every day objects and photos.

Let’s dive right in!

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Start by creating a new document with size of 1312 pxl wide and 984 pxl high. Activate the gradient tool by hitting G on the keyboard and choose radial gradient. Set the foreground color to #eaf8f2 and #76ccf9 for the background. Start to fill the document with the radial gradient by clicking, holding and dragging the tool to the direction as shown in the red arrow:

Step 2

Create a new layer above the background (Shift+Ctrl+N) and activate the radial gradient again. Open the gradient picker and choose neutral density gradient. Fill the new layer with the selected gradient. Set this new layer to normal blending option at 100% opacity. I named this layer black.

Step 3

In this step we will add objects to the scene. Start by opening the tennis ball image and choose elliptical marquee tool to make selection on the ball

Proceed to select the ball with the tool by placing the cursor right in the center of the biggest ball and then, while pressing the Shift+Alt keys on the keyboard, click, hold and drag the tool to select the ball. After making selection, hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the selection into a new single layer.

Step 4

Next, add the ball to the main scene. With free transform tool, scale its size as needed.

Step 5

Take the ellipse tool in the tool panel and set the color to #89a725. Start to create an ellipse shape in the center of the ball. I named this shape layer green surface.

Select the ball layer again and give this layer a layer mask by clicking the layer mask icon located in the bottom of the layer panel. Start to mask the upper part of the ball as highlighted in red to hide it.

Here is the result will look like so far:

Finally, select the green surface layer and give the layer a layer style by going to layer > layer styles > bevel and emboss. Set the style as shown in the screenshot:

Step 6

Open another source image: bonsai. Then, go to selection > color range. Point the cursor on the background of the bonsai image and when the cursor changes into a eye drop icon, click the cursor to sample the color to be selected. Set the fuzziness to about 67 and click Ok. This will select the background of the bonsai image.

To clean the background, hit Del on the keyboard. The result should like this:

Step 7

Add the extracted bonsai to the main scene. Make sure to place this bonsai layer above the green surface layer in the layer panel. Scale the size as desired and mask the unneeded part.

Next, create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) above the bonsai layer. Make sure to give this new layer a clipping mask by checking the use previous layer to create clipping mask. Set its blending mode to overlay and fill it overlay neutral color (50% gray). Finally, on this new layer, paint soft white color to some areas on the bonsai tree as pointed by red arrows. This will give the tree some highlight. The screenshot below shows us the different result of this layer set to the normal and the overlay blending.

Step 8

Now duplicate the ball layer as many as needed. Vary the sizes of the duplicates as desired and place them in the positions we like. Set them to normal blending at opacity varied to 30 and 60%.

Select all the ball layers and the tree layer. Hit Ctrl+G to group them in a group layer. I named this group planets. Finally, set this group to normal blending at 60% opacity. The result should like this:

Step 9

From this step on, we will create a custom craft to be added to the scene. I used one of the dirigibles brush as the reference of the craft to be created.

This is what we should do: firstly, create another new document with size of 1500 pxl wide and 2100 pxl high. On this document, create some new layers on which we will use them as layers for the parts of the craft like body, wings, funnel, carrier, crosses, wing frames and ropes

Start by creating the body. Take the pen tool and create the path of the body shape. When the path is done, right click on it to show path command options. Choose fill path. Use dark gray color to fill the path.

With the pen tool, create the other parts of the craft like the wing and funnel. Do this on different separated layers.

Next activate custom shape tool and choose one of the shape to create the tail of the craft:

Create the other new layers, and on each layer, create the other parts of the craft like carrier, ropes, crosses and the frames of the wings.

Step 10

After creating the frame, go to layer > layer styles > bevel and emboss as set here:

This is the frames should look like:

Step 11

Proceed to create some tied on the frames. On a new layer above the frames layer, start by painting the shape of the tied with very dark gray color:

Take the dodge tool and set the tool as shown in the screenshot. With a very soft round brush, apply the dodge tool to the tied to give it some highlight.

After finishing the tied, duplicate it as many as needed. Activate the move tool (V) and while pressing the Alt key on the keyboard, click the tied and drag it to the position along the frames:

Do the same to complete the other tied on the other frames:

Step 12

In this step we will create texture for the wing. We will simply use filter for this purpose. Create a new document with 1000 X 1000 pxl. Right click on the background layer and choose Layer From Background to change the background into layer 0. Make sure to set the color of the foreground to black and white for the background. Go to filter > render > fibers:

Go back to the craft document and select the wing layer. Give the wing some shadow:

Now add the texture to the craft document. Place this texture layer above the wing layer and give this texture layer a clipping mask. Set the layer to soft light blending:

Step 13

Proceed to give some highlight to the ropes. Use the combination of dodge and burn tool to define the shape of the ropes:

Step 14

Then, with the custom shape tool, paint some hooks for the ropes. Define the highlight and shadow on the hooks by applying dodge and burn tool.

Step 15

Create a new layer behind the wing layers. On this new layer we will create frameworks. Take the pen tool and create a curve path. Right click on the path and when the path command option shows, choose stroke path and use brush as the tool of stroking with dark color.

With the same way, finish the framework as the one I created:

This is the craft I created so far:

Step 16

To define the highlight and shadow on the body and carrier of the craft, I applied the dodge tool combined with burn tool. Here is the result:

Step 17

I decided to give texture to the body and carrier. I used the mail box image to do this purpose. Extract the box from its background:

Add the box to the main scene. Take free transform tool. With the tool, alter the shape of the box to fit the perspective of the carrier:

Here is the carrier:

Step 18

Use the box to create textures for the body and funnel of the craft:

Select the texture for the funnel, and go to layer > layer styles > bevel and emboss:

After adding the style, right click on the eye icon of the style in the layer panel. When the style command option shows, choose create layers. This will create new layers below the funnel layer:

Mask the two layers on the unneeded parts:

Here is the final result of the craft I created after painting some lines on the body and wings:

Step 19

Add the craft to the main scene. Let the craft to normal blending at opacity about 40-50%.

Step 20

Next we will add a ladder to the main scene. To do this purpose, paint the ladder with pen tool and use light gray for the color.

Then, start give some highlight and shadow to the ladder. Use dodge and burn tool for this purpose:

Here is the result I created:

Step 21

Now we will add cloud to the main scene. Open the cloud image. Select the cloud by using the color range. Set the fuzziness to 100. When the cloud is selected, hit Ctrl+J to duplicate it into a new single layer.

Add the cloud to the scene. Place this cloud layer above all the other layers. Scale and position it as needed. Give this layer a layer mask and mask some unneeded cloud. Finally, set this cloud to normal at 60% opacity:

Step 22

Duplicate the cloud layer two times. Scale and position them where desired. Mask some unneeded cloud from the two duplicates. Set the opacity of the two clouds at about 90-100% in normal blending.

Step 23

Create another new layer above all the other layers. On this layer, paint a very soft black color around the edges of the scene. Use a very soft round brush set to 10_20% opacity to do this purpose:

Step 24

Go to layer > new adjustment layers > photo filter. Set this layer to normal at 80% opacity.

Then, give another adjustment layer: curves. Set this layer to normal blending at 90% opacity.

Finally, one more adjustment layer: gradient map. Set this layer to soft light at 80%

This is the result should look like:

Step 25

In this step we will add texture to the scene. Open the texture image to the document. Place this texture layer between the planet group layer and the black layer in the layer panel. Mask a little bit on the middle part of the texture. Set this texture to hard light blending at 60% opacity.

Duplicate the texture layer and set this duplicate to multiply at 40% opacity. This is the result:

Step 26

Finally, merge all layers by pressing Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E. This will merge all layers into a new single layer. Convert this layer to smart object and give this layer a smart filter by going to filter > sharpen > unsharp mask. Set this smart filter blending option to normal at 80% opacity.

Give another smart filter: high pass. Set this smart filter blending option to overlay at 60%.

Here is the result:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.

If you’re new to photo manipulation then you may not be familiar with techniques such as blending, lighting and image adjustments.

In today’s lesson we’re going to create a lone range photo manipulation, featuring a dramatic landscape and an old cowboy.

You’ll learn how to create a vivid photo manipulation with strong lighting, custom brush application and blending.

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Start by creating a new document (Ctrl+N) with size of 2128 pxl wide and 1938 pxl high and just fill (Shift+F5) the document with black. This will be a background layer for in the document.

Step 2

Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) above the background layer. Take the brush tool. Choose a very soft round brush and set its opacity to 20-30%. On the new layer, paint gradation color of soft white and yellow as the one created in the screenshot:

Step 3

Create another new layer and then activate the pen tool. With the tool, create a heaping ground looking like shape. Fill the shape with black.

Now activate the smudge tool with the setting as shown in the screenshot. Choose spatter brush for the tool and then start smudge the top edges of the ground to create grasses. Adjust the size of the brush accordingly to create the grasses.

Step 4

Then, create a new layer above the ground layer and set this new layer to multiply. On this new layer we will paint more grasses. Take the default grass brush and with color of dark green, paint the grasses on the ground:

Create another new layer below the ground layer and set this layer to normal at 100% opacity. On this layer paint more grasses. Make sure to set the brush opacity to 20-40%.

Step 5

Now we will add a moon to the scene. Install the moon brush in the Photoshop and then take one of the brushes. On a new layer paint an orange moon in the position shown in the screenshot.

Step 6

Next, we will give the scene a new adjustment layer. Go to layer > new adjustment layer > color balance. Set this adjustment layer to multiply blending at 100% opacity.

Step 7

What we do next is duplicate the moon layer (Ctrl+J) and place the duplicate above the color balance layer. With the duplicate layer selected, go to layer > layer styles > outer glow. Then, set this duplicated layer to linier light at 100% opacity.

Finally, duplicate the duplicated moon layer with the layer style and set the duplicate to linear dodge blending at 85% opacity:

Step 8

Create another new layer above all the other layer. Take the very soft round brush and paint gradation color of blue, red and yellow on this new layer. Set this layer to overlay at 49% opacity. The screenshot below shows the effect of the normal and overlay blending of this layer.

Step 9

Again, create a new layer. Set the foreground to black and the background to white. Go to filter > render > cloud. This will fill the new layer with cloud. Next, mask a little bit on some areas of the cloud (marked in red). Finally, set this cloud layer to overlay at 100% opacity.

Step 10

In this step we will add a model to the scene. Open the model image and extract it from the background. Use the pen tool for this purpose.

After extracting the model, we need to repair the tail of the horse by giving it more hairs. Take the smudge tool and smudge the tail to give it some hairs.

Step 11

Next, add the model to the main scene. Make sure to place this model layer under the cloud layer in the layer panel. Scale the size of the model and position it in the middle of the scene. Mask the feets of the horse.

Step 12

Create a new layer above the model and give this layer a clipping mask. Fill this layer with 50% grey color and set its blending to overlay 100% opacity. Take a very soft brush with opacity of 10-20%. With white color, stroke the brush on some areas on the model to give it more highlight. Vary the size of the brush according to the areas to be stroked (marked in blue arrows).

Step 13

Then, we will give the model hue/saturation adjustment layer. Go to layer > new adjustment layers > hue/saturation. Make sure to give this layer a clipping mask. Set this layer to multiply and give some masking on some areas the ones marked in red:

Finally, duplicate the hue/saturation layer, set it to multiply blending and mask on the red marked parts as shown in the screenshot.

Step 14

Now create again a new layer with a clipping mask and set this layer to overlay blending. Take a very soft round brush set to 10-20% opacity and with bright yellow, paint the edges of the model to give it some highlight:

Create another new layer with a clipping mask set to overlay blending. On this layer, paint more yellow to give the model stronger highlight. Try to use harder round brush to paint the highlight on the edges of the model and horse:

More highlight on some parts of the model and horse. I painted the highlight on a new layer.

Finally, create one more new layer with clipping mask set to normal. On this layer, I painted more highlight on the horse’s feet and area on the face.

Step 15

In this step we will create a smoke custom brush and then apply the brush on the scene to give it smoky effect. Start by create a new single document with size of 1000 x 1000 pxl. Fill the document with cloud created in the combination of light grey and white color:

Step 16

Then, take the lasso tool to select the cloud. Set its feather to 60 and start select some part of the cloud. After selecting the cloud, hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the selection into a new single layer. Finally hide the cloud layer by clicking the eye icon.

Go to edit > define brush preset to save the custom brush and I named the brush smoke brush.

Step 17

Create a new layer and take the brush tool. Choose the smoke brush. On the new layer, stroke the brush with white color on areas around the ground and the horse.

Here is the result with the brush:

Step 18

Next we will add a new fill layer to the scene. Go to layer > new fill layers > gradient.

Then, set this gradient layer to multiply 100% opacity. Mask the middle part of this layer. Here is the result I created:

Step 19

Now go to layer > new adjustment layer > photo filter:

Set this adjustment layer to normal at 100% opacity:

Step 20

Give the scene more adjustment layer: vibrance. Mask part of this layer as indicated in red:

Here is the result should look:

Step 21

Stamp (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E) all layers to create a new single layer above all the other layers. Go to filter > others > high pass:

Mask this stamp layer.

Set this layer to multiply at 60 % opacity:

Step 22

Finally, stamp again all the layers. Go again to filter > other > high pass. Set the radius to 4 and set this layer to overlay blending at 100%:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.

In this tutorial we will create a dark surreal landscape featuring a stony face.

Learn and get inspired on how to make uses of simple stock images to be creatively manipulated into atmospheric surreal scene using Photoshop.

Follow through the steps in this tutorial to learn how to set mood to the scene, add lightning and sharpen your image correctly.

Let’s get started!

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Firstly, create a new document (Ctrl+N) with size of 1370 pixel wide and 1024 pixel high .

Step 2

Open the stone house image in the document. Take free transform tool (Ctrl+T) and scale the size of the image accordingly. Place it where needed. Please take a look at the screenshot for our inspiration

There is a space on the top of the canvas, we need to cover it. To do this purpose, firstly take rectangular marquee tool and make selection on the upper part of the stone house image. Hit ctrl + T to duplicate the selection into a new layer. Move the new layer to top of the canvas to cover the blank.

Click one of the dragging point, hold and drag down a bit. Finally, mask the lower part of the layer to make it well blended with the stone house image.

Step 3

Now open the web image in a different document. We need this image as a reference or source to which the colors of the other images will be matched.

Now go back to the main document ( I named this file home sick). Firstly, we will adjust the color of the stone house image based on the web image. Select the stone house image and then go to image > Adjustment > color match. Choose the web image as the source to match. The screenshot below will show us the complete setting of the adjustment. Here is the explaination: The target of the layer to be matched is named stone house which is within the psd file named home sick and source is the image (named web.jpg) with which the layer stone house will be matched:

Step 4

We need to eliminate the rock seen in the stone house image. To do this purpose, take clone tool in the tool panel and clone the rock.

This is how the clone tool works: activate the clone stamp tool (S). Click and hold the alt key on the keyboard, and place the mouse pointer on the area to determine a source point. Click the source point and then click the areas of the rock to be cloned:

Do the same way to keep cloning the rock until it is covered. Use the nearest areas as the samples or sources to be cloned on the rock. Here is the result I created:

Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) above the stone house image and activate the brush tool. Choose costume chalk brush at 3-5 pxl size set at 20-30% opacity and set the foreground color to #5b5144. Now paint a line to define a border between the mountainous areas:

Step 5

In this step we will add a stone face to the scene. Open the face image and, with pen tool, extract the face from its background .

Step 6

Now add the face to the scene. Make sure to scale its size and position it where needed.

As in previous step 3, match the color of the face according to the web image. Finally, after matching the color, take dodge tool and set the tool as shown in the screenshot. Give highlight to some areas on the face as pointed in red arrows:

Step 7

Next, add the web image to the scene. Place it above the face layer. With free transform tool, scale its size and locate it on the one of the eye. Mask unneeded part of the image to get the result as in the screenshot below.

Add more web at the back of the head:

Step 8

Add the decals png to the scene and set it to soft light blending at 100% opacity.

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the decals png and place the duplicate to the other part of the face. Scale its size and locate it where desired:

Step 9

Now we will add more building to the face. We will use the tower image to fulfill this purpose. Cut out part of the tower, and then, adjust the color of it as that of the web color. Arrange it to the position as the one I created.

Add more building on the area around the left eye.

Step 10

Finally, all images (layers) used to make up the face and group them. Give this face group a layer mask and mask on the areas around the nose ( marked in red)

Step 11

Create a new layer (shift+Ctrl+N) below the face group layer. Take a very soft round brush with opacity of 15% and paint white color on the ground of the stone house image. Then, set this layer to overlay at 100% opacity.

Step 12

Create another new layer above the group face layer. Take a very soft round brush at 10% opacity and paint some black color on the stone and the left areas of the face, set this layer to overlay at 40% opacity.

Step 13

Now we will add a figure to the scene. Cut out the figure image.

Add the figure to the scene. Flip it horizontally and scale the size down. Position it in front of the face:

Step 14

Create a new layer above the figure layer and give this new layer a clipping mask. Take again a very soft round brush and paint some black color on the figure.

Step 15

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the figure layer and fill this duplicate with black. Rotate the duplicate to the left and try to make it look like it is laid on the ground, finally set it blending to normal at 40% opacity. Now we have shadow for the figure.

Step 16

From this step on, we will add some color adjustments to the scene. Firstly, go to layer > new adjustment layers > brightness/contrast. Mask some part of this adjustment layer as shown in red highlight:

Step 17

Next, give another adjustment layer: vibrance. Set this layer to normal at 55% opacity

Step 18

Again, give another adjustment layer : curve. Mask some areas of this curve layer and set it to soft light at 80% opacity:

Another adjustment layer : brightness/contrast. Mask some areas of this curve layer and set it to normal at 50% opacity:

Step 19

Finally, give the scene one more adjustment layer: color balance. Set this layer to normal at 50% opacity.

Step 20

In this step, we will add some light on the windows of the stone house. Create a new layer above all the other layers. Fill (Shift+F5) this layer with black. Then set this layer’s blend mode to ‘screen’. Take a very soft round brush set to 4-8% opacity and paint some white color on the windows to give them some light:

Step 21

Finally, stamp all layers by hitting Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E , then select the stamped layer and give it high pass filter by going to filter > others > high pass:

Set this stamped layer to overlay blending at 100% opacity. Here is the result:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.

In this Photoshop tutorial we will learn how to create an emotional dark fantasy photo manipulation featuring a ghost ship with a mysterious figure By following this tutorial, we will have fun while learning how to compose our own ghost ship by combining various stock image through photomanipulation techniques like blending, lightning and using custom brushes.

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Firstly, create a new document (Ctrl+N) with size of 1772 pxl wide and 2100 pxl high.

Open the boat image on the document and activate the pen tool in the tool panel. With the tool, extraxt the boat from its bacground by clicking on the boat to create the first anchor point. Keep on tracing the boat by clicking the edges of the boat to create the other anchor points until the path is closed meaning that the last anchor meets the first one. When the path is closed, right click on the path to bring up the path command option box. Choose make path selection to change the path into a selection. Hit Shift+Ctlr+I to inverse the selection and then hit Del to clean the background.

Step 2

Hit Ctrl+T to activate the free transform tool. When it is activated, the selected layer image will be in a square with some transforming points around the square.

When the free transform tool is activated, right click on the document to bring up the free transform option box. We will alter the shape of the boat used as reference to create the ghost ship. Firstly, click, hold and drag the lowest right cornered point to the direction where needed to transform the boat perspectively (marked in red). Then, select distort in the option box and start alter the shape of the boat by click the other point, hold and drag to the direction where needed ( marked in blue). Do this perspective and distort transforming to the other points to find the disired shape.

Next, proceed to warp the boat to find the best result.

Step 3

Open the web stock image and cut out the image. Cut out the web part of the image and place the cut out above the ship. Reduce the opacity of it so we are able to see through the image below it. This will make us easier to know where the web image falls.

Activate the free transform tool again and choose perspective to alter the shape. Click one of the transforming point, hold and drag down (shown in blue arrow). Procceed to warp the web to cover the side of the ship.

Keep on warping until we find the best shape:

Step 4

Open the wall stock image and cut out the iron pole of the image. Flip the cut out and place it above the web layer.

With free transform tool activate, warp the cut out so it cover the ship:

Step 5

Open the tower image and cut out some part of it.

Place the cut out on the upper part of the ship. Warp the cut out as needed:

Here is the result I created:

Step 6

Next, open the ruin image and cut out some part of the ruin:

Activate the free transform tool again and alter the shape of the cut out:

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the cut out and try to create the other shape by transforming the cut out and merging them.

Step 7

Go to select the web layer and give it a layer mask. Take the brush tool and choose one of the spatter brush. With the brush, mask some part of the web by stroking black color on it.

Then, place the ruin shape behind the web layer:

Procceed to add another ruin in front of the shape. Give this shape a layer mask and mask where needed:

Step 8

In this step, we will complete the ship by creating more shape and adding some elements on the shape. Open the grave yard image. Cut out some part of the tower:

I have created some shapes from the cut out of the ruin. To enhance the look of the shape, place the cut out to the shape. Duplicate the cut out as many as needed. Place the duplicates on the shape. Mask the edges of the duplicates to make them well blended:

Finally, add the shape to the ship. Place the shape layer behind all the other layers.

Here is the ship will look like after adding more ruin:

Step 9

Now cut out the iron pole of the wall stock image and place the pole on the left side of the ship:

Step 10

In this step we will add some ropes to the ship. Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) and activate the pen tool again. On this new layer, click the tool on the farer pole and then click again on the closer pole, hold and drag to the direction in red arrow. This will curve the path. Make sure to set the brush to hard round brush with size of 2-3 pxl and the foreground color to dark brown. Finally, right click on the path to bring up the path command option box. Choose stroke path and use brush as the tool of stroking.

With the same step, add more ropes to the ship:

Step 11

In this step, we will add more poles to the ship by painting them. Activate the brush tool and choose a hard round brush. Set the setting of the brush in the brush preset box as the followings:

With the dark brown color, stroke the brush to paint a pole:

Add more smaller poles:

Step 12

With the same setting of the brush, paint the other poles in front of the ship

Activate the dodge and burn tool. Apply the dodge tool on the poles to give them some highlight and switch to burn tool to give them some shading. Make sure to use one of the spatter brush to apply the tools:

Step 13

Create a new layer and take the brush tool. Make sure that the moss brushes have been installed. On this new layer, paint some mosses on the ship. Use dark color to paint them:

Proceed to paint more mosses to the parts of the ship where needed. Here is the one I created:

Step 14

Finally, open the lamp image and cut out the lamp with pen tool. Add the lamp to the left and right poles in the ship.

Here is the ship I have created:

Step 15

In this steps on we will create the main canvas for scene. Start by creating a new document of 1024 pxl wide and 1108 pxl high.

Activate gradient tool and set the foreground color to #9eaabb and the background to #0a0a0b. Fill the document with linear gradient:

Step 16

Then, we will add cloud texture to the scene. Open the cloud image in the document. Scale its size and rotate in the posisition as shown in the screenshot:

Duplicate the cloud and place the duplicate above the original one on the right side of it. Mask the left edge of the duplicate. Use a very soft round brush to mask it.

Select the cloud layers and hit Ctrl+E to merge them in to a single layer.

Step 17

Then, go to filter > blur > surface blur to soften the cloud a bit:

Step 18

Set the blending of the cloud layer to multiply at 100% opacity. Duplicate the cloud layer four timas. Set the first dulicate to multiply at 100% opacity, the second one to multiply at 80%, the third one to overlay at 45% and the last one to color dodge at 100% opacity. This is the result should look like:

Step 19

Create a new layer below the cloud and fill (Shift+F5) this new layer with soft blue color. Set this layer to overlay at 100%:

Create a layer mask to this blue layer and mask some part of this layer as highlightened in red in the screenshot:

step 20

Open the water texture to the scene:

Set the water layer to overlay and mask parts highlightened in red:

Step 21

In this step we will give an adjustment layer below the water layer. Go to layer new adjustment layers > hue/saturation:

Set this adjustment layer to normal blending at 20% opacity. Then, mask some parts highlightened in red:

Step 22

Open the ship to the main document:

Give this ship layer some adjustment layers. Firstly, go to layer again > new adjustment layer > vibrance. Make sure to check the Use Previous Layer To Create Clipping Mask to give this adjustment layer a mask:

hen give another adjustment layer: color balance with a clipping mask.

More adjustment layer: curves with a clipping mask.

Step 23

Create a new layer again and give this layer a clipping mask. Take a very soft round brush set to 10-20 opacity and, with white color, paint some highlight on the ship. Proceed to paint some shadow as well on the lower parts of the ship.

Create another new layer with a clipping mask and fill this layer with black. Set this layer to color dodge and paint more white color to some parts of the ship to make the highlight stronger.

Step 24

Open the moon image and cut out the moon. Scale the size of the moon and place it on the upper left part of the ship. Set it to screen at 100% opacity:

Select the moon image again, scale its size and place it where needed. Set it to screen blending at 52% opacity and mask the moon and some unneeded parts of the rays:

Step 25

Create again a new layer below the ship layer. Take a very soft round brush set to 10-20% opacity. On this layer, paint soft white color and then set this layer’s blending to overlay:

Step 26

In this step, we will add some light rays to the scene. Create a new layer above the ship group layer. Take pen tool and make selection as the one in the screenshot. Activate gradient tool, choose linear gradient anf fill the selection with white to transparent gradient:

Set this ray layer to normal at 25% opacity. Next, create another new layer below the ray layer and paint soft white color on this layer:

Finally, duplicate the ray layer some times as needed and place the duplicates above the original layer.

Step 27

Again, create another new layer. Take the ghost brush in the brush preset. On this layer, paint the ghost with with color. Next, duplicate the ghost layer and set this dulplicate to overlay blending at 100% opacity. Select the original ghost layer and reduce this layer opacity to just 20%.

Step 28

In this step we will give the scene some new adjustment layers. First two adjustment layer are vibrance and color balance as shown in the screenshoot. Set the vibrance layer to normal at 85% opacity.

Next, give the scene another adjustment layer: curves. Mask some part of this curves layer in the red marked part as shown in the screenshot:

Step 29

Here is the result so far after adding more light rays:

Step 30

Finally, hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp all visible layer to create a single layer. Convert this layer to smart object and the go to filter > other > high pass. Then, set the smart filter blending option to multiply at 40% opacity.

Select the filter mask thumbnail and mask the filter on the area marked in red. Use a very soft round brush to do this purpose.

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.

In this Photoshop tutorial we will learn how to create an emotional dark fantasy digital photo manipulation featuring a lonely mysterious figure in a dreamscape. By following this tutorial, we will learn how to creating our own dreamscape by combining various stock image through photo manipulation techniques like blending, lightning, using custom brush and some unique techniques in applying dodge/burn tool and texture.

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Let us start by preparing the objects of the scene we are going to create. Firstly, we will creating a castle. Make sure we have downloaded all the stock images needed. Create a new document in photoshop with size of 1600 px wide and 1800 px high. Open the castle stock image in the document.

Open the tree stock image in the document, place the image behind the tree. Scale the size of it accordingly. Give the tree layer a layer mask by clicking the mask icon located in the layer panel. Mask unneeded part of the tree image.

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the tree image, scale its size down a bit and place the duplication behind the castle. Arrange its position as the result below:

Step 2

Create a new document (Ctrl+N) with size of 1600px wide and 1808px high.

Open the grass land stock picture and extract the land from its background. Use pen magic wand tool to select the background and when the backround is selected, hit Del to clean it out

Place the extracted grass land to the new document. With free transform tool (T), scale its size to fit the canvas. Then, go to filter > blur > surface blur. Follow the screenshot below for the setting of the blur:

Then, mask the unwanted part and top most edges of the grass land. Make sure to use spatter brush for this purpose. Please see the screenshot to find out the parts to be masked (marked in red arrows).

Step 3

Next, crop some part of the grass land. Use lasso tool to select the part and then hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the selection into a new single layer.

Place the cropped in front of the original layer. Scale the sizes and arrange their positions like the one shown in the screenshot:

Mask the unneeded part of the duplication layer to make it well blended:

Step 4

We will add background to the scene. Open the mountain stock image. Hit Ctrl+T to activate free transform tool. Scale the size of the image by press Shift key on the keyboard while clicking, holding and dragging one of the dragging point.

The result should look like the one here:

We will mask the background of the mountain image to hide it and just the mountain part is just revealed. Click the layer mask icon in the layer panel to give the mountain layer a layer mask marked by a white thumbnail next to the layer. Mask the entire sky background of the image by stroking black color to the background.

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) the masked mountain layer and place the duplicate to the other side of the scene. Arrange its size a bit and position so it does not look uniform.

Finally, reduce the opacity of each mountain layer to just 10%.

Step 5

In this step we will add cloud texture to the background. Open the stock image. Activate the rectungular marquee tool and select the cloud part of the image by clicking, holding and dragging the tool on the cloud part. Then, hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the selection into a new single layer.

Add the cloud texture to the background of the scene. Scale its size to fit the background.

Step 6

Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N) above the cloud texture layer. Activate gradient tool and create a gradient color on this new layer. Set the color of the gradient as the ones shown in the screenshot. Fill the new layer with gradient by clicking the top of the document, holding and dragging down to the bottom.

Set the gradient layer to soft light blending with opacity of 68%.

Give this gradient layer a layer mask and mask the red marked part of the gradient as shown in the screenshot:

Step 7

Add another stock cloud image to the document to add more cloud texture.

Set the blending of this cloud layer to screen at 35% opacity.

Step 8

Next, add the castle image we have created to the sceen. Scale its size and place it in the center between the two mountain.

Reduce the opacity of the castle layer to 30%

Step 9

Create another new layer behind the two mountain layers. Take the brush tool and choose the one of the moon brush in the brush preset picker. With white color paint the moon on the new layer with size of about 200 pixel.

Mask the part of the moon that is visible on the wall of the castle.

With the moon layer still selected, go to layer > layer style > outer glow:

Step 10

In this step we will give some highlight on the castle on which the light of the moon is strongly casted. Go again to the castle layer. Hit Ctrl on the keyboard and point the cursor to the castle layer thumbnail. When the cursor change into a pointing finger icon, click the thumbnail to load the castle a selection. When it is selected, hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the selection into a new single layer layer and give this duplication layer a clipping mask. Fill (Shift+F5) the duplicate with 50% grey. Now, activate the brush tool and choose a very soft round brush. With white color, stroke the brush on the edges of the castle.

Then, set the duplication layer to overlay at 100% opacity.

Step 11

Create another new layer and make sure to give this new layer a clipping mask. Choose again a very soft round brush with opacity of 10-20%. With white color, stroke the brush on the edges of the castle to define more highlight. The blue arrows in the screenshot will guide us where to stroke the brush.

Step 12

We will give a new adjustment layer and some highlight to the grounds as well. Go select the ground layer and then hit layer > new adjustment layers > hue/saturation. Make sure to give this adjustment layer a clipping mask. Finally, create a new layer above the adjustment layer and give this new layer a clipping mask. Give some highlight to the ground as the same way we have created in the previous step 11.

Do the same as well to the other ground layer:

Here is the result should look so far:

Step 13

We need to complete the composition of the background by add more castles in the distance. To do this purpose, we will just simply duplicate the castle and add the duplicates in the distance. Scale down their sizes and reduce the opacities to 10-20%

Step 14

Open the path stock image in the document. Place the image behind the ground layers.

Scale down the size of the image and place it on the right side of the scene. Mask almost the entire image and only the fence is revealed. We can see the result as shown in the screenshot:

Duplicate the path image and place the duplicate where needed. With the same way as in the previous step, add more fences to the scene:

Step 15

In this step we will add path on the ground. Duplicate the path image and place the duplicate above the ground layer.

Mask the unneeded part of the path image to reveal just the path and set the opacity of this layer to 50% in normal blending.

Step 16

Now we will prepare the trees to be added to the scene. We will paint the trees. Firatly, create a new document (Ctrl+N) with size of 1600px wide and 1800px high. To get idea of what the tree should look like, take a look the tree stock image as reference. Then, with color #211e15, paint the tree as the one shown in the screenshot.

Activate dodge tool and set the tool as shown below:

Start define the highlight of the tree by stroking and clicking the dodge tool on the tree.

Give the tree more highlight where needed:

Keep on stroking and clicking the tool to define more highlight. Try to vary the size of the brush and range of the tool by switching to shadow > midtones > highlight. Use the burn tool as well to give parts of the tree some shading.

Step 17

This is the tree I have created:

Then, open the texture stock image on the tree document. Scale the size of this image (1). Create a clipping mask for this texture layer (2). Finally, set the blending of this layer to soft light at 68% opacity.

Create a new layer and give this new layer a clipping mask. Take a very soft round brush and set the brush at 10-20% opacity. With white color, stroke the brush on the edges of the tree to give more highlight. There, we have a new tree now. Select all the tree layer and hit Ctrl+G to group them.

Step 18

Finally, add the tree group to the main document.

With the same ways as in the previous step on how to create a tree, create another tree and add the tree to the right side of the scene.

Step 19

Create the other tree from the tree brush. Make sure we have downloaded and installed the brush. Paint again the other tree.

SAdd some more distant trees to the scene.

Step 20

In this step we will add foregrounds for the scene. Go to the cropped grass land layer again. Duplicate the layer two times. Then, place the duplicates above the main tree group layers. The screenshot below will guide us where the duplicates should be placed:

Step 21

Now we will add a model to the scene. Firstly, open the model stock image. Take the pen tool, and with the tool, start tracing the model by clicking the edges of the model to create anchor points (I started the anchor point on the head). Keep on tracing until the path is closed which indicated by a thin line around the model.

Right click on the path to show path command options. Choose make path selection to change the path into a seletion. Hit Shift+Ctrl+I to inverse the selection and hit Dell to clean the background:

Step 22

Scale the model to the size needed:

Step 23

In this step we will add ties to the model’s swing. Firstly, cut out the part of the swing’s rope.

Place the cut out on the branch of the tree on which the rope should be tied. Activate free transform tool and warp the rope to bend it a bit.
Cut out again the rope of the swing into a small piece. Duplicate the cut out some times as needed. Place each duplication above one to another to create the tie:

Finally, add more ropes to complete the swing:

Step 24

In this step we will paint more cloud to the scene. Take brush tool and set the brush preset as the ones below:

Set the opacity of the brush between 20-30% . Then, on a new layer paint white cloud for the scene.

Step 25

Now we will add new adjustment layers to the scene. Go to layer > new adjustment layer > color balance. Set this adjustment layer to normal blending at 100% opacity

Then, give another adjustment layer: curves. Set this adjustment layer to normal at 60% opacity.

This is the result should look like after adding the adjustments:

Step 26

Select the curves layer in the layer panel. Mask some areas (indicated by the red mark in the screenshot). Use a very soft round brush to mask the areas.

This is the result should look like:

Step 27

Create a new layer above the two adjustment layers. Activate the brush tool. Choose a very soft round brush with opacity about 20-30%opacity. On the new layer, paint black transparent color to the edges of the scene. Then, to complete the composition, add some birds to the trees. Place the bird layers below the adjustment layers.

Step 28

Now create again a new layer above all the other layers. Fill the new layer with black. Set this layer to color dodge blending with 100% opacity. Take the brush tool. Set the opacity of the brush to 5-10% and choose a very soft round brush. With white color, paint the windows of the castle to give them light and give some highlight to the grounds as well. Here is the layer should look like in normal blending:

And here is the result will look like when the layer set to color dodge:

Step 29

Next, we will give another new adjustment layer to the scene. Go to layer > new adjustment layers > curve. For this curves layer, give it normal blending at 90% opacity.

Step 30

Hit Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to stamp all the visible layers. This will create a new single layer of the scene we have created. Right click the stamp layer to show the layer command options. Choose convert to smart object. This will convert the layer into a smart object layer.

Then, go to filter > others > high pass. This will give the smart object layer a smart filter: high pass.

Point the cursor to the visible high pass filter in the layer panel, right click on it to show the filter command options. Choose Edit Smart Filter Blending Option…

Then set the blending to multiply at 100% opacity.

This is the result will look like:

Step 31

Click the filter mask thumbnail to mask the effect of the filter. Mask on the red marked areas. Use a very soft round brush to mask the areas.

The result should look like this now:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.

In this tutorial we are going to create a dark fantasy scene featuring a dark demon coming out from fire. Follow through these steps to learn how to customize a simple stock image using techniques in photoshop like applying textures, basic painting, lightning and some others.

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Firstly, we will manipulate a demon from the liberty stock picture. So, just open the image in photoshop. The image will be a new document with name of background in the layer panel. Right click on the background layer to unlock and make it an ordinary layer with name of layer 0:

Now, we will clean out the blue background of the image. To do this purpose, we will use magic wand tool to select the background. activate the tool. Please refer to the screenshot to see the setting of it. Click on the blue background:

Here is the result after clicking the blue background. The entire blue background is selected now:

Hit Del on the keyboard to clean the blue. There is still part unneeded part of the background left. With eraser tool, clean the part.

Here is the result:

Step 2

From this step on, we will alter the face of the liberty statue. With the liberty layer still selected, hit Shift+Ctrl+X to go to liquify filter. Set the setting of the filter as shown in the screenshot:

Make sure to activate Foward Warp Tool by clicking its icon in the liquify tool panel. Place the cursor on the one of the eyebrow. Then, click and drag the cursor up a bit:

Here is the effect of liquify tool on the eyebrow should be:

Procceed to alter the different parts of the face by warping them. Try to vary the size of the brush according to the widths of the parts to be warped.

Here is the result I created:

Step 3

After altering the shape of the face, we still have to repair the shape of its nose:

To repair the nose, we just simply cut out the other part of the nose:

Then, flip the cut out and place on the part of the nose to be repair:

Finally, mask the unneeded part of the cut out to make it well blended. Here is the result:

Step 4

In this step, we will start painting over the face. Activate the brush tool and choose one of the halloween brushes after we have downloaded and installed in photoshop:

Create a new layer (Shift+Ctrl+N). Set the foreground color to black. On this new layer, paint the brush right on the altered face :

Cut out the the mouth into a new single layer:

Take pen tool in the tool panel. Zoom in the bird picture. Start tracing each bird by clicking the pen tool on the edge of each until the path is closed. When the path is closed, right click on the path to show the path option ccommand box. Choose make path selection. Hit Ctrl+J to duplicate the selection into a single layer.

Then, place the cut out layer on the face. Mask parts of this layer to make it well blended:

Select all the face layers previously made and group them (Ctrl+G). mask the parts overlapping on the forehead. Finally, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layers > Hue/saturation. Create a clipping mask to this adjustment layer so that it just effect the face layer to which it is clipped.

Step 5

Create a new layer. On this layer, paint over the fangs to make them brighter. Use brush with small size about 10-20pxl at 50-70% hardness.

Step 6

Create another new layer. set this layer’s blending to color in the layer panel. On this layer we will paint over parts on the face. Activate brush tool. Choose round brush. Set the hardness of the brush varied to 30-60%. Paint over the cheek and chin with colors combined among #a1c4c6, #6e9092 and #314547.

Proceed to create two more layers. Set the first layer to color blending and the second one to soft light at 50% opacity. In this step, we will still paint over the face to define more details. With brush tool selected, paint over the cheek and forehead area with color of #012123 on the first layer. Then, select the second layer on which we will paint over the face with color of #afd7d4.

Create one more layer. Again, set the color of foreground to #034f52. With round brush tool set to 20-30% hardness at 30-40% opacity, paint over the forehead area:

We are almost done with the face. In this step we will give highlight and shadow on the face. To do this purpose, firstly create another layer and fill (Shift+F5) the new layer with 50% grey color. Set this layer to overlay at 100% opacity. Activate brush tool. Choose a very soft round brush at 15-25% opacity. On the new layer, stoke white color to some area on cheek, fangs and foreground to give them highlight. On the contrary, paint black color to the areas to be given shadow or shading. Here is the result I created:

Step 7

Create again a new layer. On this layer we will paint eyes. Select bright orange color as the color of the foreground. Paint an eye shape with the color (1). Then duplicate the eye layer and set the duplication layer to color dodge blending at 40-50% opacity (2).
Select the eye layer and hit Ctrl+G to group them.

Duplicate the group and flip it horizontally. Then, place the the group on the other eye:

Create another new layer above the two eye groups. Paint white spots on this layer right in the middle of the eyes. Then go to Layer > Layer Styles > Outer Glow:

Result::

Step 8

Here is the result should look like so far. Next, we will replace the outfit of the demon with the original one.

Firstly, go to the original layer of the liberty image. Crop out the outfit of it into a new single layer:

Then, just simply add the cut out to the modified liberty we have created:

Step 9

In this step, we will add a halloween icon to the scene. We will replace the manuscript held by the statue with the halloween pumpkin. Open the pumpkin stock image. Crop out the pumpkin:

Add the cropped pumpkin to the scene. Activate free transform tool (T). Warp the pumpkin to alter its shape:

Place the pumpkin above the manuscript. Mask the pumpkin to reveal the fingers:

Step 10

We will add a hat to the pumpkin. Open the hat stock image. Crop the hat out into a single layer:

Paint over the hat with black to alter its color. Then, add the hat on the pumpkin:

Step 11

In this step, we will proceed to dramatize the lool of the demon by adding an axe as the replacement of the torch. Open the axe stock image and crop the axe out into a single layer:

We need to repair the axe by hidding the rest of the fingers. Cut out the wood part of the axe stick into a new single layer:

Then, place the cut out on the fingers to cover them. Mask the edges of it to make it well blended.

Do the same to the other left fingers. Here is the result should be:

Step 12

Add the axe to the scene. Place it on the torch.

Mask the axe to reveal the fingers of the demon. Finally, mask the torch and manuscript to hide them. Here is the result:

step 13

What to do next is creating nails to the fingers. Create a new layer. activate pen tool to create a triangle shape on one of the fingers. Fill the shape with grey:

Now activate burn tool. Choose a very soft brush of the burn tool. Set its range to highlight at 66% exposure. Stoke on the area to be burn:

Apply more burn effect to the finger:

Do the same to add more nail to the other fingers:

Step 14

We will add some textures on the face and hands of the demon. Open the texture stock image. Hit Ctrl+I to invert the image:

Step 15

Add the texture to the demon. Place it on the face:

Set the texture layer to overlay:

Mask the unneeded part of the texture. Then, reduce the opacity of this layer to 50-60%:

Duplicate the texture as many as needed and add the duplication to the other parts of the face. Vary the sizes and the opacities of the duplication layers accordingly:

Do the same to add textures on the arm and fingers:

We are done with the demon. Merge all the demon layers into a single layer. We are done with the demon. Here is the result:

Step 16

Create a new document (Ctrl+N) with size of 1024 pixel wide and 1229 pixel high:

Activate gradient tool. Choose linier gradient. Set the foreground to #626a71 and backfround to #d8d8d8. Click the top of the document, hold and drag down to fill it with gradient:

Duplicate the gradient background into a new single layer. Set the duplication to multiply blending at 100% opacity, then, mask some part of it (Marked in red). Use a very soft round brush at 20-40% opacity to mask the layer:

Step 17

Now we will add cloud texture to the scene. We will manipulate the texture from the other stock image provided. Open the image in the document. Hit T on the keyboard to activate free transform tool. Scale up the size of the image by dragging one of the transform point. Make sure to hit Shift key while dragging it.

Here is the result should be:

Then, mask the lower part of the image to hide the unneeded part and just the cloud part is revealed. Use a very soft round brush to mask it.

Go to layer > new adjustment layers > gradient map. Make sure to create a clipping mask to this adjustment layer. Refer to the screenshot to see the setting of the gradient:

Step 18

We still need to add more cloud to the scene. To do this perpose, duplicate the previously made cloud. Re-scale the size of the duplication accordingly and place it where needed. See screenshot below for your inspiration:.

Mask the unneeded parts of the duplication image:

With the duplication layer still selected, go to layer > new adjustment layers > curve. Make sure to create a clipping mask to this adjustment layer:

Step 19

Finally, give the two cloud layers some surface blur by going to filter > blur > surface blur:

Here is the result will look like:

Step 20

In this step we will add a city as the background of the scene. Open the city stock image. Scale up the size and arrange its position where needed:

Hide the cloud part of the image by masking it.

Set the blending of this city layer to multiply at 15% opacity:

With the city layer selected, go to filter > brush strokes > spatter:

Here is the result:

Step 21

Next, we will give adjustment layers to the scene. Firstly, go again to layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map. Please see the screenshot for the setting of this gradient. Set the gradient layer to normal blending at 100% opacity. Then, duplicate this gradient layer and set the blending of this duplication to soft light at 100% opacity. Mask some part of the duplication gradient ( marked in red in the screenshot):

Give another new adjustment layer: photo filter. After applying the photo filter, mask some part of it as marked in red in the screenshot. Finally, set its blending to multiply at 100% opacity.

This is the result should look like:

Step 22

Add the demon we have previously made to the main document. This demon image will de the top most layer in the layer panel so far.

Step 23

Next, create a new layer above the demon layer. On this layer we will paint white color which is supposed to be ray of light. The red mark in the screenshot is the place where we should paint the light:

Set the foreground color to white. Activate a very soft round brush with opacity of about 15-25%. Then, paint light to the area where needed:

Step 24

Create a new layer again above all the other layer. On this layer we will paint shading on the edges and lower part of the scene. To do this, firstly set black as the foreground color. Then, with a very soft round brush at low opacity of about 10%, paint the area to be given shading (marked in red)

Here is the result will be:

Create another new layer filled with black. Set this new layer to soft light. Mask some part marked in red. This layer will give more shading to the scene:

Step 25

In this step, we will add more new adjustment layers to set the overall mood of the scene. Go again to layer > new adjustment layer > color balance:

Then, add another adjustment layer: vibrance. Set this vibrance later to normal at 40% opacity.

Next, more new adjustment layer. This time, we will add curve adjustment layer. Mask the red marked area of the curve to hide the effect of it. Set its blending to normal at 75% opacity.

Finally, add the last adjustment layer: photo filter. Hide the effect of this adjustment layer by masking the red marked part. Set its blending to normal and reduce its opacity to 30%.

Step 26

After setting the mood of the scene, we need to retouch the appearance of the demon. Select the demon layer again and give the layer a layer mask. Mask the lower part of it to make it look transparent. After finding the desire result, hit Ctrl+G to make the demon layer in a group. Name this group: Demon.

Step 27

Within the demon group, duplicate the demon layer. Create a clipping mask to this duplication layer. Now, go to filter > others > high pass. The filter will change the color of the demon into grey. Activate brush tool and choose a very soft round brush. Then, paint white color to some area where needed to define highlight. Here is the normal blending of the high passed duplication layer will look like after being painted with white color:

Here the result will look like in overlay blending:

Step 28

Next, add a new adjustment layer to the demon. This time we will add curve adjustment layer. Make sure to give a clipping mask to this curve layer so that it will just effect the layers below to which it clipped.

Step 29

Again create another new layer within the demon group. On this layer, paint some shadow to the areas shown by the red arrows.

Step 30

Next, select the demon layer in the group. With the demon layer selected, go to layer > layer styles > inner shadow. Follow the setting of this layer style as shown in the screenshot. Then, right click the eye icon of inner shadow in the layer panel to show layer style’s command option. Choose create layer. This option will change the inner shadow style into a single layer clipped to the demon layer. Set the blending of this layer to color dodge at 100% opacity. Place the inner shadow layer on the top most position among the other layers within the demon group. Mask a little bit on the unneeded part of the inner shadow.

The effect of the inner shadow will give more highlight to the demon. Here ia the result should look like:

To make the highlight brighter, duplicate the inner shadow layer one time and set the duplication layer to screen:

Step 31

I decided to paint over more highlight on the neck of the demon by consideration that the area is where the light is strongly being casted:

step 32

In this step we will dramatize the scene by adding fire and smoke from which the demon is being appeared. We will manipulate the fire and smoke from the stock image provided. Open the image. Cut out some of the fire images given into new layers.

Scale the size of the cut outs accordingly and combine them to create a new single shape. Set the blanding of each to screen blending mode with opacities varied to about 35-58%. Mask parts of each cut out where needed to find the desired single shape. The shape I created below may give you inspiration:

Here is the scene will look like after being given smoke:

And here is the one with more gentle smoke:

Step 33

Now we will add more fire effect to the scene. Create a new layer again that is filled with black. Set this new layer to color dodge blending. Activate brush tool. Choose a very soft round brush at opacity of 5-7%. With bright orange color (#fd6e17), stroke the brush repeatedly to the area where the flame and fire should be. Then, switch to bright yellow (#fcd703) to paint more light on some areas of the cloud and the demon outfit. Here is the look of the layer set in normal mode at 100% opacity:

Here is the result when the layer set to overlay at 100% opacity.

Step 34

Create a new layer under the shading layers previously made (step 24). Take rectangular marquee tool. On this layer, create rectangular selection and fill it with black. Next, go to filter > render > lens flare. Choose 105mm prime for the lens type at about 40-50% brightness.

Set the flare layer to screen and place it on the axe and reduce its opacity to 75%.

Step 35

Now duplicate the flare layer. Activate free transform tool. Alter the shape of the flare a bit by warping it:

Place the duplication flare layer near the neck of the demon. Reduce its opacity to 60%.

Finally, duplicate the warped duplication flare layer three times. Place each duplication layer to where needed. The red arrows shown in the screenshot point to the places where each duplication layer is added:

And…here it is the result:

And We’re Done!

You can view the final outcome below. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.