Hey design students!

Today’s design lesson is a great opportunity to follow along with the workflow of a respected design professional. Eric Vasquez is one of our most popular teachers, and has worked with some huge companies throughout his illustrious design career.

Over to Eric…

“In this tutorial I will be walking you through the steps to create your own print ready poster. In this particular case it will feature a singer but the same techniques and rules apply to just about any type of poster that you would like to create.

I will be explaining some print terminology as well as showing you how to get the most out of your photos even if they’re under exposed to start with. We’ll also use seemingly ordinary typefaces combined with some cool typography tips to create something unique and different. If you are all ready to get started then fire up Photoshop and let’s get down to business.”

- Eric Vasquez

Final Image

Let’s take a look at a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

The first thing we are going to do is open up the image of our singer from Dreamstime.

Press Command/Ctrl + Alt/Option + I on your keyboard to bring up the Image Size Dialog Box. Once the window appears, make sure that you Document Size is set to inches as shown here:

Change the width of your image to 11 inches and press OK.

Once your image is scaled up, select the ‘Background’ layer in your Layers Palette and press Command/Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer. After doing that you can turn the visibility of your original layer off.

Depending on the size and resolution of the original image that you decided to use, you may not want to scale it up too much, especially if it has a lot of detail in it. In this particular case it works out because the image is mostly a silhouette with a few areas of detail.

Step 2

The original color mode of this image is set to grayscale, so go to the Image Menu and choose Mode>RGB to change it. Normally if you were working on something for print you would generally want to use CMYK instead, but if you are going to be printing your file out at the end you can always flatten your image and convert it at the end. Just make sure not to save over your layered RGB file in case you need to go back and make any changes or tweaks.

You will then be prompted with a pop-up box asking if you would like to merge the document, we want to say ‘Don’t Merge’ for this part.

Step 3

From here, make sure that you have your newly duplicated layer selected in your Layers Palette and then go to the Image Menu once again. This time we are going to select an option called Calculations.

When the dialog box appears, go to the Channels option and choose the color has the most contrast – generally this will be the red channel. After that hit OK your press the Enter Key on your keyboard.

Next, go to the Channels Palette over where your layers are and you will notice a new Alpha 1 Channel has been created.

Step 4

Press the ‘O’ key on your keyboard, which is the shortcut for the Dodge and Burn Tools. Make sure that you have your Burn Tool selected and target the Midtones with an Exposure setting of around 50%.

Use the Burn Tool to fill in the singer so that you eventually have a solid black silhouette on a white background. You may have to make a couple of passes over the figure but keep at it until it’s completely black.

When you are happy with your silhouette, hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon indicated below by the red bounding box.
This will activate your selection and you should now see marching ants around your image.

Return to your Layers Palette while your selection is still active and press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I to invert your selection. Alternatively you could just go to the Image Menu and choose Adjustments>Invert.

Once you have done that, click on the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette to mask out the background.

This method of silhouetting an image works particularly well for hair, most often when you have an image with a good amount of contrast between the figure and the background. If you are lacking contrast however, you could apply a Levels Adjustment to your Alpha Channel in order to bump up the darks or lights.

Hold down the Control Key and click on your masked layer. When the dropdown menu appears choose ‘Convert to Smart Object’ as shown below:

There are many benefits of using Smart Objects as opposed to normal Raster Layers and one of those benefits is that when you resize an image a couple of times with Raster Layers it will result in a noticeable loss in quality. If you use a Smart Object instead, it will retain the quality of the image so you can scale it up or down as many times as needed.

Step 5

Next we are going to create a New Document. Make your file 18.5” x 24.5” and set the Resolution to 300dpi. This is going to serve as our main poster file.

Create another New Document and make this one 18” x 24” with the same Resolution Setting.

Fill your 18” x 24” document with solid black using your Paint Bucket Tool (G). From here, hold down the Shift and Command/Ctrl Keys simultaneously and drag the layer over to your main poster file.

By holding down these keys while dragging your layer over, it should drop it right in the middle of your poster file. Just in case it lands off to one side or the other, select the black fill layer and your background at the same time and then use the Align Tools at the top of the screen to ensure that everything is centered nicely.

Press Command/Ctrl + R to show your Rulers in case they aren’t yet visible. Drag a couple of guides around the edges of the black box. This will let us know where our bleed area is. Once your guides are in place you can turn off or throw away the black layer all together.

For those who are not familiar with the term ‘Bleed’ this is something you generally do in print to leave a bit of extra room for whoever is trimming your pages so you don’t end up with a white border around your poster. Some files will also require that you stay within a certain area, which would be commonly referred to as Safety or Live Area. This is only usually if you have important logos or copy that you want to make sure you don’t lose when your file is trimmed.

Now that we have set up our main poster file with guides to indicate our Bleed Area, we can bring over our silhouetted singer Smart Object that we created earlier on. If you need to, scale him up a bit further using a Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) and dragging any of the four corners outwards while holding down the Shift Key. Use the image below as a rough guide for sizing and placement.

Step 6

Create a new layer below your Smart Object and use your Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill the layer with #EA00FF.

Your layers should look like this:

Hold down your Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon indicated below by the black bounding box around the small picture.

Once you have an active selection around the guy, switch to your Brush Tool (B) and use a soft round brush at about 20% opacity.

Create a new layer just above the layer with the singer and using a dark color that was sampled from the darker parts of the image, paint over the area shown here:

This will darken the back of the head so we have better separation from the background color.

Step 7

Select your Singer Layer and press Command/Ctrl + J to make a copy of it on the layer above. After you have done that, go to the Image Menu and choose Adjustments>Shadows/Highlights as shown here:

Use the following settings when prompted with the dialog box.

That’s the end of the preview!

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Today’s tutorial is one of the longest, most in depth design lessons you’re likely to come across. At over 8500 words, 70 steps long and 200 meticulously detailed and diagramed images, it’s a true design education.

In this tutorial we will be creating a composite where we will take various photos and blend them together to make them feel like they were all taken at the same time and place. We will be building up a dynamic winter scene with landscapes and wild animals and also integrating abstract shapes and objects to give the composition a fantasy feel.

Here’s a look at what techniques we’ll be covering in today’s lesson:

• Image compositing (creating a unified, cohesive, blended scene)
• Working with lighting effects and transparency
• Expert extraction techniques (including tricky edges)
• Working with perspective and depth
• A professional, non-destructive workflow (including advanced smart object and mask management)

Check out the preview image to get an idea of what we will be creating and if you are all ready to go then let’s get started!

Final Image

Let’s take a look at a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

This piece is so huge it’s worth taking a look at some close ups of the final outcome too:

Step 1

To start things off we are going to open up the first image, which is our panoramic landscape. This is a nice wide photo with a fantasy feel to it that I really love. You can find great images like this for free on Stock Xchng or Deviant Art where they have some great pre-made backgrounds and free photos.

Once your image opens in Photoshop the first thing we want to do is double click on the ‘Background’ layer to unlock it. From here you will be prompted with a dialog box asking you to rename the layer. For now I have just called it ‘Forest’ to keep it simple, but feel free to call it whatever you like.

Once you have renamed your layer you will notice that the small lock icon next to the name has disappeared. This simply means that we now have the ability to change or modify the layer as needed.

Step 2

Next we will click on the small black and white icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette, which is where you go to create an Adjustment Layer. The one we are going to use first is ‘Curves’.

After selecting the Curves Adjustment Layer you will be prompted with the dialog box where you can modify the settings. We only want to target the Blue Channel at this point so click on the dropdown menu and select this channel.

From here we are going to move the bottom left of the line up so that the Output setting is at 80 as show here:

When you move this slider up you will notice that it casts a blue-ish haze over the image that helps to create some nice atmosphere. At this point though we want to retain the richness in the values of the original photograph. We want to switch the Blending Mode of the Curves Adjustment Layer to Overlay and then reduce the opacity to about 60%. This will intensify some of the colors and leave us with a more subtle effect.

Step 3

Hold down the Control Key and click on the Curves Adjustment Layer to reveal a dropdown menu. When the menu appears, we are going to select the ‘Create Clipping Mask’ option.

What this will do is make sure that our Curves Adjustment only affects the layer directly below it and you can now see a small arrow icon next to the layer name to show us that it now has a Clipping Mask applied to it.

Step 4

Make sure that your background ‘Forest’ layer is selected in your Layers Palette and then click on the Adjustment Layer icon once again. This time we will select the ‘Hue/Saturation’ option as indicated below.

When the Hue/Saturation box appears, simply move the Saturation slider to the left until it’s set to about -24.

You may notice that because we had our Forest Layer selected before we applied another Adjustment Layer, it automatically gave us a Clipping Mask. This is because the new Adjustment Layer is sandwiched in between the two. You can do this with as many Adjustment Layers or even regular layers as you like and it will ensure that the effect is only applied to the layer below.

Step 5

Now that we have begun to set up our background we want to bring in some of our other photos to add a focal point to the image. I will be using an image of a woman with a long flowing type of garment that I found while browsing through some photos at Dreamstime, but any image of a man or woman with some type of flowing attire will work equally as well. Keep in mind that all of the techniques I am showing you can work with just about any image.

Once you opened up the image that you would like to use in Photoshop, press Command/Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer. After that, click on the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette as indicated below.

Switch to your Brush Tool (B) and select a small to medium sized hard round brush with solid black as your foreground color.

What I usually like to do here is add a new layer (Command/Ctrl + Shift + N) and fill it with a solid color, placing it between the original ‘Background’ layer and the duplicate layer that we placed a Layer Mask onto. This will make it easier for you to see the outline of the figure when silhouetting with your brush.

Here I am using a solid black, but you can use any color you like so long as it’s not too similar to any of the colors found in the image your are masking. Don’t worry too much about the semi-transparent areas or the shadows for now, we just want to get a nice cutout of the woman with her flowing garment.

Once you have masked her out, drag the image into your working document.

Step 6

After bringing in the image of the silhouetted woman, make sure to place her layer at the top of your Layers Palette. Hold down the Control Key and click on the layer to reveal a dropdown menu. Once this menu appears, we want to choose ‘Convert to Smart Object’ as shown here:

You should now notice that there is a small icon appearing on this layer to indicate the change we have made. There are several reasons for using Smart Objects in your document, but the main reason we are doing it here is so that if we decide to play with the scale of our figure (i.e shrinking her down and blowing her back up) we won’t get any deterioration in the quality of our image. If you were to do this with a regular raster image you would notice that after resizing it a few times it would start to look pretty bad.

Step 7

Next, we want to return to the image of the woman with the flowing garment from the previous step. Make another copy of the original ‘Background’ layer as indicated below:

Just as we did the first time around, add a Layer Mask to the duplicated layer by clicking on the icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette.

Switch over to your Pen Tool (P) and begin to trace around the shadow. This doesn’t have to be 100% precise as we are going to blur it slightly, but just try to get around the general shape.

Once you have closed your path, hold down the Control Key and click anywhere along the line to reveal a dropdown menu. When the menu appears, choose ‘Make Selection’ to make this area active.

When you are prompted with the following dialog box, you can simply hit OK – just make sure that your Feather Radius setting is at 0.

Now that we have an active selection area, make sure that your foreground color is set to solid black. Press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I to inverse your selection. Once you have done that, press the Alt/Option Key + Delete to fill this area with solid black. You will now have masked your shadow out successfully. Be sure to save your image again at this point.

Step 8

With your shadow layer selected, go to the Filter Menu and choose Blur>Surface Blur as shown here:

For your settings use a Radius of about 5 pixels and a Threshold of about 15 pixels and press OK to apply the changes.

Step 9

Bring your shadow layer into your working document and position it beneath the feet of the woman, just like in the original image. Hold down the Control Key and click on your Shadow Layer and convert this layer to a Smart Object like we did with the image of our figure.

After doing that, hold down the Shift Key and click on both the girl and her shadow so that both layers are highlighted.

Hold down the Control Key and click on either of these two layers to reveal a dropdown menu. When this menu appears, choose ‘Link Layers’ as shown here:

By linking our layers they will remain connected together whenever we move one layer or the other, making sure that these two elements don’t get separated.

Select your Shadow Layer and change the Blending Mode to Multiply. Once you have done that, press Command/Ctrl + T to initiate a Free Transform and drag any one of the four corners inwards while holding down the Shift Key to constrain the proportions of your image in order to scale it down.

We want to position the girl and her shadow in the light area on the right side of the forest. For now, don’t worry if she is covering up some tree branches or anything else, just try to get the scale to look correct.

Step 10

Next, add a Layer Mask to the Shadow Layer. You will notice that the left edge and the bottom of the shadow are a bit hard, so we just want to use a large soft round brush at a low opacity to soften this area a bit.

Using a solid black color, go over the bottom and left edges of the shadow in a swooping direction with your low opacity brush.

After softening up the edges of the shadow, hold down the Shift Key and select both the girl and the shadow together. When both layers are highlighted, press Command/Ctrl + G to place them into a Group Folder and call it ‘Girl & Shadow’ or something similar. Once both of these layers are in a folder together, add a Layer Mask to the whole folder.

Step 11

At this point we are going to turn off the visibility of the newly created Group Folder containing the girl and her shadow together. What we are going to focus on here is the original forest background. Using your Magic Wand Tool (W) select the lighter areas around the snow covered tree branches that were hidden behind the girl. You can hold down the Shift Key as you click to add more areas to your selection until you have all of the gaps and edges selected.

Turn the visibility of the Group Folder back on and you will still see your active selection area and where it overlaps.

Press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I to invert your active selection area, and then with a solid hard round brush, fill the selection area with black. This will give the illusion that the trees are in front of the girl when masked out. You should now have something like the image below:

The image is already beginning to take shape, so at this point we can work on blending the girl into the scene more.

Step 12

Go into your Group Folder and select only the layer with the girl.

Click on the Adjustment Layer Icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette and then choose ‘Hue/Saturation’ from the menu.

Hold down the Control Key and click on the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer that will now be placed right above the layer containing our figure. When this menu appears we are going to select ‘Create Clipping Mask’ as shown below:

Next, we are going to apply the following settings for the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer:

Check off the box that says ‘Colorize’
Hue: 221
Saturation: 25
Lightness: 0

Now change the Blending Mode of your Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer to Multiply.

That’s the end of the preview!

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In this advanced tutorial we will be creating a high-energy sports themed design that is full of color, motion and depth. Using an image of a basketball player as the focal point, we will use various light effects, custom brushes and vector artwork to build up a detailed composition.

Let’s get started!

Final Image

Let’s take a look at a preview of the image that we are going to create:

Step 1

Alright guys first we are going to open the image of the basketball player that we downloaded in Photoshop.

Once our image is open we are going to duplicate the layer by pressing Command/Ctrl + J. After you have done that, add a Layer Mask to the newly duplicated layer by clicking on the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette.

Step 2

Grab your Brush Tool (B) and with a solid black color selected, choose a hard round brush from your brushes.

Create a new layer and place it in between your original basketball player layer and your duplicate of this layer like the image below:

Fill the layer with a color using your Paint Bucket Tool (G) which, in this case I have used a solid black.

Next, make sure you are painting into the mask of your duplicated basketball player and begin to paint out the background. I zoom in pretty close when masking out my images and pay careful attention to the hands and all of the contours of the body to keep things clean.

Continue to paint with your black brush until you have removed all of the background. You should now be able to turn off the solid color layer and just see a clean transparent background around the basketball player.

Step 3

Create a new layer above your black layer and choose #101F2A as your color.

With your Paint Bucket Tool (G) fill the new layer with this color. Conversely, you could also press Alt/Option + Delete to automatically fill that layer with your foreground color.

Once you have done that, reduce the opacity of the layer to about 50%.

Step 4

Switch to your Gradient Tool (G) and make sure that you have a linear gradient selected that fades from white to black as shown here:

As a quick side note, if you have your Paint Bucket Tool selected and you hold down the Shift Key and press G on your keyboard you will toggle between the options or alternatives for that particular tool. This works for any of the icons that have more than one option.

Add a Layer Mask to your new layer and then use your Gradient Tool to fade out the color by clicking and dragging your mouse from one corner to the other.

Step 5

I am going to quickly expand my canvas by going to the Image Menu and selecting ‘Canvas Size’ before entering the values below:

Once you do this you will need to do a Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) to stretch your background colors a bit just to fill out the space that was caused by the expansion of the documents dimensions.

Step 6

Select your Basketball Player Layer and press Command/Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer.

Hold down the Control Key and click on the mask that is attached to your layer to reveal the dropdown menu. From this menu we just want to select ‘Apply Mask’ to merge the two together.

I will now bring the original Basketball Player Layer and move it down to the bottom, turning the visibility of the layer off.

Step 7

Go to the Image Menu and choose Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights.

Once the dialog box appears, apply the settings shown in the image below:

After you’ve applied the settings, make a copy of THIS layer by pressing Command/Ctrl + J on your keyboard.

Step 8

With your newly duplicated layer still selected, go to the Filter Menu and choose Blur > Motion Blur.

Apply your settings so you have an Angle of 0 and a Distance of about 355 pixels.

Press the Enter Key or click OK to apply the Motion Blur. Once you have done that ,change the Blending Mode of your layer to Soft Light as shown below:

Step 9

Open the image of the first volcanic eruption image as shown below:

Change the blending Mode of the layer to Screen and make sure that it’s placed at the top of your Layers Palette. Click on the Layer Mask Icon at the bottom of your palette to add a mask to the layer.

That’s the end of the preview!

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Are you new to photo retouching?

It can be a pretty daunting process to start with, so it’s definitely help to follow along with a real workflow and learn by doing.

Today we will be focusing on a portrait that we will be beautifying and manipulating with some handy retouching tips. We will first concentrate on improving the overall look of our model image and then from there we will build off of the foundation that we have created to add some cool effects. We will combine photography with textures, custom brushes, vectors and 3d elements to create a unified design.

Many of the techniques that we are going to be covering can be applied to almost any portrait and in most cases probably should be used especially when you are working with a raw image that hasn’t undergone any post-production work.

Let’s dive right in!

Final Image

Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

To start things off we will open our portrait image from the resources folder, which is a free image courtesy of Morguefile.com.

The first thing that we will do is press Command/Ctrl + J to duplicate the original layer so that we can work from a copy just in case.

After you’ve done that we want to add a layer mask by clicking the icon highlighted at the bottom of the Layers Palette as shown below:

Hopefully you guys are plenty familiar with Layer Masks but I always look to keep things as simple and straightforward as possible so that users of all levels can follow along.

Next, create a new layer and place it between your original and duplicated layers. You can pick any color you like here but I want to use something on the brighter side so that as we begin to mask out our model we can clearly see our progress. Simply fill the new layer with your color using the Paint Bucket Tool (G) or by first selecting your color and then pressing Alt/Option + Delete with your layer selected. This is a quick shortcut command that will automatically fill your layer with your foreground color.

If we were to use a gray color or something too similar to the background of the original image we are more likely to miss certain parts and not get the clean cut out that we want.

Step 2

Switch to your Brush Tool (B) and using a hard round brush with a solid black color, begin to silhouette the portrait by painting into the layer that is attached to the Layer Mask. Luckily this image has mostly sharper edges so it makes this step fairly easy. I still like to zoom way in to ensure a nice clean cutout.

Once you have silhouetted your image you should be able to see the colored layer underneath as shown below:

Step 3

Because our image is tall but rather narrow, I’m going to add some extra space on the left side. To do this, we want to go to the Image Menu and choose ‘Canvas Size’.

Normally when you change the height or width values in this dialog box it will add room on both sides, but in this case we ONLY want to add space on the left. To make this happen we will select the middle right box as I have indicated here:

Next, change the width to about 11 inches so that we have a document that is roughly A4 size.

Press the Enter Key or click ‘OK’ to apply the changes. Now you will notice that we have this big empty white space where our canvas has been extended.

Select your color layer that should be between your silhouette and the original image and press Command/Ctrl + T to initiate a Free Transform Command. Grab the left handle of the color layer and drag it all the way out so that the color fills the entire background.

We may end up cropping some of this off later on but it gives us a nice amount of breathing room so that the image doesn’t feel so confined.

Step 4

The next thing we are going to do is add a few Adjustment Layers to our model portrait to help bump up the contrast and values a bit further. With your model layer selected, click on the Adjustment Layer Icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette and then choose ‘Levels’ from the pop-up menu that appears.

Once the dialog box appears move the middle slider to the right slightly so that it’s set to about ‘0.89’ as shown below:

After moving the slider, hold down the Control Key and click on the Levels Adjustment Layer in your Layers Palette. You should now see a dropdown menu where you will want to select ‘Create Clipping Mask’.

Once you’ve applied the Clipping Mask you will see a little arrow on the Levels Adjustment indicating that it is only affecting the layer directly below it. This is a great way to ensure that your adjustments are contained within a certain area rather than EVERY layer below.

Step 5

Select your model layer once again in your Layers Palette.

Return to the Adjustment Layers Icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette and this time select ‘Hue/Saturation’.

Once the dialog box appears move the middle Saturation slider to the right so that it’s set to about ‘34’ as shown in the image below:

By first selecting our model layer before we add an Adjustment Layer we can create a nested Adjustment Layer that will automatically be given a Clipping Mask. You will notice how this layer is kind of sandwiched in between the two layers and has the same little arrow icon as our Levels Adjustment Layer.

Step 6

Repeat the previous step to add a Curves Adjustment Layer that will also automatically have a Clipping Mask applied to it.

Create three points on your Curves Adjustment Layer – one in the middle, one in the upper quadrant, and one point in the lower quadrant. For each of these points, make sure that you have the same Output and Input settings as the image below:

That’s the end of the preview!

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In this tutorial I will be showing you how to Photoshop a dark, medieval dream scene. You’ll use various images, brushes and textures to create a photo manipulation of a dark and powerful medieval warrior. We will be covering some really handy techniques in order to build up to a highly detailed and vicious design.

Final Image

Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

Let’s start by opening our image of the suit of armor that we are going to cutout from the background. The first thing we want to do once the images opens is make a copy of it by pressing Command/Ctrl + J.

Apply a Layer Mask to the duplicated layer by clicking the icon highlighted below:

Step 2

Once you have applied your mask, turn the visibility of the original layer off. For this part you will probably want to use a combination of the Pen and Brush Tools, but let’s start with the Pen Tool (P) and I will show you why.

To begin we will click to make a point and then continue to trace around the helmet and the armor to make a selection.

After tracing around the top portion of the armor with the Pen Tool (P), hold down the Control Key and click anywhere along your newly created path and you should see this dropdown menu appear:

Choose ‘Make Selection’ as indicated in the image above, and then you will see marching ants around your armor. From here, as long as you have black as your foreground color, you can press Alt/Option + Delete on your keyboard to fill your selection with black and watch the background disappear!

While this technique works great for the majority of the image, I have used a hard brush to go around the fur. You may want to soften the edge of your brush a bit to make the fur softer. You can easily control the hardness of your brush by using the left and right bracket keys while your Brush Tool (B) is active.

After switching back and forth between the Pen Tool (P) and the Brush Tool (B) you can quickly silhouette your image until you have something like this:

Step 3

Using the technique we used in the previous step, open up an image of your skull. For this the Pen Tool (P) is my weapon of choice only because most of the shape of the skull is made up of hard edges that are fairly easy to trace. You will probably find that the Brush Tool (B) works best when dealing with erratic, random shapes and fine details.

Same as before, once you have your path closed, hold down the Control Key and choose ‘Make Selection’ before filling a Layer Mask with black. The shortcut for that once again is Alt/Option + Delete.

You should now have a nice clean cutout of your armor image and your skull. Be sure to save both of these images since we will be bringing them into a new document to begin compositing.

Step 4

Next we are going to make a new document by pressing Command/Ctrl + N or going to File and choosing ‘New…’ and set up a document that is 11” x 17” and 300 dpi as shown below:

Once you have set up your document, double click on the ‘Background’ layer to unlock it – you can name it anything you’d like.

We are now going to take our suit of armor image and drag it into your new file. Depending on the size and resolution of your image you may need to scale it up which you can do simply by pressing Command/Ctrl + T to initiate a Free Transform. From here, click and drag outwards from any of the four corners of the images bounding box while holding down the Shift Key.

Another nice shortcut you can use is to hold down the Alt/Option Key at the same time as the Shift Key and your image will rescale up or down from the center.

Step 5

Switch to your Paint Bucket Tool (G) and select a mid-gray color such as #595959 as shown here:

Once you have filled your background with gray you can switch over to your Gradient Tool (G). To easily toggle back and forth between the Paint Bucket and Gradient Tools, hold down the Shift Key and then press the shortcut key, in this case it would be ‘G’ on your keyboard.

Use the settings shown in the image above so that you have a Radial Gradient that fades from solid white to transparent.

Click in the center of your image and drag outwards to create a large white gradient behind the suit of armor image. You should have something like this:

Step 6

From here, open the ‘texture 297’ image from the resources folder and bring it into the document. Place the texture underneath the suit of armor layer and scale it up so that the brightest part of the texture is centered as shown here:

Next, change the Blending Mode of the texture layer to Overlay.

Step 7

Open up the image of the skull that we silhouetted earlier and click on the Layer Mask Thumbnail while holding down the Control Key. The Layer Mask Thumbnail is highlighted in the image below:

When the dropdown menu appears, choose ‘Apply Mask’ to merge the two together.

Step 8

Now that we have applied the Layer Mask to the image of the skull, bring this layer into your working document and place it at the top of your Layers Palette.

Use a Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) to resize the skull and position it over the head/helmet on the suit of armor.

That’s the end of the preview!

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Create A Unique Steampunk Photo Manipulation In Photoshop

In this tutorial I will be showing you how to create a composite image using various elements that will come together to make a unique Steampunk design. We will be using the Pen Tool, Layer Masks and Adjustment Layers, and doing quite a bit of Photo Manipulating throughout the tutorial. We have a lot to cover today so let’s get caffeinated and begin!

Final Image

Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

First off we want to open up the model image from the Resources > Images folder. Once the image is loaded, double click on the “Background” layer to unlock it. After that, press Command/Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer. Turn the visibility of your original layer off, and then click on the Layer Mask icon indicated in the image below to add a mask.

Switch to your Brush Tool (B) and make sure that you have a large, hard, round brush with a solid black fill color selected.

Using your brush, begin to paint into the background of your image and you should see it begin to disappear as you mask out the larger, extraneous areas around the model.

In order to work faster, I usually go back and forth between this method of silhouetting an image and using the Pen Tool, which we are about to implement in the next step.

Step 2

Before we move on I just want to point something out about masks and working with them. When you observe your Layers Palette you will notice that there is a small frame that appears around the thumbnail icon of that particular layer that has a mask applied to it. In the image below, take note of the difference:

The image on the left shows that you have your mask selected, and the image on the right does not. This can trip up a lot of people when they begin to work with masks, and for the remainder of the tutorial I will refer to this as the layer mask thumbnail icon. After making selections you need to make sure that you switch to this if it isn’t already selected in order remove parts of that image and not end up simply painting black or white the on the image.

Next, switch to your Pen Tool (P) and zoom in closely to your image in order to begin to trace around the contours of the model.

Once you have finished tracing a section, close the path and while holding down the Control Key, click anywhere along your path to reveal this dropdown menu:

From here we want to choose “Make Selection” and when the next dialog box appears, simply click “OK”.

The marching ants will indicate the area that you have selected, and now you can switch back to your Brush Tool (B) and paint into the area to remove it from the image.

Step 3

Repeat this process for the remaining areas around the model in order to completely isolate the figure. In the image below you will see another selection I have made using the Pen Tool (P):

After making the selection active I simply painted in the area with a black round brush. In both of the screenshots you will notice the layer mask thumbnail icon is selected (indicated by the small frame that we saw in the previous step).

After masking out all of the background areas including he hair that we don’t want, you should have something like the image above. Take your time to make this selection in the beginning of the design, as it will only add to the professionalism in your work.

Step 4

Create a new layer and fill it with a solid black using your Paint Bucket Tool (G). Place this layer between the original layer and the layer with the isolated model.

Next, with your top layer selected, click on the icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette that looks like a small black and white cookie – this is the Adjustment Layer icon that will allow us to apply certain adjustments in a non-destructive way so that we can maintain the quality of our image.

From the menu that appears, choose “Hue/Saturation” and the dialog box will appear. What we want to do next is simply move the Saturation slider all the way to the left so that everything below this layer is completely desaturated.

Step 5

You will notice that when we apply our Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, that a small mask icon appears next to the thumbnail icon in your Layers Palette. This allows us to use the built in mask the same way that we would use a normal mask in that by painting into it, we can remove that effect from certain parts of the image.

Switch over to your Brush Tool (B) and choose a small, hard round brush. With a solid black color selected, begin to paint the fabric of the shirt so that it will reveal the original color of the layer beneath the Adjustment Layer. Remember to make sure that you have the Hue/Saturation Layer selected, and that the layer mask thumbnail icon is selected.

Continue to do this, zooming in closely and using a smaller brush for the details until you have revealed all the shirt color.

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Step 6

Now we are going to save our main document and put this aside for a moment. What we want to do next is open the image of the goggles from the resources folder. Once the image is open, double click the “Background” layer to unlock it so that we can modify it.

Zoom in closely and switch over to your Pen Tool (P) so that you can begin to trace around the shape of the goggles. In certain places the hair may get in the way so try to visualize where the curves would be, we will be fixing this once we drop it into our composition.

Once you are satisfied with your tracing, close the path and hold down the Control Key before clicking anywhere along your path to reveal a dropdown menu. From this menu, choose “Make Selection” just as we did earlier when we were silhouetting our model image.

When the next dialog box appears, simply press the Enter Key or click “OK” to proceed.

You should now see the marching ants that indicate your selection area. While the selection is active, press Command/Ctrl + J in order to paste the selection onto a new layer.

You should now have your original layer, as well as a layer above it containing only the goggles that we have selected.

Step 7

We will now bring the goggles into our Photoshop document and bring this layer to the top of the Layers Palette. The goggles are facing the opposite direction so we will need to quickly do a Free Transform by pressing Command/Ctrl + T and then when the menu appears, choose “Flip Horizontal” as shown below:

Press the Enter Key to accept the changes and position the goggles roughly where we will need them to be. Here I have slightly rotated them and reduced the size just for positioning, which can also be done by initiating a Free Transform Command.

Step 8

Create a new layer at the top of your Layers Palette and with your Pen Tool (P) selected, begin to trace around the goggles. Close the path and click along it while holding the Control Key as we did earlier in order to create a selection. Once your selection is active, switch to your Brush Tool (B). With a light opacity brush setting, begin to paint over the left side of the goggles to cover up the hair.

In order to work faster, you can hold down the Alt/Option Key to toggle back and forth between your brush and the Eye Dropper Tool (I). Doing this will allow you to quickly sample pieces of color and then paint onto a new layer to cover up certain areas of the image, in this case the hair from the model in the original photo.

We will now make an additional new layer where we will trace the lenses of the goggles using the same technique.

Once again, use the Brush Tool (B) after making a selection and paint over the lenses to smooth them out. We will be adding our own highlights and reflections so we want to start with a nice dark lens as a base while still making it look natural.

Continue working on some of the details such as the nose. Here I have made a selection so that I can actually fill in some extra material near the nose. Each time that you cover over a new part of the image you should be creating a new layer so that you have more control over the individual elements.

Step 9

Select your top layer, which should be one of the goggle layers. Then, hold the Shift Key and select the bottom-most layer of the goggles.

You should now have all of your goggle layers selected and highlighted in your Layers Palette. What we want to do now is simply drag these layers below the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer so that the goggles also become desaturated.

With all of the layers still selected, press Command/Ctrl + G to put these layers into a Group Folder and name it “Goggles” or something to that affect. From here, we will add a Layer Mask to the Group Folder, which will allow us to mask out parts of the goggle strap near the ear by using a small hard round brush at a low opacity.

With a very light black brush I have also masked out some of the lenses so you can just barely see the eyes underneath.

Check your image from time to time, zooming in and out to see how things are looking. At the moment we have several layers but things are pretty organized and you can see how the image is starting to take shape.

Step 10

Next we will bring in the grunge texture image from the resources folder and once it’s in your Photoshop document, move it just above the solid black background layer.

Switch to your Gradient Tool (G) and select a Radial Gradient that fades from black to transparent, also make sure to check off the “Reverse” option as shown below”

With your texture layer selected, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of your palette to apply a mask to the texture layer. Then, with your Gradient Tool (G), click and drag outwards from the center of the image and you will notice that the gradient now creates a mask that gradually fades the corners of the image.

The thing to remember about using masks is that you can work without having to undo something by simply switching back and forth between a black and white brush and painting onto a layer that has the mask.

Step 11

Holding the Command Key (Control on Wndows), click on the layer thumbnail icon of the silhouetted model and you will see the marching ants indicating your selection.

Create a new layer at the top of your Layers Palette and while still keeping your selection active, switch to your Brush Tool (B). Select a large, soft brush with a deep brown color (here I am using #463626) and begin to paint the hair of the model.

Next we are going to change the Blending Mode of the layer to Multiply as shown below:

Apply a Layer Mask to this layer and change your color from brown to black and white by pressing the D Key on your keyboard. With your black brush now selected, paint along the edges of the hair and goggles, as well as along the jaw line of the model as I have indicated here:

Take a few minutes to experiment with this until you are happy with the results. We have now given our model some dark brown hair and will continue to manipulate the photo in a way that will allow us to establish the feel that we are going for. Making selections and using masks can be very useful not only for isolating objects from their backgrounds, but also for altering specific pieces of an image resulting in a much more customized feel.

Step 12

Before moving on I am just going to reduce the opacity of the grunge texture to about 60% to provide more contrast between the foreground and the background. Once you have done that, create a new layer at the top of your palette and switch to your Marquee Selection Tool (M). Create a narrow but tall rectangular selection as shown here:

Then, switch to your Gradient Tool (G) and select a Linear Gradient that fades from solid white to transparent, using the settings I’ve shown below:

With your selection still active, click and drag from left to right to create a subtle white fade.

You can now press Command/Ctrl + D to deselect the area and use the Free Transform (Command/Ctrl + T) to rotate and place your gradient over one of the lenses. Press Command/Ctrl + J) to duplicate the layer a few more times so that you have a few of them going over the lenses.

You should now have a few of these layers stacked on top of each other, so we are going to quickly merge them by selecting the top layer and pressing Command/Ctrl + E to merge down until all of your gradients are on one layer.

Next, with your newly merged layer highlighted in your Layers Palette, hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the lenses, which are currently inside of the “Goggles” folder. Doing this should activate a selection just around the lenses that we traced earlier on.

With the selection now active, and your top gradient layer highlighted, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

You should now see that your gradient highlights are only showing inside of the lenses. We can now use a light opacity black brush to tone them down as we have gained more control over the highlights by using a Layer Mask.

Step 13

Switch to your Brush Tool (B) and apply the settings shown below:

You should make sure to use a solid black color and then hold the Commad/Ctrl Key and click the layer thumbnail icon of the goggles. Doing this will activate a selection around the goggles. From here, create a new layer just above the goggles and paint just outside of the selection area with your brush. You should notice that this creates an airbrushed effect that will allow us to darken certain parts of the goggles.

Pay special attention to the areas I have indicated in the image above. Shading in these parts will add depth to the image and help bring these separate elements together.

Step 14

Switch to your Paint Bucket Tool (G) and choose a vibrant cyan color (#00B9FF) as shown below:

Create a new layer above the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and fill it with this color.

Next, hold the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the thumbnail layer icon of the model layer. Once the selection around the model is active, hold both the Command/Ctrl + Shift Keys and click on the thumbnail layer icon of the goggles. This will add to the previous selection, so now you should see the marching ants around the model and the goggles together.

With your blue layer highlighted, and your selection still active, press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I on your keyboard to inverse the selection.

After inversing your selection, once again click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette to mask out the color everywhere except for the background.

Change the Blending Mode of this layer to “Color” and you should end up with a result similar to the image shown below:

Step 15

Create a new layer at the top of the Layers Palette and switch back to your Brush Tool (B) and apply the following settings with a solid black fill:

Using this large soft brush, paint around the edges of the image to further fade the corners to black. The idea here is to help push the background further back and to bring the model to the foreground to add more contrast to the design.

Step 16

What we are going to next is move the model and all of the corresponding parts towards the center of the image in order to make room for a jetpack. To do this, we will first need to select the top most layer (excluding the vignette layer as this can stay in place) then, hold down the Shift Key and select the bottom model layer. This should select all of the layers shown below:

Hold down the Shift Key once again and tap all of the layers to the left about 8-10 times so that all of them shift over together.

You will notice now that the blue background doesn’t extend all the way, and we have already applied our mask, which we don’t want to mess up. Luckily, there is a quick way to adjust this so that we can maintain our mask and also have the color extend all the way to the edge.

Notice in the image above that there is a small link icon between the thumbnail icon and the layer mask icon. What we want to do here is hold down the Alt/Option key and click on this small link icon to “unlink” the two temporarily.

Now all we need to do is press Command/Ctrl + T to initiate a Free Transform, and simply drag the handle on the right side all the way to the edge of the canvas. Once again, hold down the Alt/Option Key and click between the two thumbnail icons to “re-link” the color with the mask. That is a quick way to adjust the image without it messing up our Layer Mask.

Step 17

Create a new layer just below the vignette layer and with your Pen Tool (P) selected, begin to create a tubular, jetpack shape something like the image below:

After closing your path, hold down the Control Key and click anywhere along this line just like we did earlier and proceed to activate the selection. Once this happens, switch to your Brush (B) and fill in the area using a dark brown color – here I am using #3C2C17.

The idea is to quickly establish something that we can work with for the beginning of her jetpack.

Step 18

At the moment our shape is overlapping the arm of our model, and we want it to fall behind her as if it’s placed on her back. We can fix this by holding down the Command Key (Control on Windows), clicking the thumbnail layer icon of the model to activate a selection. We will then inverse the selection by pressing Command/Ctrl + Shift+ I.

Once we have our active, inversed selection, we will simply need to apply a Layer Mask by clicking the icon located at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

Next, hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the thumbnail layer icon of the jetpack shape to create a selection. We can now use a mid-sized brush to fill in some quick highlights.

With your selection still active, create a new layer above the jetpack layer and set the Blending Mode to Screen. We will then select a brighter shade of color – here I am using #B5721B.

Start to fill in some of the lighter shades of color in your new layer by using your brush. Keep the opacity setting around 20% so that you can build up the color gradually. We don’t need to focus on the details too much at this point but we want to start introducing some more values to the color scheme.

Create another new layer and change the Blending Mode to Multiply. Using your low opacity brush, choose a dark brown color (#32220E) as shown below:

Just as we added in some highlights we can bring in some shadows and begin to paint into the shape using the same technique.

Step 19

Select your jetpack shape layer, and then while holding the Shift Key, click on the shadow layer so that you have all three of your jetpack layers selected.

Press Command/Ctrl + G to put all three of these layers into a Group Folder and name it something clever like “Jetpack” or anything else that you would like.

What we are going to do now is just quickly select our new folder and press Command/Ctrl + T so that we can use the Free Transform Command to make our entire shape wider. We want the jetpack to be thicker or around the same thickness as the arm of the model.

Once you are happy with the sizing and positioning, press the Enter Key to apply your changes. We will then hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the thumbnail layer icon of the model to activate a selection around her. Then, we will once again inverse the selection Command/Ctrl + Shift + I.

The last step is to now click on the Layer Mask icon so that all of the jetpack shapes and shadows are behind the model (or so it appears, such is the wondrous glory of Photoshop).

Hopefully you are starting to see the patterns and getting the hang of using the tools to make selections and mask them as you see fit.

Step 20

Next, hold the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the thumbnail layer icon of the jetpack base layer as shown below:

Once you have activated your selection we are going to create a new layer above the jetpack folder. Switch to your Brush Tool (B) and bring up the brushes options panel by pressing F5 on the keyboard. Click the small arrow on the upper right of the panel to load the grunge brushes from the resource folder.

After loading the brushes, select the first of the four brushes in the set.

With the panel still open, we are going to check off “Shape Dynamics” and apply the settings shown here:

We will also need to check off “Scattering” and apply these settings:

After you have applied these settings we will also want to check off the “Smoothing” option. Move your new layer inside of the jetpack folder and change the Blending Mode to Soft Light. Using a light brown color, begin to paint with your modified grunge brush onto this layer.

You will see I have created a second layer above this one where I have used a darker brown color on a layer set to Multiply in order to establish some darker grunge texture on the jetpack.

Step 21

Create a new layer on top of the jetpack folder and using your Marquee Tool (M) we are going to hold down the Shift Key and drag outwards to create a circular shape. We will fill this shape with a medium gray color as shown below:

Press Command/Ctrl + T to initiate a Free Transform and then hold down the Control Key and click on the shape to reveal a dropdown menu. From the menu, select “Skew” and drag the upper left handle downwards, similar to the image shown here:

You should also use the Free Transform Command to reduce the width of the shape by moving in the right handle so that it appears to be in perspective. Create a duplicate of this layer by pressing Command/Ctrl + J and fill the original layer underneath with a solid brown color (you can sample a brown from the jetpack base by holding down the Alt/Option Key to toggle between the Eyedropper and the Brush Tool).

Create a few more shapes below these layers to create more depth. Here I have created a rounded back, and a stem looking piece connecting the shapes to the base of the jetpack. The easiest way to do this is to continue using the Pen Tool (P) and then making a selection that you can fill with a color sampled from the jetpack.

Step 22

What we want to do now is add a bit more detail to these pieces and having each piece on it’s own layer will make this a great deal easier. Hold the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the individual piece to create a selection. From here, you can then create a new layer above it and paint into it using a low opacity brush.

We want to work fairly quickly to establish some details such as some hands on the face of the gauge of the jetpack. The smaller details are created separately using the Pen and Brush Tools. Once you have established some detail you can select the top layer of your details, hold down the Shift Key, and select the bottom layer so that they are all selected together as shown below:

Press Command/Ctrl + G to place all of these layers into their own Group Folder. Here I have named the folder “Jetpack Clock” just so I can identify it quickly once the layers start adding up.

In order to make the folder appear to be placed behind the model we will need to hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the model and inverse the selection (Command/Ctrl + Shift + I).

With the selection now inversed we can click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

Step 23

Next, create another new layer above the “Jetpack – Clock” folder and with your Pen Tool (P) selected, trace a curved shape around the middle part of the jetpack. Close the path and activate the selection.

While your selection is active, select a medium brown color such as #523612 as shown below:

We can now use either our Brush Tool (B) or the Paint Bucket (G) to fill the selection with our color.

We will need to add a lip so that the shape doesn’t just end at the edges. To do this, zoom in and with a small hard round brush, paint some small curved shapes using the image below as a guide:

Once you are happy with the shape, hold the Command/Ctrl Key and once again click on the layer thumbnail icon of the model layer to activate the selection.

Now we will simply erase the shape from this selection so the model is in front.

Step 24

Switch back to your Brush Tool (B) and select a light tan color – here I am using #E0CA9E.

Hold the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of our new shape. Once you have activated your selection, create a new layer just above the shape and using a soft round brush with a low opacity, begin to brush along the top edges of the shape to add some highlights. You can also experiment with the Blending Modes here, but I find that using Overlay works quite well for this part.

Continue to paint on new layers in order to add some more texture and detail to this piece of the jetpack using the same techniques.

Once you have added some more value, select all of these layers by clicking the top layer, holding the Shift Key, and clicking the bottom layer.

We can now put these layers into their own folder by again pressing Command/Ctrl + G as we have done earlier on with the other main pieces.

Step 25

Create another new layer and using your Marquee Selection Tool (M), create a small circular shape and fill it with white.

Press Command/Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer and then move it downwards while holding the Shift Key to make sure that it falls directly below the top shape.

Now we will add a third layer and this time draw a rectangular shape filled with white in order to connect the two circles together.

Select these three layers and press Command/Ctrl + E to merge them together. We will now duplicate this layer two more times by once again pressing Command/Ctrl + J. You should now have three of these shapes in total. Place each shape so that they appear to follow along the shape of the jetpack and check to make sure that they are an equal distance apart.

After placing the three shapes, hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the first layer thumbnail icon of the top shape. After activating the selection, hold down the Shift and Command/Ctrl Keys to click on the layer thumbnails of the remaining two shapes. You should now have an active selection around all three of these new shapes.

With the selection still active, click on the “Jetpack – Detail” folder that contains the middle shape, and inverse the selection by pressing Command/Ctrl + Shift + I. Notice that there are now marching ants around the shapes and also the outer boundaries of our canvas.

Next, click on the Layer Mask icon and turn off the visibility of the three shape layers. You should be left with something like the image shown below:

Step 26

Create a layer below the “Jetpack – Detail” folder and using a low opacity brush, paint in some shadows where the shapes are knocked out to create some depth.

Continue to use this technique by holding the Command/Ctrl Key and clicking the layer thumbnail icon of the various shapes to activate selections before painting into them using a brush with various opacity settings. Feel free to also experiment with the Blending Modes of these layers to see which ones yield the best results.

You can see in the image above that I have added several layers to my design that contain either shadows, highlights, or textures that will all help the jetpack and the overall image feel more cohesive.

The techniques we have been using so far should be somewhat familiar to you by now, so continue working in this way to build up your image by adding more details as you go. I have added a tube to the back of the jetpack as well, and did this by creating the shape with the Pen Tool (P) before activating the selection and painting into it. The highlights were then added by clicking the layer thumbnail icon of the base shape, creating a new layer above it, and painting outside of the edges with a low opacity brush.

After spending a bit more time adding some details and color to the jetpack you will start to see how it can really come to life and feel like it is a part of the image and in addition, it also helps add to the steampunk feel that we are going for.

Step 27

Create a new layer at the top of the Layers Palette, just beneath the vignette layer. With your Pen Tool (P) begin to trace a shape for where the strap would fall over the shoulder. Using the same techniques we have been using throughout, close the path, make your selection, and fill it in with some darker colors as shown below:

At this point we can go ahead and finish the bottom piece of the strap that would come below and in front of the model. We will again just hold down the Alt/Option Key to toggle between the Brush Tool (B) and the Eyedropper Tool (I) so that we can quickly sample some colors from the darker areas of the jetpack.

Once you have completed the lower part of the strap, make a copy of the layer (Command/Ctrl + J) and move it below the original. Hold down the Command/Ctrl Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon for this layer to activate a selection around it. After you have done that, fill the duplicate shape layer with solid black.

With this layer still selected, we are going to go to the Filter menu and select Blur>Gaussian Blur.

When the menu appears we want to apply a blur setting of about 3.2 pixels.

After applying the Gaussian Blur all we need to do is zoom in and clean up the edges a bit where the shadow overlaps the arm.

Step 28

Now that we have the jetpack and the straps created we are going to add some more details. Create another new layer above the straps and switch to your Brush Tool (B). Use a small hard round brush with the settings shown here:

Switch over to your Pen Tool (P) and begin to follow the curve of the straps, leaving a bit of space between your path and the bottom edge of the material.

Once you have created a path that you are happy with, hold down the Control Key and click anywhere along the path to reveal the dropdown menu. From this menu, we want to select “Stroke Path” as shown here:

When the next box appears, make sure to leave “Simulate Pressure” unchecked since we want a uniform stroke applied.

After creating the stroke we will hold the Control Key once more and click along the path to bring up the menu where we will now select “Delete Path” which will leave only the stroke created by the brush.

Repeat this process for the remaining seam on the bottom part of the strap.

Step 29

Double click on one of the seam layers that we created in the previous step to bring up the Layer Styles. Once the dialog box appears, check off “Color Overlay” as shown in the image below:

For the color we will use #93701E.

Once applying the settings, press the Enter Key to apply the settings. Next, what we want to do is hold down the Control Key and click on the layer that we have just applied the Color Overlay to and when the dropdown menu appears, select “Copy Layer Style”. Hold down the Control Key again, this time on the other seam layer. When the menu appears this time, choose “Paste Layer Style” to apply the same effect to both of the seam layers.

Step 30

What we want to do next is select both of the seam layers by selecting the first in your Layers Palette, holding down the Shift Key, and then clicking on the second layer. From here, simply press Command/Ctrl + G to put them into a Group Folder. I have also done this for the actual straps of the jetpack.

With the newly created folder containing both of the seam layers, click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the palette to apply a mask.

Use a small hard round brush to mask out small gaps along the seams, giving them a more “sewn” appearance. As you are working, try to keep an equal amount of space between each section of the seam.

Once you are happy with that, increase the size of your brush and set it to a low opacity (10 – 20%) and then paint with black into the image where we want to essentially reduce the visibility of the seams in certain areas to give them some depth. The image below indicates the areas where I have made a few passes with my brush to achieve this.

Step 31

At this point I think we need to make some small tweaks and adjustments to a few areas in order to create some more balance and uniformity throughout the design. First let’s select the copy of the model layer, that is the “Original Copy Overlay” layer and make a copy of it by pressing Command/Ctrl + J. This will enhance the Overlay effect that we have applied to give the skin a bit more contrast. One thing you might try here is adding a Layer Mask and brushing out certain areas of her arm, as the shadow is a bit too heavy and dark.

Next we want to make a change to the shirt. To do this we will use the selection we made earlier by holding down the Command/Ctrl Key and clicking on the layer thumbnail icon of the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer that we created earlier on.

Once the selection is active, we will need to inverse it so that we have the shirt selected, rather than everything around it. To do this, press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I and now we have the shirt.

With your selection remaining active, create a new layer above the Adjustment Layer and fill the selection with solid black using either your Brush Tool (B) or Paint Bucket Tool (G). After that, reduce the opacity of the layer to somewhere around 30-40% and change the Blending Mode to Color.

Step 32

We now want to bring back in some of the flesh tones and the color of the skin, so we can reduce the opacity of the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer down by about 10 – 20% just to show a bit of variation in the skin. Even some of these darker purple colors will add life back into the figure.

Step 33

Jumping around a bit more we will now create a new layer and using a large soft round brush at a low opacity, brush in some highlights on top of the goggles. You can see my settings below, but feel free to experiment here and see where you would like the highlights to fall.

Step 34

Create another new layer above the hair color and change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Using the same brush, begin to paint in some highlights over the hair to bring out some of the brighter areas. Continue to make new layers and use your brush at various opacity settings in order to mix things up.

Here I have created another new layer set to Overlay, and instead of a white color for the brush, I am using #5C3C15 and painting over the hair as doing this will make the hair look more reddish and vibrant. Experiment with the opacity of the layer and see what you like.

Step 35

The next adjustment that we need to make is on the jetpack, and what we want to do here is tone down some of the vibrancy and saturation a bit to help it blend with it’s surrounding elements.

To do this, you will need to go through the different parts of the jetpack layers and hold the Command + Shift Keys while clicking on the layer thumbnail icons of the different shapes. You don’t need to get all of the highlights here, only the main pieces like the clock, the straps, the tube, and the jetpack base shapes need to be selected.

Once these are all selected we will have the whole jetpack. From here, click on the Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette and select “Hue/Saturation” from the menu.

You will notice that now, because we had all of these pieces selected, it will automatically apply the mask when we select the Adjustment Layer of our choosing.

In this case we will be desaturating and slightly darkening the object, you can see the settings I am using for the jetpack below:

Step 36

Just to add a few more details I have painted in some darker shadows below the model and jetpack layers and have also added a Curves Adjustment Layer by clicking the icon shown below and choosing “Curves” from the menu.

Below are the settings that I am using in the image, feel free to experiment with this but remember that it should be subtle.

Step 37

Another detail that I have added to the background is some cool steampunk machine drawings, which I have downloaded from DeviantArt. For your convenience, these brushes have been saved in the resources folder and can easily be loaded into Photoshop.

In the image below, I have used a white brush at full opacity on a new layer set to Overlay, and then applied a Layer Mask so that it appears behind the model and the jetpack. Lastly, reduce the opacity of the layer so that some of the grunge texture shows through.

Step 38

At this point we are just adding bits of detail throughout the image to push it a bit further. Here I have created a new layer set to Overlay and just used the Pen Tool (P) to create a few paths that follow the details of the jetpack and stroked it with a white brush.

These extra pieces of detail go a long way when looking at the overall image.

Step 39

We will add one more layer just below the Curves Adjustment Layer and fill it with a solid black using your Paint Bucket Tool (G). From here, go to the Filter Menu and choose Noise>Add Noise as shown below:

The image below shows the noise settings that I am using.

Change the Blending Mode of the noise layer to Soft Light and reduce the opacity to somewhere around 8-10% as shown.

Step 40

We are now finished with our Steampunk inspired design! I know that there were a lot of steps to follow but I hope that I was able to give you some useful tips and information along the way. If you have made it this far then you have done a great job and you should now have a few new techniques that you can try out and apply to some of your own designs. Thanks for watching!

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.

Download Source File for this Tutorial

Create A Striking Nature Scene In Photoshop

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to create a nature inspired design that is both organic and visually arresting. We will be covering some useful tips as we work through the process of creating a striking image that will show a helpless being pulled into the powerful grasp of nature.

Final Image

Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

We will be starting things off by finding a solid image of a model that we can use for our composition. I tend to use iStock for things like this. At times it can be difficult to find the right images, and you always have to keep in mind the general concept of the piece you will be creating because you want to find just the right picture for the job. I will be using an image of a man down on his knees, looking upwards towards the light with both of his arms out to his sides. A good dramatic image like this will really lend itself well for this type of moody surreal design.

Before we get into the actual designing of the image we need to isolate the man from the background. While there are several options on how to approach this such as the Eraser, Magic Wand, or Layer Masking, I still tend to favor the trusty old Pen Tool. Often times new digital artists can have a bit of trouble coming to grips with the Pen Tool but the only way to get better is to practice.

Follow the contours of the body and continue to trace around the figure until you have made your way around where you will want to close your path.

Once you have closed the path, hold the Control Key and click along the path to initiate the dropdown menu where you want to choose ‘Make Selection’ and press OK.

Next, you should see the marching ants that indicate your selection. Go to the Select Menu and choose ‘Inverse’ before hitting the delete key to erase the background from the image. Here I have placed a layer filled with black underneath our model to show you what has been removed.

Step 2

Create a new Photoshop document that is 17 inches wide by 11 inches tall, 300 dpi. The reason I am starting off with such a large size is because I know that I will be printing this piece when it’s complete and we can always reduce the size later if we need to.

Once you have your document set up, double click the Background layer and press OK to unlock it, then double click the layer again to bring up the Layer Styles Dialog Box. Check off Color Overlay and for the fill we will be starting off with #525252, which is a medium gray color.

Drag the isolated image of the model into your new document and close the original. You may choose to save the isolated image of the model for a later time, but for now we will just close it after we bring it into our new document. Press Command+T to initiate a Free Transform and then click and drag one of the four corners outwards while holding down the Shift Key to constrain the proportions of the image. We want to scale it up so that it’s large enough to fill out most of the center area of our composition as shown below:

Step 3

Switch over to your Gradient Tool (G) and select the color #313131 as shown below:

Check the settings for your Gradient at the top of the toolbar. We want a Radial Gradient that fades from solid to transparent. Be sure to also check off the ‘Reverse’ option.

Click in the center of your image and drag outwards towards any one of the four corners to create the gradient. Once you have done that and the gradient is centered, change the Blending Mode to Multiply. Below is an image of our layers thus far:

We are trying to create a sort of dramatic and moody background early on so that we can focus on other parts of the image, but it’s good to establish some type of lighting early on so as not to leave it as an afterthought. We will be coming back to this to add more to it, but so far this is what we’ve got:

Be sure to also save your work before moving on, and continue to do so throughout the remainder of the tutorial just in case!

Step 4

Next, we are going to open up the image of the tree roots and what we want to do is crop it so we are only left with the bottom half of the image. The top half is extraneous at this point and what we really need are the roots that will be taking the place of the legs, giving the illusion that the man is morphing and changing into the tree or being pulled into the Earth. Press C to get your Crop Tool and select the area shown below:

Once you have cropped the image, bring it into your Photoshop document. From here, place the image on top of the other layers and add a mask by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette, indicated by the red circle in the image shown here:

Now that we have applied a mask to the image, we can use a hard black brush to paint out the areas we don’t want. The nice thing about this is that if we mess up or need to add part of the image back in, all we have to do is paint with white. Conversely, if we use the Eraser Tool to simply remove parts of the image we don’t want, we can’t really get that back unless we keep hitting undo.

Step 5

We can now begin to mask out certain parts of the tree roots that we don’t want to be seen. It will make it easier if you lower the opacity of the layer while you are brushing so that you can also see the figure underneath.

Press Command+T to do a Free Transform and then hold the Control Key and click on the image and you will see a menu where you want to select Warp. What this will do is let us manipulate various points of the image so we have more control over the shape. We want to slide and pull different spots in order to make it blend in with the direction of the leg.

Once you are happy with the direction of the roots press the Enter Key to apply the changes. Before getting too far into the masking of the roots layer I am going to duplicate the layer by pressing Command+J. Now we can work off of the duplicated layer and turn off the visibility of the original layer below.

As you continue to paint, mask out the areas where there are leaves, and use a soft brush at a low opacity (20-30%) to blend the bark texture into the mid section of our model

Zoom in and continue masking while thinking about certain parts of the roots that we may not need. Remember that we also have the original layer underneath which we can keep making copies of if we wish to use different sections of the image that we may not need right now.

Step 6

Next, select your Lasso Tool (L) and create a selection around the smaller branch that overlaps the leg as shown here:

With the layer selected, press Command+J to duplicate the selection onto a new layer. Once you have done that, press Command+T and then click on the image while holding the Control Key. When the menu appears, choose ‘Flip Horizontally’ and press the Enter Key to apply. You will also have to rotate the image upwards a bit so that it begins to follow the curve of the body. To do that it’s another transform and then rotate the image so it looks like this:

We will then apply another Warp like we did earlier and once again manipulate the shape and direction of the branch.

Notice where the branch overlaps the side of the body? All we have to do here is apply another mask by clicking the icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette and then trim it down a bit with a solid black brush in order to remove it. Try to make it appear natural so that it curves a bit at the side.

Step 7

We want to now repeat this process for the smaller branch on the opposite leg. Make another selection around part of the branch using the Lasso Tool (L).

With the layer selected, press Command+J again to paste the selection into it’s own layer. After doing that you will notice that we are losing our mask and part of the image that we don’t want visible is showing. To fix this we are going to hold the Command Key and click on just the mask thumbnail icon of the layer below. This should activate the selection.

Make sure that you are on the duplicated layer now and click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

Now we will have our selection back and it will definitely save us a bit of time. From here we will once again flip and rotate the image so that it seems to follow the direction of the original piece. Paint with a soft black brush at 20-30% opacity to fade out parts of the branch that overlap the original. Use the hard edged brushes at 100% opacity to get the more precise areas.

Notice how the bottom piece of the branch appears to go behind the leg. Once you are satisfied with the positioning and appearance of the branch. Merge these layers with the main root image by holding the Shift Key, selecting them, and then pressing Command+E to merge.

If you are still with me at this point, you know the basic technique of taking certain areas of an image, selecting them, and then transforming and masking them. Let’s take a look at what we’ve got so far:

Step 8

Next, we are going to make a copy of the original tree root image, as in, not the one we have been working from but the one we started with (highlighted below):

Drag this layer down to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette or press Command+J to duplicate the layer. After that, turn the visibility of the original layer off. You should now have the original root image plus two more copies.

Hold the Control Key and click on the Layer Mask icon of the layer we just created and select ‘Delete Layer Mask’ from the layer. You should now see this:

This is good because we can make a different selection to use another part of the image or section of branches for the image.

Step 9

From here, lower the layer’s opacity to about 58-60% so you can see the image below. After that you will need to click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Slide the image over a bit so that the hollowed part of the roots is right around the midsection of the model.

We can now begin to paint into the mask with a solid black brush and remove parts of the image we don’t want. Remove all of the image except for the area inside of the ribcage.

This part can be a bit tedious but we need to get rid of the spaces between the leaves. To do this you can simply zoom in and use a small black brush at 100% opacity. We are going to be creating a hollowed out sort of effect so we need an area where we can reveal the layer below.

Step 10

Make a selection using the Pen Tool that goes around the inner part of the midsection. Fill this layer with solid black using the Paint Bucket Tool (G) after closing your Path and activating the selection.

Open the next tree root image from the resources folder and import it into your Photoshop file. Do a quick Free Transform (Command+T), hold the Control Key and click on the image, and then choose Flip Vertically. Press the Enter Key to apply the changes and then lower the opacity of the layer. Move the image around a bit and try to find a part of the image that you think would look good for the inside of the body.

Make sure that you place this layer just above the selection that we made previously that is filled with black.

Next, hold the Control Key and click on the layer containing the new tree image we have just imported. From here you want to select ‘Create Clipping Mask’ from the menu.

Once you do this you will notice that you have an arrow on this layer indicating the Clipping Mask.

And this is what the result looks like:

The other benefit of doing this is that we can still move the tree image around and we will still only be seeing what is inside of the shape area. Before moving on we will want to also reduce the opacity of this layer to around 60%.

Step 11

Choose the color #4c3c39 and create a new layer above the previous layer setting it’s Blending Mode to Multiply. Next, hold the Command Key and click on the black shape layer thumbnail icon to activate the selection. On your new layer begin to paint with a soft round brush set to about 20% opacity. Brush around the edges so that it appears to fade in gradually as shown here:

This will add a gradual shadow that helps to give the illusion of depth.

Step 12

Import the tree vector from the resources folder and rotate it to get the branches pointing at a diagonal across the body as shown here:

Next, select your model layer, and while holding the Command Key, click on the tree vector to activate the selection.

While the selection is still active, and you are on your model layer (make sure that the layer is highlighted) and press Command+J. You will not notice anything right away, but we must now turn off the visibility of the vector tree layer. Also, the layer that we just created by pasting the selection into a new layer has to be moved up in the Layers Palette so place it above the shadow layer. Here I have turned down the opacity of the model layer so you can see what is happening:

I’m going to now repeat this step once more after moving the tree vector around a bit more. The idea here is build up a cluster of branches near the ribs so that we can mask out some of the original model layer in this area. Doing so will reveal the cluster of branches above.

Step 13

Next, we are going to add a Layer Mask to the model layer and using a solid black brush we will remove the area of the model that is showing on the side:

Open the tree-bark texture from the resources folder and bring it into your document. Change the Blending Mode to Multiply and rotate it slightly so it’s at a diagonal as shown here:

Hold the Command Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon of the model layer to activate the selection around the body. Then, with your tree-bark layer highlighted, click the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette.

Continue to paint into the mask on this layer with a soft round brush set to around 20%. Use a solid black and fade out the edges of the texture so that it blends into the skin.

Add a Layer Mask to the layer beneath the bark texture, which should be the branches that are showing through the model layer. Use the same brush with a solid black color and low opacity to remove some of this area inside of the midsection to make it look more hollowed out. This will also add more depth to the image.

Step 14

Now we are going to repeat some of the earlier steps by making a copy of the tree root image, flipping it horizontally, and masking out certain areas that we don’t need. After playing with the positioning of the image I have found a nice spot where the roots appear to be going into the midsection area, replacing the plant from earlier – This seemed to give it a more hollow effect rather than covering it up completely.

Next, duplicate the tree-bark texture and lower the opacity to about 65%.

Step 15

We will now use the vector tree once again and this time, position it over the arm. Duplicate this layer and rotate it slightly so it creates a more intricate bundle of branches. Select both of these once you are happy with the positioning and press Command+E to merge them together.

Hold the Command Key and click on the merged vector tree layer. Once the selection is activated, highlight the model layer and press Command+J to paste the model into your selection on a new layer. Turn off the visibility of the vector tree layer and move the copy up in the Layers Palette so it’s above the other layers. Once you have done that you can then mask out the model’s arm to show the branches underneath.

Duplicate the tree-bark texture and delete the layer mask by holding the Control Key, clicking the mask icon and selecting ‘Delete Layer Mask’ from the dropdown menu. The Blending Mode should still be set to Multiply.

Hold the Command Key again and click on the model layer’s thumbnail icon to activate the selection and then press the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette while your model selection is active and you are on the tree-bark layer. This will mask out all of the texture that falls outside of the body. Continue to paint into the layer mask with a soft round black brush at a low opacity like we did earlier on. Try to blend the texture in with the skin as shown below:

When you are happy with the result, duplicate the layer to intensify the effect. You may also wish to lower the opacity a bit so it’s not quite as strong but still stronger than it would be with only the first layer.

Repeat the same process for the opposite arm. Use the vector tree to get a cluster of branches going, then, copy the model selection into the tree area and mask out the model to reveal the branches. After that we apply the bark texture again and mask it out with a light opacity brush to blend it in.

Step 16

Next we are going to select the model layer and paint with a black brush into the Layer Mask where the lower body is (underneath the tree roots). This will remove the legs and make it appear as though the tree has replaced the lower half of the man.

Make another copy of the hidden tree root layer and flip it vertically and horizontal so it looks like this:

Mask out the area outside of the model’s body so the tree root is only visible inside. From here we want to concentrate on blending the root with the body and you will come up with some interesting results.

Step 17

Select the top layer in your Layers Palette and then go down to the Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom. When the menu pops up, choose ‘Hue/Saturation’ to bring up the interface.

Move the Saturation slider all the way to the left to desaturate the entire image. From here, hold the Command Key and click on the model layer thumbnail icon to activate the selection around the man. Go to the Select Menu and then choose ‘Inverse’ to inverse the selection.

Next, switch to your Paint Bucket Tool (G) and with solid black, paint into the mask of the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and it should mask everything else out so that the effect is only visible inside of the model selection.

Now we can switch back to our Brush Tool (B) and use a soft round black brush at a low opacity setting to paint some color back into the image. We only want to have the effect covering certain parts of the body. Concentrate on mostly bringing color back into the face, hands, and some parts of the arms and chest. The image below shows both the before and after effects of the Hue/Saturation Adjustment.

Step 18

Switch to your Gradient Tool (G) and select the color #231B1C.

Create a new layer and move it just above the background layer before switching to your Marquee Tool (M) and making a rectangular selection to represent the ground. Once you have the selection active, fill it using the Paint Bucket.

Load up the Grass Brushes from the resources folder and select the brush from the set that is highlighted below:

Create another new layer above the ground layer. Select the color #4D6852 and begin to paint in some of the taller grass behind the tree.

Create another new layer just below the top Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and begin to paint in some more grass. Remember to vary the size of the brush using the left and right bracket keys and focus on filling in the dark spaces between the tree roots in the foreground.

Add a Layer Mask to the grass brushes layer by clicking on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Begin to brush over parts of the tree roots where the grass brushes have overlapped. The idea here is that we want certain parts of the grass to appear as though they are behind the tree roots as shown below:

Step 19

Duplicate the ‘Faded Edges’ layer that we created earlier on in the tutorial. We want to place one copy above and one copy below the background grass layer as shown here:

Next, on the grass brushes that are behind the tree (not the ones in the foreground), we want to add a Layer Mask and paint around the edges with a soft round black brush at a low opacity setting. This will gradually fade the background grass out into the background.

Continue the process of adding grass behind the tree with the grass brushes and masking certain parts out to build up a solid base. This will also help to distinguish the foreground, middle ground, and background.

Step 20

Create a new layer just below the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and named it ‘Airbrushing’ as shown here:

Next, while you are on this new layer, hold the Command Key and click on the layer thumbnail icon for the body, and each of the tree roots separately so that you have a selection around them.

Change the Airbrushing layer’s Blending Mode to Multiply and with a soft round brush at a low opacity (10-20%) begin to sample colors from the darker areas and paint into the Airbrushing layer while the selection is active for each part. This will ensure that no paint goes outside of the lines!

This is a similar effect to using the Burn Tool (O) and will help to achieve a higher contrast image.

Step 21

Next, open the smoky texture from the resources folder and import it into your document. You will need to scale this up using a Free Transform (Command+T) and remember to hold the Shift Key as you drag one of the four corners of the image outwards.

Notice where ‘Layer 13’ is in the Layers Palette – between both of the faded edge layers. Change the Blending Mode of the texture to Overlay and reduce to the opacity to about 70% as shown below:

Create a new layer above the texture layer and with your Gradient Tool (G) apply a solid black-to-transparent Linear Gradient that fades into the texture as shown here:

This will give a more gradual fade, as we want our texture to be pretty subtle and appear as a fog in the background. We will now do the same to both the upper left and right corners by creating a new layer for each and dragging from outside the corner into the image. Reduce the opacity of these layers a bit so the black isn’t quite as stark.

Step 22

Switch over to your Gradient Tool and pick the following colors for your settings:

For the muted purple-gray color I am using #707073 and for the muted pink color #A0777A. Create a new layer above the black gradients that fade into the image and click somewhere in the center of your image and drag upwards. Once you have created your Linear Gradient, change the Blending Mode of the layer to ‘Color’ and you should have something like this:

Next, create a Layer Mask for the Linear Gradient and change the colors to black and white in your Gradient Settings Dialog Box. From here we just want to click and drag downwards to mask out the muted pink color so that the only color that remains on this layer is the grayish-purple. This color seems to blend better with the gray from the smoky texture.

Step 23

Next, create another new layer, just below the model layer. What we want to do here is make it darker behind the model – Because we have a lighter area in the center of the image, we can’t tell that there are certain parts of the body that are wearing away and turning into branches. On the new layer you can paint with s hard 100% solid black brush to fill in some of these gaps. The image below shows the design with this layer first turned on, and then the second image shows the layer disabled.

With the black layer on:

With the black layer off:

You can see that this helps to bring some of the nice detail back into the image where we started to lose it.

Step 24

Select the top layer in your Layers Palette so that it is highlighted. After that, click on the small black and white icon at the bottom of the palette to bring up the Adjustment Layer Menu. Select ‘Levels’ and it should add a Levels Adjustment to the top of your Layers Palette.

Move the black slider to the right a bit so that it is set to 6 as shown here:

Step 25

Next, go to the Image Menu and select ‘Canvas Size’ to bring up the dialog box. Click the down arrow so that the height adjustment we make will only affect the top of the image. Essentially by doing this we are adding a bit of extra room on the top of the image, rather than on the top and bottom evenly.

Add three inches to the height making the canvas 14 inches tall and press the Enter Key. You will notice a few of the layers getting cut off initially, but we can fix this quickly.

Go to the Background layer and press Command+T before dragging the top middle handle upwards to extend it so that it goes to the top of the canvas. If there are any spots where it doesn’t connect or the image isn’t solid, simply fill it in with a color sampled from the background.

We have added a bit too much room to the top so with our Marquee Tool (M) drag a selection around the image, roughly about the same size as the image below:

Go to the Image Menu once again and choose ‘Crop’ from the menu.

Step 26

As a finishing touch for our design I want to add a bit more atmosphere and detail to the background. The scene is supposed to be a forest, but a foggy forest. So what we want to do now is create a new layer above the smoky texture layer and just make a tall rectangular selection using your Marquee Tool (M). Fill the selection with a dark color from the background using the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and then lower the opacity to around 30%.

Duplicate this layer a few times and spread out the selections in the background. Also use a Free Transform (Command+T) on each of the rectangles to make them different widths. This will give the illusion of depth and show some distant trees, helping to make the scene feel more dramatic and dark.

Once you have done that and are happy with the results, be sure to save your work. I hope that you have picked up some useful tips in this tutorial now that we have created a dramatic scene in Photoshop with just a few images and some useful techniques. Thanks for following along, and happy Photoshopping!

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.

Download Source File for this Tutorial

Final Image

The result of this tutorial is shown below:

What You Will Learn

This tutorial is very in depth, and covers the design techniques listed below:

• Learn how to work with textures/patterns, even creating your own custom halftone pattern.
• Learn digital painting techniques, and learn to understand correct lighting and shadowing.
• Learn how to master the minor details of your piece to create an outcome with more depth and substance.
• Learn how to build up multiple layers of coloring to correctly tint and blend your image.
• & Much More!

Learn how to work with textures/patterns, even creating your own custom halftone pattern.

Learn digital painting techniques, and learn to understand correct lighting and shadowing.

Learn how to master the minor details of your piece to create an outcome with more depth and substance.

Today we will be creating a composition that blends together various stock images to create a cohesive scene. In addition, we will be using some cool Photoshop tricks to add light effects to the design. Many of these techniques can be applied to your own unique designs – so let’s get started!

This tutorial is in part inspired by Pete Harrison’s awesome composition ‘Super Highway’. Check out his portfolio here.

Final Image

Here is a preview of the image that we are going to be creating:

Step 1

Before we get into the design and start blending things together we will need to do a bit of prep work to get us started. Open the image of the winding road in the mountains from the resources folder. You can use a similar image if you would like but make sure that the perspective matches closely to the other images (like the car) that you want to use in your design.

Double click on the ‘Background’ layer that appears with a small lock icon next to it in the Layers Palette.

You will be prompted with a dialog box asking for you to name the layer – You can call it ‘Background’ again or leave it blank, it isn’t too important.

Once you have entered something in the field you can press the Enter Key or simply click OK from the dialog box. Now your layer should look like this:

Now we can modify or manipulate this layer.

Step 2

Press Command+J while the Background Layer is selected in your Layers Palette to duplicate the layer. Alternatively, you could also just drag this layer down to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the palette. Once you have done that you can turn the visibility of the original layer off so that your Layers Palette looks like the image shown below:

Step 3

What we are going to do next is remove the sky from the image so that we can place our own background into our design. To do this we will zoom in closely to our image and switch over to our Pen Tool (P) so that we can create a path. Follow along the edges of the mountains with the pen and this should go by fairly quickly depending on your level of comfort with the tool.

Once you have traced around the sky, simply close the path and then click anywhere along your path while holding down the Control Key and you should see a dropdown menu where you want to choose ‘Make Selection’ as shown here:

You should now see the marching ants that will indicate the area of the image that is currently selected. Press the Delete Key and it should remove all of the sky, revealing the transparent background below.

You can toggle the visibility of the original layer on and off to see the difference.

Step 4

Next, go to the Image Menu and select ‘Image Size’ as shown here:

We want to give ourselves the option of using this image as a desktop wallpaper so let’s make it about 1280 pixels wide. You don’t have to modify the height of the document as long as you have ‘Constrain Proportions’ checked off in the dialog box. You can go a bit larger with the dimensions, but depending on the resolution of the image you are using you don’t want to run the risk of pixelating it too much.

Step 5

Open the image of the dramatic clouds from the resources folder and import it into your document. Place the layer just below your winding road layer. You may have to scale it up a bit, or scale it down by using the Free Transform Command (Command/Ctrl+T) and dragging the image by one of the corners while holding the Shift Key.

When you are happy with the size and positioning of the sky background press the Enter Key to apply the changes.

Step 6

Next we will open the image of the car and isolate it from its background using the same method we used in Step 3 earlier on.

Once you have removed the background from the car image you can import it into your document. Place it at the top of your Layers Palette and use the Free Transform Command (Command/Ctrl+T) to rotate and scale the image accordingly so that it fits nicely into the piece.

Step 7

With the car layer selected, press Command/Ctrl+M to bring up the Curves Adjustment Dialog Box and apply a curve that looks like this:

The image below shows the car without the adjustment applied:

And this image shows the car with the adjustment:

As you can see from the screenshots, this makes quite a difference and really helps to improve the realism of the image.

Step 8

Next we are going to add a Curves Adjustment to the clouds in the background, but we are going to go about it in a different way. This is another method for applying adjustments. Click on the small white/black icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette and it will bring up a menu as shown below:

Choose ‘Curves’ from the menu and once the dialog box appears, set the curve so that it resembles the image below:

By adding an Adjustment Layer this way, it will maintain the quality of the image rather than having a gradual quality loss, which is what can happen when applying an adjustment directly to the image. The difference is that now everything below this Curves Adjustment Layer will be affected and we also have the option of using the mask to remove or add the effect to the design however we would like.

Step 9

So far we have worked on placing our images and we have begun to blend them using Adjustment Layers. Something we will need to do in order to maintain the realism we are trying to achieve is to apply a shadow underneath the car. Double click on the car layer to bring up the Layer Styles Dialog Box and apply a Drop Shadow with the settings shown below:

Once you have set the appropriate values press the Enter Key to apply the changes. You should now have something like this:

Step 10

We will now import the image of the fireworks from the resources folder and once you have it in your document, place it below the car layer and change the Blending Mode to Screen.

With your fireworks layer highlighted/selected, click the Layer Mask icon from the bottom of your palette as shown here:

Switch to your Brush Tool (B) and with a large round brush selected, paint with a solid black color into the Layer Mask of the layer containing your fireworks. The goal here is to brush out most of the streaks at the top of the image as well as the part of the image that is under the front of the car. You should now have something like this:

Step 11

To enhance the lights coming from underneath the car we have another image of some more colorful streaks of light that we will open and bring into our document. Change the Blending Mode of this layer to Screen and do a Free Transform (Command/Ctrl+T) and then click on the image while holding the Control Key to bring up a menu with various transform options. We want to use ‘Warp’ to create more of a swooping motion with the lights as shown here:

You may have to warp it a couple of times, but play around and you will get some interesting shapes. Once you find something you like, move this layer below the car layer and apply a Layer Mask using the same step as before to brush out some of the colorful lights.

Make another selection from the original colorful lights image and import it into your document. From here we will set the Blending Mode to Screen once again and use the warp option to modify the shape of the lights. Place this layer on top of the car layer so that it appears to be in the front, and mask out some of the lights on the front tire so that it looks like this:

When painting into the Layer Mask, use a soft brush at a low opacity when working around the wheels. This will give it a slightly blurred look which would be accurate for a car moving at high speeds.

Step 12

Switch to your Brush Tool (B) and select a 2 pixel hard round brush. Once you have done that, create a new layer at the top of your palette and then switch to your Pen Tool (P).

Zoom in closely to the car and using the pen, begin to trace some flowing lines that follow the shape of the car as shown here:

Once you have drawn a path that is looking pretty natural, hold the Control Key and click anywhere along the path to reveal a dropdown menu. From this menu you will want to choose ‘Stroke Path’ as seen below:

Next you should see another dialog box appear where it gives you the option to ‘Simulate Pressure’ but we do not want this checked off for this particular task. What this will do is make the line thinner or taper off near the end of the lines, but for now we want it to be an even stroke from one end of the line to the other.

Hold the Control Key again anywhere along the path and select ‘Delete Path’ to get rid of the path we made, only leaving the stroke.

Step 13

Make sure that the stroke layer is highlighted in your Layers Palette and click on the Layer Mask icon along the bottom row of icons shown here:

This will add a mask to our stroke layer enabling us to have more control over its appearance. With your stroke layer still highlighted, hold the Command (or Control Key on Windows) and click on the thumbnail of the car on the ‘Car’ layer.

Doing this sill activate the selection around the car or any other object that you do this with. You should still have your top-most layer highlighted so now, switch over to your Brush Tool (B) and with a solid black brush, begin to paint into this layers Layer Mask where you want it to be hidden.

This is a technique that we will be using in the next couple of steps. Before we create any new paths or strokes we will have to remember to set our brush to the type of line we want to create beforehand.

Step 14

Continue to create new layers and create paths with the Pen Tool before applying the brush stroke and deleting the path. When you add a Layer Mask to your brush stroke you can lower the opacity or softness of the brush to create a smoother and more gradual fade like I have done here near the wheel:

Remember, when you create a new path and stroke with the brush, you will want a thinner white brush for thin lines, but when you paint into the Layer Mask you will probably want a larger black brush. You will be doing a bit of back and forth with the Brush Tool (B) but there are a few simple shortcuts that will make it a lot easier for you.

The [ and ] brackets will vary the size of your brush so this is always good to be able to tap a key a few times rather than manually changing the size.

If you tap the D Key on your keyboard you will automatically reset your default black and white colors.

Using the actual number keys on your keyboard will set the opacity of your brush in increments of ten. For example, pressing the 5 Key will set your brush to 50% opacity.

Step 15

Keep experimenting with creating different paths both in front of the car and behind it. We don’t want to overdo it, but a few whispy lines can go a long way.

After spending some time trying different things out I have come to a point where I am happy with the number of curving lines that are in the composition. There are about ten different paths so in order to clean things up a bit I will select my top stroke layer, then hold the Shift Key and select the bottom stroke layer, and then press Command/Ctrl+G to put them into a Group Folder.

Step 16

Next, create a new layer at the top of your Layers Palette and switch over to your Gradient Tool (G). Set it to a Radial Gradient that fades from solid to transparent as shown here:

For the color, we will be using a shade of magenta – #D304FF.

Click your mouse and drag outwards on your new layer to create the gradient. Change the Blending Mode of this layer to Screen and place it towards the rear tire of the car as shown below:

Step 17

Create another new layer and make another Radial Gradient, this time using a bright yellow color such as #FADE06 and set the Blending Mode to Overlay. Place this layer above the magenta gradient that we created in the previous step.

Select another new color – Here I am using #04FFE4, which is a vibrant cyan color. Create a third Radial Gradient above the other two and set it’s Blending Mode to Screen to create a cool blending effect as seen here:

Step 18

Continue the process of creating new layers with Radial Gradients set to Screen using various colors from the light streaks. It’s good to experiment and pay attention to how the colors are effected when they are mixed together.

After covering most of the car with varied gradients in different colors, you will begin to get a cool, chameleon looking paint job that shines with lights. There is no specific order that the colors need to be placed. Playing around at this point is crucial for getting those happy accidents that can sometimes lead to a breakthrough in your design.

Step 19

Select your Background layer in the Layers Palette so that it appears highlighted. Next, click on the black and white icon along the bottom row of icons in your palette and choose ‘Hue/Saturation’ from the list that appears.

Once the settings for the Adjustment Layer appear, move the middle Saturation slider over to the left until it’s set to about -56. We want to desaturate the image a bit, but not completely here so that most of the focus remains on the car.

By doing this we are helping to keep a strong focal point because if we leave the background and foreground bright and saturated, they will compete with one another and it will become difficult to maintain a hierarchy of elements throughout the design.

Step 20

Create a new layer and what we want to do now is add some flares so create a Lens Flare from the Filter>Renders Menu and set the flare’s Blending Mode to Screen.

Next, go back to the Filter Menu, but this time choose ‘Blur>Gaussian Blur’ and apply an effect of about 3.2 pixels before pressing the Enter Key to apply the changes.

Press Command/Ctrl+J to duplicate the flares and place them in a few different spots on the car. You may also wish to use the Free Transform Command to play with the scale of the flares – make some smaller than others and vary the sizes.

Step 21

Select the top layer in your Layers Palette and then select the Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom row of icons. Select ‘Levels’ from the list that appears. This will apply a Levels Adjustment Layer that will affect every layer beneath it.

Move the left slider in so that it’s set to 15.

Once you have applied the settings you should have something like this:

Step 22

Next we want to select the clouds layer towards the bottom of the Layers Palette and then once again select the black and white Adjustment Layer icon. Select ‘Levels’ from the list once it appears.

Apply the following settings by bringing in the left slider in order to darken up the clouds and add contrast.

Step 23

Create a new layer just above the clouds layer and switch over to your Gradient Tool. With your gradient set to Linear, add five colors to the palette that cover the range of colors used in the rest of the image. Use some vibrant colors that will go from yellow to orange to blue and then to a magenta color as shown here:

Click in the bottom right hand corner and drag upwards and to the left to create the gradient. Set the Blending Mode of the gradient layer to Color and reduce the opacity to about 35%.

By doing this we are adding hints of color into the sky that reflect the palette that is used on the car.

Step 24

To add a bit more detail to our image I am thinking that incorporating some geometric shapes would add something nice. All I am going to do here is create a few white loops that are sort of scattered around the car as though they are coming off of it.

All you need to do to create one of these loops is to make a circular selection with the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and fill it with solid white. Once you have done that, go to the Select Menu and choose Modify>Contract. Contract the shape by about 4 pixels and hit the delete key so you are just left with a stroke.

Double click on one of the loop shape layers to bring up the Layer Styles and apply an outer glow using the color #F9FF00. Apply the settings shown below:

Hold the Control Key and click on the small ‘FX’ icon on the shape layer and when the menu appears we want to choose ‘Copy Layer Style’ to copy the glow effect.

Next, click on your other loop layers while holding the Control Key and when the menu appears select ‘Paste Layer Style’ to apply the same effect.

You can change the colors of the glow here by modifying the glow effect of the individual shapes if you choose.

Step 25

Open the nebula stock image from the resources folder and import it into your document. Make sure that it’s at the top of the Layers Palette, just underneath the Adjustment Layer and change the Blending Mode to Screen as shown here:

I have also added a Layer Mask like we did in the earlier steps to paint out the nebula in the sky so that it’s only around the car. This adds a bit of an interesting texture and additional lights that are a nice addition to our image.

Before finishing this piece up I have decided to remove a few of the flares so that you can see a bit more detail in the car and the light streaks as well. Once you have done that and are happy with the composition, be sure to save your work and enjoy the results! Thanks for following along and I hope you have enjoyed this weeks tutorial.

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.

Download Source File for this Tutorial

Final Image

The result of this tutorial is shown below:

What You Will Learn

This tutorial is very in depth, and covers the design techniques listed below:

• Learn how to correctly apply, then manipulate Photoshop brushes to construct your piece.
• Learn drawing techniques and apply digital painting tips to enhance your design.
• Learn how to correctly extract your images for professional results.
• Learn how to build up multiply layers of lighting, masking and adjustments.
• & Much More!

Learn how to correctly apply, then manipulate Photoshop brushes to construct your piece.

Learn drawing techniques and apply digital painting tips to enhance your design.

Learn how to correctly extract your images for professional results.