Photo manipulation is at the very core of digital art. It teaches us about composition, blending, complex workflows and many other aspects of being a top designer.

Today’s design lesson will teach you how to photo manipulate a fantasy flaming warrior using a range of professional techniques. You’ll learn how to composite several images into a single cohesive scene. You’ll learn how to blend effectively, apply surface textures, lighting and much more.

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What You’ll Be Creating:

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

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new file. Go to File -> New and input the following attributes.

Fill the image with Black color.

Step 2

Open the Sky stock and select the following part.

Paste the selected part to our document.

Step 3

Apply these following adjustment layers to the Sky layer.

Hue/Saturation – Brightness/Contrast

And here’s what we have.

Step 4

Open the Mountain photo and start extract the mountain part (You can do this with Pen Tool or Quick Selection Tool)

After finished, copy the extracted mountain part to the canvas and place it like this:

Step 5

Next we will convert the Mountain layer to a Smart Object. You can do so by right-clicking on the layer and choosing: Convert to Smart Object.

By doing so we can add various filters into the layer, adjust the filter’s opacity as well as masking without needing to create another layer. You can always come back to adjust or remove all the applied filter. You can also scale or transform this “Smart Object” at will while the image’s quality won’t be harmed, pretty cool right?

Now go to Filter -> Blur and apply a 0,8px Gaussian Blur.

Step 6

Let’s use adjustment layers to blend the mountain effectively.

Brightness/Contrast – Photo Filter – Curves – Exposure

Right click on Mountain layer, choose Blending Option and edit Inner Shadow like this:

Go back to the Curves adjustment layer and apply some layer mask.

And here’s what we’ve got!

Step 7

Having blended the mountain, let’s proceed to the next part: The Ruin!

Open the Ruin stock photo and extract the following part:

Paste it our document and place here:

Step 8

Add some further adjustment layers to blend the ruin:

Brightness/Contrast – Hue/Saturation – Levels – Exposure

Layer mask on Levels adjustment layer.

Step 9

Now repeat the same method we used for the mountain; convert this Ruin to a Smart Object then apply a 1.2px Gaussian Blur filter.

Next, create a new layer above the Ruin layer, create a clipping mask (right click on layer and choose Create Clipping Mask) then grab a soft brush with color #dc6f25, paint on the edge of the ruin like this :

Change the layer’s Blend Mode to Soft Light and reduce the Opacity down to 80%.

Then back to the Ruin layer, access to the Gaussian Blur and add some layer mask (unless you didn’t follow step 5, which is bad you know!)

And here’s our piece, so far!

Step 10

From now we will start creating some battlefield atmosphere by adding fire to our scene! Access the fire pack, grab some fire photos and start placing them behind the ruin. Set the Blend Mode of the Fire layers to Screen to get rid of black background.

Its easy to see those annoying edges on all the fire layers so use layer mask to dismiss them!

And the fire starts burning!

Step 11

We will do a final tweak to the Ruin. Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer on top of all layers.

Layer mask on Brightness/Contrast.

Here’s the result :

Step 12

Open the Crack Texture and place it here:

Use the Distort Transform tool and manipulate it like this:

Change the Blend Mode to Overlay.

Erase the edge with layer mask.

Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to the Crack Texture.

And we will have a nice and neat cracking ground.

Step 13

We need more cracks! This step is similar to step 12, the difference is you will add crack texture on those columns, not the ground anymore.

Add Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers for the two column, first is the left one, second is the right one.

Step 14

Extract the bone pile from Bone Pile stock and place it on the ground.

Create another layer beneath the bone pile and paint some black color under it. Change the Blend Mode to Soft Light after that.

Add an Exposure adjustment layer on the Bone Pile.

Mask this Exposure adjustment layer as shown:

And we’re done with the bone pile!

Step 15

Import another Fire stock into our document, place it on the bone pile. Change the Blend Mode to Screen.

Layer mask to get rid of the edge.

Add a Level and a Curves adjustment layer.

We’re done with the background! Give yourself a break before continue or if you’re on the high mode, let’s move on! The next step is gonna be tricky!

Step 16

Open the Model stock and start extracting her. You don’t really need to extract the hair in detail since its really tricky and time-consuming to do so, we will have another way to solve this issue.

Now grab the Smudge Tool, we will paint some hair for her!

The Smudge Tool can sample the original texture/layer when you start clicking on an area and replicate that part as you dragging it, so in here we will use her default hair as sample, start drawing some lines from the hair to outside, with this setting it should be able to create a nice and realistic hair line.

This proceed will be a lot easier if you have a tablet, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do it with a mouse (like I did). It takes some patience to do this.

Mode : Normal
Strength : 91 – 97% (depends how strong of the hair line you want)
Brush size: 3 – 4px

You can always turn on the base image to see her hair, and take it as a template to draw. There are many ways to extract the hair but it depends on each situation. This is a really useful method when it comes to hair in complex background with lots of details.

After you’re done with the hair painting, bring the model to our document.

Step 17

Make some changes for the model. Adjust the Inner Shadow (color: #e3a614) in the Model’s Blending Option.

Brightness/Contrast – Hue/Saturation – Photo Filter

And here is the result:

Step 18

Paint some Black color on the model to darken some parts:

Set the Opacity down to 40%.

Step 19

As the lightning on the Model is not quite suitable for our image as we’re having a huge flame burning behind her, we will change it using the dodge/burn tool.

Firstly, create a new layer and fill it with 50% Gray, adding a clipping mask on the Model.

For those who haven’t known yet, the Dodge Tool is used to lighten things up, in contrast with Burn Tool which is used to darken.

Use a small soft brush with 10% Exposure and start adjusting the model’s lightning.

(Red arrows indicate where to use Dodge Tool – Blue arrows indicates where to use Burn Tool)

Here’s a preview of the result if you use Dodge & Burn Tool correctly. You can see a dramatic change of lightning on her face and her hair, as well as her leg.

Step 20

Ok so our model can’t just stand on a fiery battlefield unscratched and unharmed, that doesn’t sound right isn’t it? Import the Blood Splatter texture into our document, using a clipping mask to fit it to the model.

Set the Blend Mode to Multiply to get rid of all the white texture, leave the blood splatter alone.

Erase some unnecessary parts of the texture with a Layer Mask, we need some blood, yes, but this is way too much!

Now it looks better!

Add some more blood on her upper part using the same method. Now no one would ask you why she appears on the battlefield without any blood or injuries!

Step 21

This is an easy and quick one. Create another layer and grab a soft brush with color #de750c, paint around the model’s edge, try to indicate where the light from the flame behind would light up and paint according to it.

Set the Blend Mode to Overlay with 60% Opacity and Fill.

Step 22

So in the stock photo you can see her hold a sword (well just the hilt you look closely), we will give her something more badass to hold, a trident! Bring the trident into our document and place it like this.

Hide some parts away with layer mask, her holding hand to be specific.

Making some changes in the Trident’s Blending Option.

Bevel & Embross – Contour – Color Overlay

This is our basic retouch with the trident by adding more depth and metallic into it, we will work on the colors in the next step.

Step 23

Add these adjustment layers for the trident.

Hue/Saturation – Photo Filter – Exposure

Here’s what we will have :

Step 24

We will create some shine effect on the shoulder armor. Create a new layer and grab a big soft brush with White color.

Use Warp in the Transform Tool to bend it like this:

Resize and place it on the armor, set the Blend Mode to Overlay.

Do the same thing with the other part of the armor. You can always duplicate the layer to increase the shine effect.

Step 25

Open the Lens Flare stock and grab this lens flare:

Bring it to our document, place it on the trident.

Hue/Saturation

Change the Blend Mode of the Lens Flare to Color Dodge and congratulations! You just made the badass trident more badass!

Step 26

Open the Ruin stock again and grab this stone:

Place it on the bottom of the image to cover the missing part of the Model’s foot. Duplicate more stones and place them around.

Merge all the stone layers into one by choosing all of them and right click, select Merge Layers. Add a 1px Gaussian Blur to the stones.

Add some adjustment layers for the stones.

Brightness/Contrast – Levels – Exposure

We’re almost there!

Step 27

We will add some extra effect before processing to the final color tuning.

Create a new layer and paint some black around the image. Drop the Opacity down to 40% after that.

Create another layer and paint more black on this area.

Set the Blend Mode to Soft Light with 40% Opacity.

Create more light on the trident with a big white soft brush.

Set the blend mode to Overlay, Opacity 75% – Fill 42%

Step 28

Create some fog effect with Cloud in Filter option is a very easy and nice way. Before proceeding remember to set the Foreground color to White and Background color to Black, as the cloud’s colors will be determined by these.

Change the Blend Mode to Soft Light and 55% Opacity.

Layer Mask.

Looking much better!

Looking better!

Step 29

Won’t hurt if we add some more spark right? Bring the Spark texture in!

Change the Blend Mode to Screen, add some extra layer mask since this is way too much spark!

If you have come to this far, salute yourself! We are now coming to the final stage!

Step 30

Start adding these long chain of adjustment layers as the final retouch!

Curves – Color Balance – Selective Color 1 – Selective Color 2 – Curves

Step 31

Adding some layer masks.

Congratulations, You’re All Done!

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

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

At PSDFAN we love helping you to create fantasy outcomes. In today’s detailed tutorial you’ll learn how to photo manipulate a fantasy battleground. You’ll work with cool lighting effects, some serious blending, and matte painting techniques.

Have you ever played a fantasy game or watched a fantasy movie where you see these sprawling epic scenes? You’ve probably asked yourself “Can I create something that awesome?”.

Well it’s time to find out!

What You’ll Be Creating:

In today’s lesson you’ll be creating this epic fantasy battleground, complete with stunning light effects, custom weather, and some cool matte painting techniques.

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

Here’s a look at the images we’ll be combining to create our masterpiece.

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

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new file. Go to File -> New and input the following attributes.

Leave the background transparent.

Step 2

We will try to create the sky first. Open the Main Sky stock and select the whole picture by using Ctrl + A , copy, paste and resize it to fit with the canvas.

We will desaturate and increase some contrast with these following adjustment layers.
Don’t forget to check the box “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” so these adjustment will only be applied to the Main Sky layer.

- Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -68
Lightness : -17

Curves

And we should get sky that looks like this

Step 3

Open the Left Sky stock photo and select the following part :

Paste the selected part into the canvas, right click on it and choose Transform -> Flip Horizontal to flip the image :

Apply Layer Mask using a big soft brush :

Apply these following adjustment layers :

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -72
Contrast : -31

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -75
Lightness : -10

And we will have the left part of the sky like this :

Step 4

Open the Right Sky stock photo, use Ctrl + A to select the whole image :

Place it like this on the canvas, set the Blend Mode to Screen :

Apply these following adjustment layers and mask the edges of the photo:

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -91
Contrast : -27

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -100
Lightness : -14

And we’re basically done with the sky! I recommend you to select all the sky layers and group it by holding Ctrl and select all the layers and use Ctrl + G to group. This should help you manage the layers easier.

Step 5

Now we will create the ground by opening the Main Ground photo and select the following part:

Paste the selected part into the canvas and place it above all Sky layers.

Ctrl + T to turn on Transform tool, right click and select Warp and bend the image like this :

And here’s what we will get :

Step 6

Use Shift + Ctrl + U to quickly desaturate the image, we will use this option a lot in this tutorial.

Apply Brightness/Contrast :
Brightness : 16
Contrast : 39

We will have our main ground like this :

Step 7

Open the Debris 1 photo and select the following part :

Place it like this :

Use Transform and choose Distort, bend the image down :

Desaturate this part with Shift + Ctrl + U to have it like this :

Apply layer mask around the edge of the image :

Step 8

Apply the following adjustment layers:

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -52
Contrast : -50

Level

The debris field will be blended nicely into the ground:

Create a new layer, grab a black soft brush with small size and paint on the debris field like this:

Change the Blend Mode of the layer to Soft Light, Opacity 64% – Fill 38%

Step 9

Open the Cracked Ground Texture image and select the following part:

Place and use the Distort in Transform tool to blend the image:

Desaturate the image (Shift + Ctrl + U), set the blend mode to Overlay

Apply layer mask :

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -105
Contrast : -50

And we’re done with the cracked ground for later use :

Step 10

Open the Debris 2 photo and select the following part:

Place the selected part here and Desaturate it.

Open the Brush tool, select the Assorted Brush (basic brush set that available in Photoshop). We will combine the basic soft brush with the following brush to layer mask the Debris.

Carefully mask the image, try switching the brush above and the basic soft brush.

The debris will be blended well with the image thanks to the layer mask.

Step 11

Apply these following adjustment layers
Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -87
Contrast : -10

Curves

Create new layer and paint black soft brush on the debris to create shadow effect

Change the blend mode to Soft Light with 60% Opacity.

Step 12

We almost finish working with the ground! Open the Additional Ground Texture photo and select the following part :

Place and desaturate the image :

Apply layer mask using soft brush with low opacity (around 30%)

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -40
Contrast : -30

And we’re done with the ground!

Step 13

Open the Right Mountain image and select the following part using the Quick Selection Tool :

Place and rotate it like this :

Apply a Layer Mask :

Curves

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -18
Contrast : -19

The mountain should now look like this :

Step 14

Open the Left Mountain photo and select the mountain :

Place this mountain behind the Right Mountain layer.

Apply Layer Mask :

Apply these adjustment layers
Level

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -12
Contrast : -1

Step 15

Create a new layer (remember to choose Create Clipping Mask by right-clicking on the layer and choose it), paint some black on top of the mountain :

Change the blend mode to Soft Light, 70% Opacity.

Create new layer and paint more black color like this :

Reduce the Opacity to 45% and Fill to 43%.

Step 16

Open the Statue Afar stock photo and extract the left statue, you can use Pen Tool or Quick Selection Tool to do this

Resize and place it on the mountain, remember to Desaturate.

Apply Layer Mask

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -63
Contrast : -20

It should look like this :

Duplicate the statue, flip it horizontally and place it opposite to the original statue :

Step 17

Open the Giant Head Statue stock photo, paste it into the canvas, place then desaturate it.

Apply adjustment layers :
Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -16
Contrast : 37

Curves

Level

Step 18

Now we will use a very interesting technique to adjust the highlight and shadow of an image. Start with a new layer (with Create Clipping Mask on the giant head statue), Ctrl + A to select, right click and choose Fill, choose the option 50% Grey and click OK.

Change the blend mode to Overlay

We will use Dodge Tool to highlight and Burn Tool to darken the image. Set the Strength of both tool at 10%.

Notice the dark part is where I used Burn Tool and the white part is where Dodge Tool is applied. This step will take a while to get into it but will be extremely helpful if you want to highlight or darken images without damaging it, thanks to the 50% grey layer we just created.

And here is the result :

Step 19

We will create shadow for the statue head by duplicate the statue layer and fill it with Black.

Use Distort to bend the shadow like this :

Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur, Radius 1,5px

Apply Layer Mask on the shadow layer with low opacity soft brush like this

We will have a very subtle shadow!

Step 20

Open the Ancient Ruin photo and extract the tower :

Place it behind the giant statue head, desaturate it.

Apply some adjustment layers to the tower
Curves

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -13
Contrast : -30

Step 21

Create new layer and paint some black on the tower like this

Change the blend mode to Soft Light, Opacity 100% – Fill 80%

Create another layer and paint more black
Reduce the Opacity to 35% and Fill to 80%

Step 22

Open the Horseman Statue, paste it into the canvas, desaturate then resize it like this :

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -9
Contrast : -17

Curves 1

Curves 2

Step 23

We will adjust the shadow & highlight of the Horseman Statue using the same method we did with the Giant Head Statue layer.

The same goes with the shadow :

Apply Layer Mask on the shadow :

Here’s what we have got so far :

Step 24

Open the Broken Arm stock photo and extract the arm :

Place the arm here

Create a shadow layer for it like we just did with Giant Head Statue and Horseman Statue

Layer Mask on shadow layer

This is the result

Step 25

Apply these 2 adjustment layers for the arm

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -8
Contrast : -73

Curves

This is what we will get

Step 26

Open the Sword Pack stock and extract this sword :

Place the sword near the broken hand

Apply these adjustment layers over it:

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -61
Lightness : -10

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -2
Contrast : -45

Level

Step 27

Create the shadow layer for the sword

Apply Layer Mask

Duplicate the sword, flip it horizontally and place it like this

Step 28

Open the St.Angelo Statue stock and extract the statue

Desaturate and place it here

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -70
Contrast : -13

Curves

Apply Layer Mask :

Step 29

Create a shadow layer for the St.Angelo statue

Apply Layer Mask

Drop the shadow layer’s Opacity to 50% and Fill to 80%

Here’s what we have got so far

Step 30

Open the Stone Archway stock and extract the archway

Place it near the two statues afar and desaturate it.

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -52
Contrast : 38

Curves

Step 31

Apply Layer Mask on the gate

To this point we have finished putting all objects into our composition, the result so far :

Step 32

Time for some rainy effect! Open the Rainy Brush and select this brush

Create a new layer on top of all layers and start painting the brush all over the canvas like this

After finished, go to Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur with Angle 76, Distance 35 px

The motion blur will make the rain look more natural

Apply Layer Mask to the rain layer

You can see the rain’s opacity has gradually reduced!

Step 33

We will create some fog effects by create a new layer, grab the Lasso Tool and select the following part

Remember to set the Foreground Color as White and Background Color as Black.
Go to Filter -> Render -> Cloud

Apply Layer Mask to the cloud

Change the Blend Mode to Screen and reduce the Opacity to 40% will give the following result : a nice subtle fog effect on the ground!

Step 34

We need some more fog effect on the mountain, just use the same way we just did in this step with some slightly changes

Change the blend mode to Multiply, Opacity 30% and Fill 65%

Step 35

We will create some rainning impact effect on the object by grabbing the brush in the Assorted Brush we used to layer mask the ground earlier in this tutorial.

Start painting on the edge of all the objects on the ground
Set the Blend Mode of the brush to Overlay

The result after we have added raining impact effect

Step 36

We will add some extra effect for the fog by create a new layer, fill it with Black.
Go to Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise and apply the following attributes

We will have a layer full of noise.

Resize the layer, use Perspective in Transform Tool to bend the layer down.

Step 37

Change the Blend Mode to Screen then apply layer mask like this

Level

You can see the fog effect has been increased subtly with the help of the noise layer.

Step 38

That’s all with the rain and fog, now we proceed to color tuning stage.

Apply these following adjustment layers on top of all layers

Color Balance

Curves

Create a new layer and paint some black color

Change the blend mode to Soft Light with Opacity 70%

Step 39

Create one more layer and paint some more black!

Change the blend mode to Soft Light with Opacity 20%
Apply these following adjustment layers

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -8
Contrast : 20

Selective Color

Gradient Map

Change the blend mode of the Gradient Map layer to Overlay, Opacity 60% – Fill 60%

Step 40

Open the Lens Flare stock, extract this specific lens flare

Place the lens flare right in the middle of St.Angelo statue

Apply layer mask to the lens flare
Change the blend mode to Linear Dodge with Fill 75%

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -2
Contrast : -43

We will have a nice lightning effect thanks to the Lens Flare!

Step 41

We will go back to the sky, create a new layer on top of all sky layer (or group if you have grouped all of them into one), paint some black al over the sky except the lens flare area.

Paint the following color on the lens flare area

Change the blend mode of the black color layer to Soft Light with 70% Opacity
Change the blend mode of the blue colors layer to Soft Light with 75% Fill

Create one more layer and paint this area with color #3969bb

Change the blend mode to Color with 30% Opacity and 45% Fill

Step 42

Go back to these main layers and apply some effects in Blending Option.
All used the color #92bad8

Tower

Giant Head Statue

Horseman Statue

Broken Arm

St.Angelo Statue

We will have a subtle blue effect on the edge of the parts that affected by the blue light.

Step 43

We are almost done! Before proceed please save your current Photoshop file and then Flatten Image.
Duplicate the layer and go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur

Layer mask on the dupliated layer with blur effect

The result :

Step 44

Next I will introduce a great way to sharpen the image without damaging it. Flatten the image again, duplicate the layer and go to Filter -> Other -> High Pass

Then change this layer’s blend mode to ‘overlay’.

Apply Layer Mask on the St.Angelo part of the layer

As you can see the whole image has been gradually sharpened but the quality doesn’t reduce!

Step 45

This is the final step! Open the Snow Texture and paste it into the canvas

Change the blend mode to Lighten.

Apply Layer Mask

Congratulations, You’re All Done!

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

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

The beauty of being able to create fantastic photo manipulations is being able to transport yourself and those who view your work to new worlds and redefine ‘normal’.

Sure, it’s a helpful exercise to great well blended realistic scenes, but with the power of Photoshop at our disposal why settle for realistic?

Create design is all about pushing the limits of visuals, reality, physics and imagination.

That’s why today’s lesson will teach you all the good stuff like pro blending techniques, lighting, image composites and more. However, beyond that, you’ll learn to start thinking about how to take ordinary photos and combine them into something exciting and out of the ordinary.

What You’ll Be Creating:

Take a look at the sleek futuristic design below. By the end of today’s lesson you’ll be able to say ‘I designed that!’.

Not only will this tutorial be a lot of fun, but you’ll learn some really handy tips and tricks along the way.

Here’s a look at the images we’ll be combining to create our masterpiece. Ready to begin? Great, let’s get started!

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new file. Go to File -> New and input the following attributes.

Fill the image with Black color.

Step 2

Open the Sky stock and select the whole picture by using Ctrl + A , copy and paste it to the canvas

We will transform the sky a little bit by using Transform, simply click Ctrl + T to switch to Transform then choose Warp, move the corners of the sky like this :

It should look something like this

Step 3

Apply Layer Mask to the sky.

We will desaturate and increase some contrast with these following adjustment layers.
Don’t forget to check the box “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” so these adjustment will only be applied to the Sky layer.

- Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -78
Lightness : -8

Curves

Apply Layer Mask to the Curves layer.

And we will have the Sky like this :

Step 4

Open the Buildings image and start extract the buildings part (You can do this with Pen Tool or Quick Selection Tool)

After you’re finished, copy the extracted buildings part to the canvas and place them like this:

Step 5

We will apply these following adjustment layers for the buildings :

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -14
Contrast : -11

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -75

Curves

And here’s what we will get :

Step 6

Open the Tower image and start extracting the following part :

Copy it to the canvas, resize and place it like this :

Step 7

Apply the following adjustment layers to the tower:

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -57
Lightness : -6

Exposure
Exposure : -0.80
Offset : -0.0104
Gamma Correction : 0.77

Curves

We will have the tower like this :

Step 8

Open the Bridge image and place it like this :

Apply the following adjustment layers:

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -43
Contrast : -28

Exposure
Exposure : -3.90
Gamma Correction : 0.87
Reduce the Opacity of Exposure layer to 80%

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -100
Lightness : -24

Curves

Color Fill with color #3f5d7a (Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color)

Change the blend mode of Color Fill layer to Soft Light, reduce Opacity to 45% and Fill to 60%

Apply Layer Mask to Exposure layer with 40% Opacity Soft Brush

We will have the bridge blended within the canvas like this

Step 9

In this step we will create a neon light for the bridge. Start doing it by create a new layer, grab the Pen Tool and draw a rectangular shape on the bridge like this:

NOTE: If you’re struggling with the Pen Tool (many good designers still do) then check out our handy guide for mastering it once and for all. Become a Master of the Pen Tool in Under 30 Minutes

Transform the drawing part into selection part by using Ctrl + Enter.

Right click at the selection part and choose Fill to fill it with White.

And we basically have a shape like this :

Step 10

Next we can create a light effect by going to the Blending Options of the rectangular layer.

Apply the following blending option settings:

Inner Glow
Color : 1467a8
Blend Mode : Normal

Outer Glow
Color : 35A8EB
Blend Mode : Screen
Opacity : 100%

We will have a nice glowing neon light on the bridge.

Don’t forget the other part of the bridge still need a neon light too, so simply duplicate the Neon light layer, Transform -> Flip Horizontal it then place it the bridge’s left side.

Step 11

Time to create a foggy atmosphere effect!

First, create a new layer, grab the Lasso Tool with 20px Feather and select the following part:

Second, go to Filter -> Render -> Cloud (make sure you have Foreground color as White and Background color as Black, or vise versa)
Then change the blend mode to Screen, Opacity 42%, Fill 75%.

Here’s the result :

Step 12

We will add some fog on the bridge’s surface with the same method as above with some little change in perspective. Create a new layer and select the following part :

After filling the selection with cloud, go to Transform -> Perspective and star pulling the 2 bottom corners like this

Reduce Opacity to 54%, Fill 57%. The cloud will be in the same perspective with the surface, giving it a more realistic look.

Step 13

Apply another Color Fill with color #3f5d7a on top of all layers to give a blue atmosphere to the whole image.

Up to this point we have generally done with the background creating steps. Here is the result so far :

Step 14

Now we will work with the main character. Open the Cyberpunk Model and start extracting the model. Paste and resize her in the canvas after you’ve finished.

Apply these adjustment layers (remember to tick the Create Clipping Mask)

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -59
Lightness : -13

Curves

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : 1
Contrast : 61

Color Fill with color #3f5d7a
Change the blend mode to Color Dodge – Fill 75%

Apply a layer Mask to hide part of the Brightness/Contrast layer

Here’s what we will have :

Step 15

Start creating a shadow for the model by dupicate the Model layer, hold Ctrl and click on the duplicated layer to create selection, fill it with Black

Next, go to Transform -> Distort and start pulling two upper corner down like this :

Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur, 2.5px.

Set the blend mode to Soft Light – Opacity 68% – Fill 72%.

The shadow will now look like this :

Step 16

Create a new layer and tick Create Clipping Mask, grab a soft brush with Black color and start painting these following parts of the model :

Reduce the Opacity of this layer to 46%.

Step 17

Open the Terminator’s Corpse image and paste it into our image.

Apply adjustment layers to the corpse layer:
Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : -26
Contrast : 40

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -67
Lightness : 13

Color Fill with color #3f5d7a
Change the blend mode to Color Dodge – Fill 75%

And here is the result :

Step 18

Create a new layer under the Corpse layer and paint some black color :

Change the layer to Soft Light – Opacity 68% – Fill 72%. We will have nice corpse’s shadow.

Step 19

It’s lightning time! Open the Lightning image and select the following part :

Paste it to the canvas, move the layer down just above the Sky layer and rotate it to this position :

Apply some adjustment layers for the lightning
Level

Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -100
Lightness : -41

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : 4
Contrast : 100

Change the Lightning layer to Screen mode and here’s the result :

Step 20

In these following steps we will make several changes to the image’s overall lightning.

First, create a new layer, grab a White soft brush and start painting the following part :

Change the blend mode to Overlay – Opacity 30% – Fill 30%

Go to the Buildings layer, create a new layer, tick on Create Clipping Mask and paint some white color on top of those buildings :

Set the blend mode to Overlay – Opacity 75%
Next, change to Black soft brush and paint the bottom of the buildings :

Change blend mode to Soft Light – Opacity 90%
And here is what we will get :

Step 21

Add the same type of lighting to the tower, create a new layer and paint white color at the tower’s right side :

Set the blend mode to Overlay – Opacity 50%

Create another layer and paint more white color :

Change to Overlay – Opacity 70% – Fill 67%

Back to the coprse layer, create new layer and paint some black color to this part :

Change the Opacity to 60% – Fill to 77%

Step 22

Download and open the Lightning brush, paint some lightning on the corpse like this:

Apply the following Blending Option to all lightning layers. You can do this fast by applying to one layer, then right click on it and choose Copy Layer Style, right click on other layers and choose Paste Layer Style.

Outer Glow
Blend Mode : Normal
Opacity : 100%
Color : #4590ED
Size : 3

Group all the lightning layers by holding Ctrl and click on all of them, then Ctrl + G. Duplicate the group for better lightning opacity.

Step 23

Alright we need some evidences that our model just killed a Terminator! Open the Arrow stock, select the arrow and start placing it on the corpse :

Duplicate the arrow a few more time and placing them around the corpse. Also apply layer mask on each of them like this :

Group all the arrow layers into one and apply these adjustment layer on it :
Hue/Saturation
Saturation : -58
Lightness : +5

Photo Filter (Cooling Filter 80)

Here is the result :

Step 24

Open the Lens Flare stock and grab this one :

Paste and rotate it to this part :

Set the blend mode to Linear Dodge and apply Layer Mask :

Create a new layer and pick the soft brush with color #D9F5F6 and paint like this :

Change the blend mode to Soft Light with 50% Opacity and we should have a nice glowing effect on the model’s bow

Step 25

We will add some shadow to the bottom by creating a new layer, grab a black soft brush and paint the bottom of the image like this :

Apply Layer Mask :

Create a new layer, click Ctrl + A to select and create Cloud effect like we just did before (Filter -> Render -> Cloud)

Change the blend mode to Screen – Opacity 35% – Fill 20%.
Apply Layer Mask to the layer :

And we will have some nice fog effect :

Step 26

We’re almost done! Time for some final touches. Apply the following adjustment layers:

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : 3
Contrast : 16

Color Balance

Brightness/Contrast
Brightness : 83
Contrast : 6

Level

Selective Color

Step 27

Be sure to apply the following layer mask to the second Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer :

Go back to the model layer, create a new layer with Create Clipping Mask, paint the color #8ca7c8 on the model like this :

Change the blend mode to Linear Dodge – Opacity 80%

Go back to the corpse layer, create a new layer with Create Clipping Mask, paint some White color on the corpse :

Set the blend mode to Soft Light – Opacity 40%

Congratulations, You’re All Done!

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

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

In today’s design lesson we’re going to create a mysterious steampunk man and place him in a victorian looking setting.

You’ll learn a variety of useful photo manipulation techniques including:

• Blending multiple images correctly
• Working with masking and adjustment layers
• Applying textures
• Creating custom lighting effects
• ‘Bringing it all together’

Let’s get started!

Final Image

Here is the final outcome we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a new file. Go to File -> New and input the following attributes

Step 2

Next, open the background stock image. You will need to rotate the image, go to Image -> Image Rotation -> 90 CCW.

After rotated, use the Quick Selection Tool and select the following part of the image

Then use the Move Tool and move the selected part to our new file. Name this new layer “Background”.

Step 3

Open the sky stock image, select a part of it like this

Move the selected part to our file, place it behind the “Background” layer and name it “Sky”.

Step 4

We will edit the sky a little bit by adding these following adjustments to the “Sky” layer.

Go to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Brightness/Contrast.

Remember to check the box “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask”

Adjust the Brightness/Contrast like this:

Brightness : -37
Contrast : 59

Go to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Black&White and adjust it like this

Add the following Curves layer (Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Curves)

Here is what we got after the adjustments

Step 5

Let’s edit the background a little bit. Add these following adjustment layers (which can be found all in Layer -> New Adjustment Layer) to the “Background” layer.

Don’t forget to check the box “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask”

Brightness/Contrast

Brightness : -119
Contrast : -13

Levels

Hue/Saturation

Saturation : -36
Lightness : -72

Photo Filter
Color : #ffc53b
Density : 12%

And we will have this as the result

Step 6

Add Layer Masks to the adjustment layers

Layer mask on Brightness/Contrast

Layer mask on Hue/Saturation

And here’s what we get

Step 7

We will create light source on the light street for the image’s main light. Create a new layer above the “Background” layer, name it “Len Flare” and fill it with Black.

Go to Filter -> Render -> Len Flare

We will have a raw len flare, switch the blend mode to “Color Dodge” to remove the black background then place the len flare on the street light.

Add the following adjustment layers to the “Len Flare” layer

Hue/Saturation
Hue : 42
Saturation : 42
Lightness : +20

Levels

And another Hue/Saturation

Saturation : -69
Lightness: +19

Layer mask on the Len Flare layer

And we will have this shining light street

Step 9

We will add an extra glowing light by create a new layer, use a round soft white brush and click on the image to draw a single soft round shape.

Go to Blending Option of the layer and adjust:

Outer Glow

Blend Mode : Screen
Color : #e4b526
Spread : 0%
Size : 109 px
Range : 71%

Color Overlay : change the color to #fff1c6

Place the glowing light on the street light

Step 10

Create a new Gradient Map adjustment layer on top of all layer.

Blend Mode : Soft Light
Opacity : 69%
Fill : 67%

Layer mask on Gradient Map layer

And we’re done with the background!

Step 11

Open the model stock image, extract the model and place it on our file, name it “Model”

We need to create a shadow for the model.

Duplicate the Model layer, fill the duplicated layer with black color.

Go to Image -> Transform -> Distort or simply hit Ctrl + T and choose Distort to manipulate the shadow.

Go to Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur
Radius : 4.0 px

We will have the following result

Step 12

Select the Model layer, go to Blending Option and add the Inner Shadow.

Blend Mode : Multiply

Distance : 4px
Size : 27px

As you can see the glowing blue edge of the model has been gradually reduced by using Inner Shadow.

Step 13

Apply following adjustment layers for the model

Hue/Saturation

Saturation : -41
Lightness : -4

Brightness/Contrast

Brightness : -15
Contrast : 23

Gradient Map

Blend Mode : Soft Light
Opacity : 73%

Photo Filter

Here’s the result

Step 14

Open the Machine Box stock image, extract then place it on the model

Resize it to fit the back of the model

Apply following adjustment layers

Brightness/Contrast

Brightness : -32
Contrast : -22

Curves

Photo Filter :

change the color #b2711c
Density : 68%

Gradient Map

Blend Mode : Soft Light
Opacity : 73%
Fill : 73%

We will have the following result

Step 15

Open 2 tentacle stock images and extract their following part

Place the tentacles under Machine Box layer. Duplicate and transform them like this

Select all the tentacle layers and go to Layer -> Group Layer (or Ctrl + G) to store them into a group, name the group “Tentacles”.

Step 16

Add the following adjustment layers to the Tentacles Group we just created

Brightness/Contrast

Hue/Saturation

Blend Mode : Overlay
Opacity : 85%

Gradient Map

Blend Mode : Soft Light
Opacity : 73%

The result should look like this

Step 17

Time to add some sparks! Open the Lightning brush, create a new layer and start placing lightning all around the tentacles. Remember to put each lightning on different layers. Resize, transform the lightning as your will.

Erase some part of the lightning on the tentacles.

Apply following Blending Option to all lightning layers. You can do this fast by applying to one layer, then right click on it and choose Copy Layer Style, right click on other layers and choose Paste Layer Style

Blend Mode : Screen
Opacity : 100%
Color : #1f7aea
Size : 6px
Range : 32%

The result should look like this:

Step 18

Create a new layer, use soft white brush and draw like this

Apply Outer Glow effect in Blending Option

Blend Mode : Screen
Opacity : 47%
Noise : 10%
Color : #3da7ce
Size : 122px
Range : 72%

We will have a glowing blue lightning effect like this

Step 19

Open and place the Snow Texture into the image. Change the blend mode to Screen, Opacity 48%

Apply layer mask to the Snow layer

Duplicate the Snow layer, move it down to the bottom a little bit.

Opacity : 66%
Flow : 72%

We will have more snow at the bottom of the image

Step 20

We will create some fog by create a new layer. Remember to set the Foreground Color to White and Background Color to Black before continue.

Go to Filter -> Render -> Cloud

Change the blend mode to Screen, Opacity 20%, Fill 29%

Step 21

We are almost done! The ground still need more shadow so create a new layer, use soft round brush with black color and paint the ground like this

Layer mask on shadow layer

Change the Blend Mode to Soft Light and we should have a nice shadow ground

Duplicate the Shadow layer to increase the effect

Step 22

Now we just need to add some final retouch for the image. Apply these adjustment layers on top of all layers.

Gradient Map 1

Blend Mode : Soft Light
Opacity : 48%
Fill : 65%

Gradient Map 2

Blend Mode : Soft Light
Opacity : 37%
Fill : 40%

Curves

Selective Color

Hue/Saturation

Blend Mode : Linear Dodge (Add)
Opacity : 54%
Fill : 70%

Layer mask on Hue/Saturation

Color Balance

And we’re done!

I hope you guys enjoy the tutorial. I would love to hear your feedback on the techniques and outcome.