Do you struggle with blending your images properly?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

So many Photoshop designs are poorly blended, and the end result is often a very unrealistic scene.

You should always spend a good amount of time blending your images perfectly, particularly when working with photo manipulation works.

Today you’ll learn how to blend a large number of different photographic elements into a single cohesive scene. You’ll learn how to pay attention to light and shadow, and how to manipulate color and shade in a non-destructive way.

To make things extra challenging, we’re going to be converting a daytime scene to a nighttime scene!

This is going to be fun, let’s dive right in.

What You’ll Be Creating:

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

Step 1

In this step we will start with the main character of the scene.

1) Cut the image of the princess from its original image using the Lasso Tool (L) and place it on the working canvas as shown.

2) Now create a new layer over the model layer. Then select Spot Healing Tool (J) and set the options to Content Aware and Sample All Layers. Now remove all the spots and imperfections on the face. This might take some time, but the more you spend the better result you get.

3) De-Saturate the image by -46 using the Hue-Saturation Adjustment layer.

4) Now create an Exposure Adjustment layer and set the Exposure level to +0.57 and Gamma Correction to 0.75.

Step 2

In this step we are going to work on the make-up, to make the princess look prettier. (Use of Digital Pen Tablet is highly recommended.)

1) Create a new layer and set the Blending mode of the layer to Overlay. The paint the cheeks and lips pink as shown.

2) Now select Black color and paint dark circles around the eyes as shown to give the princess a slight gothic look.

3) Now de-select the Pen-Pressure option (If using a Pen Tablet.), and then paint dark black eye liner around the eyes as shown.

Step 3

In this step we are going to create the Balcony behind the princess.

1) Import the image of the balcony on to the working canvas and place it behind the princess as shown.

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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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I’m really excited! Today’s design lesson is one of our most comprehensive tutorials ever.

I’m not going to bang on about how this tutorial is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Instead, I want to show you just how much you’ll learn from following along:

• You’ll learn how to create an axe (like a real, solid, scary Viking looking axe) from scratch! This includes a ton of actionable techniques from drawing, to texturing, layer management, masking, lighting, photo manipulation etc… Bottom line – the creation of this axe could form an awesome tutorial all on it’s own!
• You’ll learn some cool matte painting techniques when creating the background for your frightening axe. Do your scenes often look fake and over-shopped? You’ll learn how to pull multiple images together into a cohesive scene today.
• Lighting. Lighting is a tricky art, but in today’s lesson you’ll learn some really cool lighting techniques to add focus to your scenes.
• You’ll also get to work with eerie stuff like skulls and crows. Sometimes it’s fun to dive into a dark, moody project and capture this kind of atmosphere skillfully.
• There are also some amazing bonuses that accompany this tut. The author Ed Lopez has included his hand-crafted brush set, and a HUGE library of personally created layer styles for you to enjoy. He has even put together a 2 minute sped-up video version of his workflow, which is a fantastic insight into how the final piece comes together. It’s the perfect reference as you follow along with the main tutorial.

Cummon, let’s get started!

Final Image Preview:

Tutorial Details

• Program: Adobe Photoshop
• Version: CS6
• Difficulty: Advanced
• Estimated Completion Time: 4 Hours

Tutorial Assets

• Sketch
• Bones
• Bones2
• Fjord
• Door Metal Castle
• Storm Lightning Night
• Beach Weather Storm
• Mount Pass Valley
• Black Crow Bird
• Wooden Pole
• Black Bones Dark
• Black Bones Dark 2
• Alloy Base Fabric
• Skull Skeleton Danger
• Sharp Metal Blade
• Fire Tribal Art
• Scenic Heavenly View
• Styles
• Brushes

1. SKETCH AND TRACE

Step 1

To start things off I made a quick sketch of what I had in mind for the main subject of the image, which is a heavy Viking Axe with all the visual details to hold a good strong sense of that culture. You can use this sketch, or maybe choose to make one of your own; the technique for bringing it to life will work either way.

So on top of the sketch we will start tracing with the pen tool the main all around shape as shown.

Step 2

Be sure to setup the pen tool options as shown here so your tracing makes a shape, yet it doesn’t block the view with any fill color and the line is thin enough for us to lay it down where needed accurately.

Step 3

Once you have traced the main shape you can start creating the shapes inside again with the pen tool, keeping each shape in a separate layer.

Step 4

Now we have the main shape and the two inner sections of the Axe, so now we can select a fill color for each; so just pick a mid gray for the overall Axe and a slightly brighter gray for the inner sections, and setting the stroke to none.

Step 5

At this point we can resize the image to the final size, and since we have vector shapes in place, we can resize those as well without loosing any detail or resolution. Then we continue our tracing in exactly the same way for the other pieces of the Axe as shown here until we have a shape for each of the sections.

Step 6

Lets continue by bringing in this image of a tribal graphic and make a quick color range selection to extract it on to our image.

Step 7

Scale it down to fit over the top left section of the inner Axe, and then create a clipping mask for it so it only shows over that section.

Step 8

Repeat the same for the lower right section, choosing a slightly different framing

Step 9

Then open up the layer style for this graphic layer and apply the settings for both drop shadow and color overlay as shown here.

Step 10

Then copy the same layer style to the other sections so we have the subtle shadow effect for all of them. Just in the handle section of the Axe remove the color overlay to keep them a lighter color.

Step 11

Once we are finished with the layer styles, we will now group all of the Axe layers, duplicate the group; and then merge the duplicate so we have now one layer to continue working on while keeping the original shapes hidden in case we need them. Once we have the merged single layer we can apply some subtle shading to the Axe so we have a bit of thickness on it just by painting in with a soft brush a bit darker color.

2. TEXTURE

Step 1

Next up we will start introducing texture to our Axe shape, so we will use a section of this image to start applying some texture to our Axe; so copy the clean section shown here and paste it over to a new layer.

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Today’s design lesson is an in depth guide to creating a beautiful, fantasy piece called “Summoning the Power”.

You’ll master a range of expert techniques including:

• Very advanced, multi-layered lighting effects
• Advanced, creative masking
• Correctly manipulating and blending multiple images
• Fixing blemishes, difficult edges and other difficult areas
• Many more practical, actionable techniques

Let’s get started!

Final Image

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

Step 1

Create a new document with size 1000×1300 px and fill it with any colors you want (I choose white). Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N to make a new layer. Active Radial Gradient Tool (G) with colors #010619 and #01375c:

Step 2

Open sky stock. Use Move Tool (V) to drag it into our white canvas, then use Cmd/Ctrl+T to rotate it to make this part of sky visible:

Change the mode to Soft Light 100%:

Step 3

Open ground stock. I use Retangular Marquee Tool (M) to grab a selection of ground and place it at the bottom of our main picture, use Cmd/Ctrl+T to get a right perspective:

Click the second button at the bottom of Layer Pallete to add mask to ground layer. Use soft black brush to blur the hard edge of the ground:

Step 4

I want to darken and change color of the ground to be fit the sky. To do it, I use some adjustment layers with Clipping Mask. On ground layer, go to Layer-New Adjustment Layer-Hue/Saturation:

Color Balance and Curves:

After darkening with Curves, on its layer mask, I use soft black brush with opacity about 30-40% to erase the middle section of the ground (as it’s illuminated by sky part -we’ll see in next steps).

Step 5

To darken the ground edges more, I make a new layer (Clipping Mask) and use brush with color #2f3855 to paint there. Change the mode to Multiply 100%:

Step 6

Extract model and place her at the center of our picture:

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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 today’s Photoshop design lesson you’ll be learning how to create an action packed movie poster design.

This is a great way to take your Photoshop skills and apply them to a real, actionable project spec that you can then transfer to your client projects.

This lesson will teach you a variety of actionable techniques such as:

• Using advanced lighting techniques to create a dramatic scene.
• Creating 3D text and effects in PS CS6 using just Blending Modes and layer properties.
• Working with lighting and shading.
• Creating a war scene through multiple image blending
• Cinematic style color correction.
• and many more interesting techniques to make your design work easier and more fun!

Creating a Movie Poster

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

Step 1

In this step we are going to arrange the soldiers in order.

1) Create a new canvas in Photoshop with the dimensions Width=3000px and Height=4147px. Then import the image of the Soldier on to the canvas and it in the center as shown.

2) Now import two more soldiers on to the canvas and place them as shown, illustrating as if they got each other’s back.

Step 2

In this step we are going to create the Buildings BG.

1) Erase the sky in the Buildings image using Magic Wand Tool (W) and import the buildings on to the canvas and place them in the background.

2) Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the buildings layer and set the Saturation level to -59.

3) Now create an Exposure adjustment layer to the buildings layer and set the Exposure level to -0.46 and Gamma Correction to -0.50.

4) Create a new layer above the buildings layer and paint the shadows as shown using the Soft Round Brush (B).

Step 3

In this step we will be creating the night sky in the scene.

1) Import the image of the sky on to the working canvas and place it behind the buildings layer.

2) Now de-saturate the sky layer to -62 using the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

3) Using the Exposure adjustment layer increase the Offset value to -0.0174 to enhance the dark values of the sky image.

4) Now create a Curves adjustment layer to the sky layer and set the RGB curves as shown.

Step 4

In this step we are going to create fire sparks flying around in the scene.

1) Create a new layer under the soldier’s layer and paint the sparks as shown using the fire sparks brush using the color #f7c30f.

2) With the sparks layer selected go to Filters>Blur>Motion Blur and set the Angle to 14 and Distance=23px. This creates a natural depth to the sparks.

That’s the end of the preview!

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The beauty of Photoshop is being to create amazing fantasy outcomes that defy the realism in our regular lives. There’s something truly satisfying about creating a magical piece that can wow your friends and colleagues.

Once you get a hand on this type of fantasy design you can really push your Photoshop skills to the next level and get more experimental with your work.

Today’s tutorial will allow you to create a beautiful fantasy pop up book, featuring a magical lake scene. You’ll learn how to bring this basic composition to life, through expert lighting, warping, professional image blending and atmospheric final touches.

Final Image

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

Step 1

Create a new file by going to the Menu Bar, click File>New or press Ctrl+N, and input these values:

Width: 2000px
Height: 2000px
Resolution:300 dpi
Color Mode:RGB Color 8 bit
Background Contents: Transparent

Step 2

Extract the old_book_stock_by_maslenitsa.jpg and open Book Stock by Maselenitsa (8). Activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool by pressing (M) and select the portion shown below:

Copy the selection and paste it to the main canvas. Activate Move Tool (V) and drag the corners, position it like the one below.

Step 3

Now, let’s put the grass over the book pages. Open hill_by_piratelotus_stock-d4ahnff.jpg. Activate the ruler (if the ruler does not appear, go to Menu Bar and click View>Ruler. To use the ruler guide, drag the Ruler located at the left side. Drag it all the way to the middle of the photo.

Copy the selection and paste it to the main canvas. Position the photo just like the one below.

We will now make the grass look like the pages of a book. We will distort and warp the photo. This is a little bit tricky so we must carefully follow the steps.

To start with, go to Menu Bar and click Edit>Transform>Distort.

The result should be similar to this.

Step 4

The grass does not look like it’s fitted to the book so we will now do the warping, but before that, let’s decrease its opacity.

Zoom it to about 30% then go to Menu Bar and click Edit>Transform>Warp.

Note: We are to pattern the grass to the shape of the book, it is okay if the grass overlaps.

After warping, this is the result.

We may have a result that is not exactly the same as this. For me, as long as the grass fits the book, it’s okay.

Step 5

We will now do the other left side. But first, let’s hide Layer 2 (the one we just warped).

Select the left portion of hill_by_piratelotus_stock-d4ahnff.jpg and extract it to the main canvas. Decrease its opacity to 70 %. We will now distort it, go to Menu Bar, click Edit>Transform>Distort.

The result:

Step 6

Let’s warp it again. Go to Menu Bar and click Edit>Transform>Warp.

Here’s the result.

Step 7

We’re almost done with the pages! So let’s unhide Layer 2 and hide Layer 3. We will now do our final touch. Activate Pen tool by pressing (P), trace the portion of the grass as shown below and hit Ctrl+Enter to make a selection; press Delete or Backspace to remove the selected portion. To deselect it, press Ctrl+D. To better understand how to use Pen tool, just visit our tutorial:

Become a Master of the Pen Tool in Under 30 Minutes

Let’s now move to Layer 3. Unhide this layer, zoom it to about 190% and use the Pen tool to remove the portion shown below.

Increase the opacity of the two layers into 100%, and the result.

Step 8

Layer 3 still needs some fix! Let’s activate the Clone tool by pressing (S), follow this setting:

Brush: Hard Round Pressure
Size: 8 px
Hardness: 100%
Opacity: 100%
Flow: 100%

After we corrected the area. Use the Pen tool to remove the excess. We can see the result below.

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In this tutorial our resident photo manipulation expert Jenny Le will show you how to create a serene lake scene.

You’ll learn a variety of manipulation techniques, such as blending, adjusting color, retouching, using brush as well as detailing to achieve a realistic outcome.

Beyond this, you’ll learn some practical techniques such as using the displacement filter to create an artificial water surface and how to combine adjustment layers and complex, layered masking to produce some beautiful results.

Let’s get started!

Final Image

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

Step 1

Open sky stock. Use Crop Tool (C) to take the sky part only. If you use your own image, remember to choose the one with horizon.

Step 2

On background layer (sky), use Retangular Marquee Tool to make a selection on sky part:

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate this selection then move it to the left to hide the top of castle. Click the second button at the bottom of Layer Pallete to add layer mask to this one. Use soft black brush to remove hard edge and blend this selection with sky:

I name this layer as “remove castle”.

Step 3

Make a new layer with Clipping Mask for this layer. I found something I don’t like after previous step so I use Clone Tool (S) to fix it:

Go to Layer-New Adjustment Layer-Curves to darken this part a little:

Step 4

Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Alt/Option+Shift+E to merge all visible layers (background, remove castle, clone and Curves). I rename this layer as “Sky”. Choose Image-Canvas Size , extend the bottom (I double the height):

Duplicate sky layer. I rename the upper layer “sky”, under layer “lake”. On lake layer, choose Edit-Transform-Flip Vertical then move it under sky layer.

Step 5

Make a new layer under the lake one. Choose Edit-Fill with a light cyan color picked from the top of sky (#a7acaf). This layer will be a base of the water. Then add layer mask to the lake one. On layer mask, hit G to active Gradient Tool. Choose Linear Gradient Tool with default colors (black and white):

Drag a line from the top to bottom of the lake to make sky reflection faded into the water:

On lake layer, choose Filter-Blur-Motion Blur:

Step 6

Now we’ll make a ripple texture that will be using to make reflection. Press Cmd/Ctrl+N to create a new document with 2000×1000 px and fill it with white. It’s better to work on the large size (depends on your document) as it will be cropped later. On background layer, go to Filter-Noise-Add Noise:

Make sure that foreground and background are set to black and white (so texture will be easier to see). Choose Filter-Sketch-Bas Relief:

Filter-Blur-Motion Blur to smooth the lines:

Duplicate this background layer then use Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform it:

Then use Crop Tool to get a result below:

Save this file as a PSD and name it “ripple-texture” or whatever you want.

Step 7

Come back to our lake file. We’ll use Displace filter to make reflection. Hold Cmd/Ctrl while clicking lake thumbnail layer to load its selection (it’s very important, if you don’t choose, the result will look different).

Go to Filter-Distort-Displace with settings like in screenshot below (if you want to ripple more your lake, increase the values) then browse the ripple-texture file:

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Often even more advanced Photoshop users shy away from illustration in Photoshop, despite it having some very robust drawing tools at your disposal.

Often times the issue is the lack of a clear guide to help you through the process. Well today our resident expert Andrei Marius will show you how to create a super clean coffee maker illustration using some of Photoshop’s advanced drawing tools.

Despite this being a long and in depth tutorial, each step is broken down into clear step by step instructions, so whatever your level of design expertise you can follow along and learn some great techniques in the process.

Clean design couldn’t be more on trend right now, some being able to create slick illustrations like this one will allow you to create incredible custom icons and graphics to support your (or your client’s) clean website design.

Final Image

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

Step 1

Open Photoshop and hit Control + N to create a new document. Enter all the data shown in the following image and click OK. Enable the Grid (View > Show > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap To > Grid). For starters you will need a grid every 5px. Simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices and focus on the Grid section. Enter 5 in the Gridline Every box and 1 in the Subdivision box. Also, set the grid color at #a7a7a7. Once you set all these properties click OK. Try not to get discouraged by all that grid. It will ease your work later. You should also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes.

Step 2

Focus on the Toolbar and set the foreground color at #ed4505. Pick the Ellipse Tool and create a 185 by 30px squeezed circle. Make sure that this new vector shape stays selected and switch to the Rectangle Tool. Focus on the top bar, check the Add button and simply add a 185 by 10px vector path as shown in the second image. The Snap to Grid should ease your work. Get back to the Ellipse Tool and make sure that your orange vector shape is still selected. Check the Add button from the top bar and add a new 185 by 30px squeezed circle as shown in the third image. Move to the Layers panel and double click on the existing vector shape to open the Layer Style window. Activate the Inner Shadow and the Gradient Overlay then enter the properties shown in the following images. The white numbers from the Gradient Overlay image stand for Location percentage.

Step 3

Pick the Ellipse Tool, create a 185 by 30px vector shape and place it as shown in the first image. Move to the Layers panel, open the Layer Style window for this new orange shape and enter the properties shown in the following images. The yellow zero from the Gradient Overlay image stands for Opacity percentage.

Step 4

Set the foreground color at black, pick the Ellipse Tool, create a 140 by 15px vector shape and place it as shown in the first image. Move to the Layers panel, open the Layer Style window for this new vector shape and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 5

For this step you will need a grid every 1px. Simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices and enter 1 in the Gridline Every box. Set the foreground color at #ed4505 and pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Set the radius at 5px, create a 24 by 15px vector shape and place it as shown in the first image. Send this new vector shape to back (Shift + CTRL + [ ), open the Layer Style window and enter the properties shown in the following image.

Step 6

For the following steps you need a grid every 5px. Simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices and enter 5 in the Gridline Every box. Set the foreground color at #ddf1ff and make sure that the Rounded Rectangle Tool is still active. Set the radius at 20px, create a 170 by 155px vector shape, place it as shown in the first image and go to Edit > Transform > Warp. Select Arc Lower from the Warp drop-down menu, enter 7 in the Bend box and hit Enter. With this blue vector shape still selected switch to the Rectangle Tool. Check the Subtract button from the top bar and draw a 170 by 25px vector shape as shown in the third image.

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In this advanced design lesson you will learn how to photo manipulate a dark image of a devil woman.

You will master various photo manipulation techniques such as portrait/photo retouching, manipulating a natural landscape, creating a dark cloudy atmosphere, digital painting, image blending, multiple adjustments, advanced masking and many more.

There’s a ton of actionable, professional tips to learn in this lesson, so let’s get started!

Final Image

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

Step 1

Create a new document with size about 1500×1000 px and fill with any colors you like (I use black). Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N to make a new layer and choose G to active Gradient Tool. I use Radial Gradient with colors # 021335 and #20446c:

Step 2

Open sky stock. I use Retangular Marquee Tool to make a selection on sky part then use Move Tool (V) to drag it into our black canvas, resize (Cmd/Ctrl+T) and change the mode to Soft Light 100%:

Step 3

I use an adjustment layer with Clipping Mask to desaturate the sky. Go to New Layer-New Adjustment Layer-Hue/Saturation:

Step 4

Extract model and place her at the middle section of our image after resizing:

Step 5

There are something I don’t want on her face so I make a new layer (Clipping Mask) and use Clone Tool (S) to remove it:

Step 6

I use some adjustment layers: Hue/Saturation, Photo Filter, Curves (Clipping Mask) to change color and brightness of model to be fit background:

Step 7

Open rock stock. I cut out the one on the right, place it behind the model. I want the rocks to have an evil look so I use Warp Tool to distort it to be sharper (Edit-Transform-Warp), remember to convert it to Smart Object before transforming. I set this layer under model one.

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