In this tutorial we will create a beautiful landscape fantasy photo manipulation. We will use masking, brush tool, gradient overlay and filters to make this amazing scene. I have used Photoshop Cs5 for this tutorial. A wacom tablet was used for painting techniques.
Final image preview:
Sources used:
Step 1:
Let’s start by creating a document by opening the background image in Photoshop.
Step 2:
Duplicate the background layer. Now using your favorite selection tool, select the sky part as shown below. Apply Gaussian blur to the selected sky.
Step 3:
Now open the nebula image and place it on the sky. Using a soft brush, mask the nebula layer so that it blends with the image. This nebula layer must be above the blurred sky layer. Apply linear dodge to this layer.
Step 4:
Apply gradient overlay to the nebula layer. Apply the following settings as shown below.
Step 5:
Now add the girl image to your document. Remove its background using your favorite masking tools. The hair has not been masked properly. Do not worry, we will paint the hair later. However a wacom tablet is needed for painting the hair.
Step 6:
Now add the tree image. Since the tree is already masked, we do not have to worry about its masking!
Step 7:
Apply gradient overlay to the tree. The settings are as shown below.
Step 8:
Apply Gaussian blur to the tree.
Step 9:
Create a new layer. Using a soft black brush of low opacity, paint the shadows to the tree. Make sure the layer’s mode is soft light and its opacity is 75%.
Step 10:
Create a new layer behind the tree layer. Using a soft white brush of low opacity paint the highlights for the tree. Make sure its mode is soft light and opacity is 100%.
Step 11:
Apply outer glow to this highlights layer.
Step 12:
Using glitter brush paint randomly on the tree. Make sure you paint this on a new layer.
Step 13:
Apply drop shadow and outer glow to the glitter brush layer.
The image looks like this after the glitter brushes step.
Step 14:
Add the flying car image.
Step 15:
Apply outer glow, inner glow and gradient overlay to the flying car.
Step 16:
Now we get the following image.
Step 17:
Now paint the hair of the girl using your wacom tablet. This step takes a lot of your time unless you are a master in painting or already an artist.
Step 18:
Now create a new layer. Paint the shadows to the whole image. Using a soft black brush we paint the image. This darkens our image.
Step 19:
Using the birds brushes, paint the birds. Apply photo filter.
Step 20:
Apply vibrance.
Step 21:
Apply curves.
Step 22:
This is the image we get till now. Save this image. We will need it for our next steps.
Step 23:
Now open the image we saved in the previous step in a new photoshop document.
Step 24:
Apply lens flare.
Step 25:
Apply unsharp mask.
Step 26:
Add some finishing touches by shading the girl. This is done by using a soft white brush of low opacity.
Step 27:
Create a new color fill layer. Set its mode to overlay. The settings are shown below.
This is the final image we get! Hope you enjoyed reading my tutorial.
Wow, the difference in her hair is so completely different. I’m always looking for new Photoshop tips, so thank you for sharing the fantasy feel.