Photoshop tutorial: Create dynamic art using glows and lighting effects

Step 1

First, get a stock photo of a high jumper going over a bar. You’ll need to cut her out. I find Illustrator’s Pen tool (P) is much better than Photoshop for cutting out photos, so use this if you have it. 

Use the Pen tool to put a path around her. Only roughly round the hair in a block for now. We will refine that in Photoshop.

If you don’t have Illustrator, just cut her out in Photoshop as normal and skip to Step 3.

Step 2

Copy and paste the athlete into Photoshop.Cmd/Ctrl + click on the photo layer to create a marquee selection around her. With the Quick Selection tool (W), Alt + click to refine the selection around the hair. 

Step 3

With the marquee selection still around the athlete, create a layer mask. Select the mask in your layers and press Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + R to bring up the Refine Mask menu. Adjust each of the settings until you’re happy. 

Step 4

Select a white brush and use your layer ask to remove some of the soft edges around the athlete. Don’t pull it in too tight though, otherwise it will be obvious that your photo has been cropped. 

Next, use the Clone Stamp (S) to remove the bar and its shadow on the athlete’s hips and legs.

Step 5

Open the Adjustments panel and add a Gradient Map adjustment layer to apply a black-and-white gradient map. Press Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + G to apply a clipping mask to it based on the photo below it in the layer stack. 

Step 6

Before you start adding details, it’s very important to determine the mood of the piece. Once you’ve established this, all the other elements will only help accentuate what’s already there. 

To do this, first create a Gradient fill layer above the background, using a Radial gradient as shown. Next, add a Levels adjustment layer with a clipping mask to the athlete layer, to accentuate the shadows on her.

Step 7

Now that you’ve established some atmosphere, it’s time to add some colour. Double-click on the Gradient icon on the Gradient Fill layer, and click on the Gradient Editor. Use the sliders to add some different hues. 

Add some Gradient Map adjustment layers and Solid Color fill layers to the photo to create some complementary hues, using a blending mode of Color so only the athlete’s hue is adjusted.

Step 8

Create some thin, angled gradients using thin and largely transparent Gradient fill layers like those shown here. This should create a kind of beam that zooms into infinity. If necessary, use a layer mask with a black brush to mask some parts of the photo.

Step 9

It’s now time to indicate some movement, so add some Radial Gradients and mask the superfluous parts.

Step 10

Add some glows, sparkles and other details around the athlete. First, draw round the outline of your high jumper – including the outlines of her limbs, clothes and clothing detail – with a thin white brush. Then rough out some sparkles. Next, apply an Outer Glow layer style from the bottom of the Layers panel. 

Step 11

Next, go into Illustrator and create a series of radial lines (if you don’t have Illustrator, go to Step 12 and use radiallines.ai from the project files).

To do this, use the Line tool (/) to create a cross. Select both lines, right-click and go to Transform > Rotate. Set your angle to 45° and click Copy. Repeat this step and rotate by 22.5°, 11.25°, 6.25°, and so on. Make sure you reselect your original lines each time you rotate. 

Step 12

Copy and paste the radial lines and place them to your liking (or import radiallines.ai). Add a layer mask, then Outer Glow and Color Overlay layer styles to create shimmery pink lines. Remove parts of the lines with a black brush on the layer mask. Repeat this using different a yellow Color Overlay style to enhance the effect.

Step 13

Now we are going to add a simple star field. Select a hard brush and create some dots on your canvas in a new layer. Once you have a decent amount start duplicating, scaling, rotating and applying different levels of opacity to cover most of the canvas in a way that’s visually interesting.

Step 14

With your brush tool, create some more details to accentuate movement and atmosphere. Use Adjustment Layers such as Color Balance to tweak your hues.

Step 15

Save your creation as a Jpg. Open the file and Apply some light noise. This makes the project feel a little less ‘digital’ by giving the whole image some extra texture. 

Cut out hair and difficult Images in Photoshop Tutorial

In this tutorial we are going to learn the best way to cut out difficult images from their background in Photoshop. I’m not talking about solid shapes and people against green screens. I’m talking about hair and irregular edges against less-than perfect backgrounds. You know, the kind of thing that you have to deal with in the real world, not just for tutorials. As you know, here at photoshopCAFE we are all about keeping it real and tackling real-world stuff rather than eye-candy that you can’t actually use.

Step 1

Make a duplicate layer of the image. This way the original is preserved on the background and we are working on a duplicated layer. Hide the background by clicking off its visibility icon.  Choose Select>Color Range from the Menu. When the Color Range Dialog box open, choose the Left Eye Dropper tool and click on the background color in the image window (pink). You will see the selected color turn white in the dialog box. Move the Fuzziness slider until the image is mostly black and the background is a clean as you can get it. Tip: To add a color to the selection click on the eyedropper tool with the plus sign and click in the image. Click ok

Step 2

With the selection active, switch to the Channels palette. Click the save selection as channel button, it’s the second one to the left on the bottom of the channels palette. A new alpha channel will now be visible. Press “Ctrl/Cmd+D” to Deselect and click on Alpha 1 in the channels palette. The main window will now turn black and white. The advantage of using a channel is the ability to fine tune the selection without effecting the original image. Black represents the areas that we want to keep and white, the areas to be discarded.

Step 3

Notice that there are areas of gray, these would be semi-transparent and need to become solid black and white (except for areas that should be semi transparent such as soft edges). There are tiny dots also visible, there will make for a very messy selection. Here is a quick solution that I have come up with: Click Image>Adjustments>Levels..
In the levels Dialog box, click the black point slider on the left and drag it to the right until the gray areas have become a solid black, Slide the White point slider to the left until the whites are nice and clean and the grainy effect has gone. Click ok to apply.

Step 4

 Time to fine tune the mask. Choose a black brush and make the edge hard. Paint over all the areas that belong in the object to mask out. Use a larger brush for large areas and a smaller brush for finer detail such as around the feathers. Use a white paint color to paint out the areas that should be removed.

Step 5

Sometimes it can be hard to guess which part of the image belongs in the foreground and a peek at the original image is needed.  Click on eye icon to the left of RGB at the top of the Channels palette (Fig 5). The original photo is now visible and the mask appears as a reddish color. Click the eye icon to go back to the mask view. The mask can also be hidden by toggling the eye (visibility icon). Keep going until you have a clean mask.

Step 6

Hold Cmd(Ctrl PC) and click on the Alpha 1 thumbnail. You will now see an active selection. Click on RGB to see the color image. Open the layers palette.

Select the working layer and add a layer mask. The masked area of the backround will now be removed to reveal a nice clean masking effect.

If it looks the opposite, click on the layer mask and press Ctrl/Cmd+I to invert the mask. You can touch up the mask by painting with black or white to add or remove portions of the image.

At this point In am only worried about removing the pink background on the left.

Step 7

 If there are areas that still need to be removes such as on the right side of this image, repeat the proceeding steps. Because each image is unique, some will need several passes and some can be done in a single pass. As you can see, this technique is very effective and the image can be dropped onto any background. Look at the top left of the image to see how precise the cut out is on the detailed feathers. Try that with the pen tool!

How to cut out a photo quickly using quick selection and refine edge. (easy)

Create a Mystical Photo Manipulation of the Great Ragnarok in Photoshop

Create a mystical picture and wallpaper for your desktop. In this tutorial you will learn many interesting effects such as creating lightning, fog and carved and burning runes and much more. I’ll show you an interesting example of the image toning and sharpening, a lot of interesting tricks and techniques.

What you’ll be creating

First, I will create a background and adjust its color. In this part I will tell you about the creation of lightning in Photoshop and work with filter Camera Raw, work with a layer masks and selection tools. The next step I will add stones and write them harmoniously into the overall atmosphere. I also tell you how to create a realistic fog. In the following steps I will create the effect of fire and carved runes. At the end of tutorial I increase sharpness, create depth of field and toning for the entire image and few details. This tutorial is designed for any knowledge of Photoshop. To create this, you will need Photoshop beginning with CS or or newer version.

Step 1

First you need to open Photoshop and create a new document. Go to File > New or use short key Cmd/Ctrl + N, create a blank document with size 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high, resolution 200 Pixels/Inch. This resolution I chose specifically because I wanted to make wallpapers.

Step 2

The first thing that we need to do is background. Go to File > Place (Place Embedded) and open “Hill” image. You need to properly locate it. In Free Transform Mode (Ctrl/Cmd + T or Edit > Free Transform) place image on right side of working field, reduce it’s size and rotate on -0.25 degrees and apply changes by pressing Enter/Return.

Step 3

To fill left side of image I duplicated layer with hill (Cmd/Ctrl + J or go to Layer > Duplicate Layer) move this layer down in layer stack and with Move Tool (V) place a copy in left side. Add a layer mask to parent layer (use “Add Layer Mask” button in the layers panel or by going to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All). Take Brush Tool (B) and with soft round brush (Size: 120px, Opacity: 50%) blend images to make landscape. Don’t worry about stone in left side. We remove it in next step.

Step 4

Select the Clone Stamp Tool (S) then set the brush size to 100 pixels and Opacity to 50%, change sample to “All layers”. Paint over the object shown in the image below. Choosing the right texture paint over remnants of the stone and continue mountains. Try to match the areas of source clone to place where you put them.

Step 5

I decided to build the mountain to create depth in the image. Go to File > Place (Place Embedded) and open “Mountains” image. The most important thing at this stage is as possible pick the exact position of the mountains, that this image was a continuation of the basics. Do not worry about the color.

Step 6

Add a layer mask and remove all unnecessary trees and base of the mountains. Use Brush Tool (B) with the settings from Step 4. It is important to create the impression of integrity of the mountains and the background. For me was to create background realistic as possible.

Step 7

Create a merged copy of image with Cmd/Ctrl + Opt/Alt + Shift + E and convert it to Smart Object (Right click on layer > “Convert to Smart Object” or go to Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object). Go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + A). This is powerful and quick tool to editing pictures without using a lot adjustment layers. So let’s get started from white balance and toning. Set following settings – Temperature: +3, Tint: -10, Exposure: -0.25, Contrast: +5, Highlights: -10, Shadows: -10, Whites: -10, Blacks: -5.

Now reduce noise from picture. Not all noise can be removed because otherwise we lost details in the foreground. So I use middle settings. Go to “Sharpness” tab and set for “Sharpening” Amount: 15, Radius: 1.2, Detail: 25. Set for “Noise Reduction” Luminance: 25, Luminance Detail: 60, Luminance Contrast: 10, Color: 20, Color Detail: 50, Color Smoothness: 50.

Step 8

Now we replace the sky. I decide to change clouds to more smooth sky to increase the tension in the atmosphere and the overall environment. Go to File > Place (Place Embedded) and open sky image. Increase image size until it fill working field and move it up as shown in image below.

Step 9

Add a layer mask and as with the previous images, you need to make a smooth transition between sky and main image. With same settings for Brush Tool (B) work carefully on a layer mask and use different brush sizes to get a realistic picture.

Next, remove noise from clouds. I specifically did not create the background completely and then use Camera Raw filter because each image has its own degree of noise and need different settings for each layer. Also, I do not need to change the color of the sky, because the original image has beautiful shades and blends in well with the background. Go to Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise… Set Strength to 9, Preserve Details to 20%, Reduce Color Noise to 10% and set around 10% to Sharpen Details, be sure to checked “Remove JPEG Artifact”.

Step 10

I decided to add some details. To emphasize the drama of what is happening (although still nothing happens, but you’ve seen the final result). Lightning is a very good element of the picture, because it tells the viewer about something mystical or terrible (if we take into account the Norse mythology, Thor the god of thunder and rain storms. Maybe this is epic battle between Thor and the snake Jormungand). So, place lightning image (File > Place (Place Embedded)). Resize it as shown in image below and change layer Blending Mode to “Screen”. Next duplicate filter “Reduce Noise” from the sky (hold Opt/Alt and drag the circles on a layer with lightning). Add a layer mask and mix sky with clouds and lightning.

Step 11

Now you have several options. The first is to leave the lightning and follow the principle of realism, or you can read these few steps and add more lightnings. Now I will tell you how to create a nice lightnings by using Photoshop. First of all you need to create a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl +Shift + N or use “Create a new layer” icon). Take a Gradient Tool (G) with black and white gradient (D) and linear style. Draw a gradient from left to right side it does not matter how you apply a gradient. Most importantly, there was a small slope.

Step 12

Go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. You see on the transition of black and white formed a stripe. This is Lightning. Inverse image (Cmd/Ctrl + I or go to Image > Adjustments > Invert…) to lightning become a white. Do not worry, that the clouds stayed around the lightning.

Step 13

Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels… or press Cmd/Ctrl + L to open Levels adjustment window. Set for for blacks value 235 an click OK. So we have removed all unnecessary leaving only lightning. If you want more glow around the lightning just play with the settings. Use “Hue/Saturation” adjustment to colorize your lightning. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation… or use Cmd/Ctrl + U. In window that appears check mark “Colorize”, change Hue to 225 and increase Saturation to 50.

Step 14

With Free Transform Tool (Cmd/Ctrl + T or Edit > Free Transform) reduce the size of lightning. Hold Shift key to make it proportionally. Change layer Blending Mode to “Screen” and place it not far from the original lightning. Repeat Steps 11 – 14 several times to create more lightning. You can also use other colors. Do not be afraid to experiment. Merge all created lightnings into one layer ( select layers > Cmd/Ctrl + E or Layer > Merge Layers…) and be sure to use “Screen” Blending Mode. On this work with the background is completed. Group all layer via Cmd/Ctrl + G or Layer > Group Layers.

Step 15

Now add the stones. As in all cases to start go to File > Place (Place Embedded) and open “Carnac Stones 1” image. Resize it so stones consistent with perspective and the entire image. Use Quick Selection Tool (W) to select stone and grab to selection bit of grass, it will be helpful for the image and increase the realism.

Step 16

Use “Refine Edge” at the panel properties in the upper part of the screen to clear selection. In window that appears use brush to clear a grass. Check mark “Smart Radius” and set Radius to 1.0px, Shift Edge to -10. Add a layer mask to remove background (use “Add Layer Mask” button in the layers panel or by going to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection).

Step 17

Add more stones following Steps 15 – 16 and used images “Carnac Stones 2”, “Carnac Stones 3”. You can use any the stones that you like. The most important thing is to respect the proportions and harmonious place them in the picture. Also, be careful so stones do not hang in the air and use “Flip Horizontal” (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal…) option to find an interesting angle of the stones. Group all layers with stones (Cmd/Ctrl + G or Layer > Group Layers…).

Step 18

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves… or use “Add adjustment or Fill layer” icon to add “Curves”” adjustment layer. First clip this layer to a group by using icon at the bottom of “Properties” panel. Next you need darken stones. create one point with Input: 92, Output: 73.

Step 19

Create a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N) and change Blending Mode to “Soft Light”. Make from this layer a Clipping Mask via Cmd/Ctrl + Opt/Alt + G or hold Opt/Alt and click between layers so top layer become with arrow. Use black and white soft brush (Brush Tool (B)) with Size: 100 – 200px and Opacity around 30% – 50%. Draw a basic lighting on the rocks. It is necessary to lighten the center stone and darken the edges. Importantly do not overdo it, because the next step, you add the main light and shadow.

Step 20

Now create two new layers (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N). For the first layer change Blending Mode to “Multiply” and for second to “Screen” and set Fill to 70%. Make a Clipping Mask from both layers to a group (Cmd/Ctrl + Opt/Alt + G). Use Brush Tool (B) with the settings from previous step and draw key light. Use black color on “Multiply” layer and white on “Screen”. Draw lighting as shown in image below. On screenshot I use red for shadows and green for the light.

Step 21

Now select all stones (hold Cmd/Ctrl and click on a layer mask thumbnail). Create a new layer above clipped layers and fill selection with black color (Cmd/Ctrl + Del or Edit > Fill > Color…). Deselect stones (Cmd/Ctrl + D or Select > Deselect) and flip this layer vertically (Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical). Use Warp Tool (Cmd/Ctrl + T + right click > Warp) to deformed fill so that each shade consistent the correct stone. Create the shadow for each stone on new layers and warp each layer. A little bit of skill and you will succeed! Merge all layers into a single layer (Cmd/Ctrl + E). Change Blending Mode to “Multiply” and Opacity to 58%.

Step 22

Stay on shadow layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur… Set Radius to 30.0 pixels and click OK. At this stage, the lighting is sufficient. A little later, at the end of tutorial I will add the final light and shadow. The most important thing is not to overdo it, because it is very great possibility of losing realism.

Step 23

Add a birds. Raven is a key animal in Norse mythology. The satellites of Odin – ravens Hugin and Munin (“thinking” and “remembering”). I created a brush with feathers and flying birds. But you can use other resources if you want. Load this brushes in Photoshop. First, add the main crow. This image so use the technique from Steps 15 – 16 to clear the raven from the background and place it over the main stone. It is important to correctly guess the direction of the bird to create the impression of a bird landing and create realism in a picture.

Step 24

Create a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N) and use bird brushes to create several flying flocks in the background. Use black color for the birds and brush size around 100 – 150px. Use Eraser Tool (E) if you want to create a variety of flocks by removing part of birds and the addition of other birds. I group this layers (Cmd/Ctrl + G) to make work with layers easier.

Step 25

What mysticism and without fog. This is a very interesting and useful part of the atmosphere that we create using only Photoshop. In total, I used 3 layers with fog. The first will be the basis, the second is structure, the third is details of fog. Let’s start with the basics. Create a new layer at the top of layer stack (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N) and use Brush Tool (B) with low Opacity around 10%, Size 100 – 50px and color #e2e2e2. Draw small patches of fog near the stones in the foreground. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur… and blur fog on Radius 5.0 pixels.