The post 25 Amazing Lanscape Manipulations To Get Your Inspiation Into An Overdrive appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

REQUIREMENTS:

• BACKGROUND HEART IMAGE
• GLOSSY HEART IMAGE
• SMOKE BRUSH
• CUPID BRUSH
• WING BRUSH
• DECORATIVE BRUSH
• HEART BRUSH
• SMALL STAR BRUSH

FINAL PREVIEW:

STEP 1:

Create a new file with preset(web) and resolution 1024X768 so that its easy to send it via an email. Fill it with #9e0104 color.

STEP 2:

Next select a custom shape of #f8f4f6 color and apply it in a following format, adjust the opacity to 80% and fill 25%.

STEP 3:

To make our canvas a little more funky we will introduce some different shades to it for the following result we will use the gradient tool with foreground color as #cc4a03 and background color as #0a0500. Draw a diagonal gradient and change the blending mode of this layer to luminosity.

STEP 4:

As we are making a valentine’s day theme tutorial the presence of hearts is must so next we will introduce some hearts in the picture! For this we are using the hearts stock image, time for a little trick – as the image is having a black background we will be facing a little problem blending it so what we are going to do is we will first Desaturate(ctrl+shift+u) the image by Image->Adjustments->Desaturate and along with it we will invert the colors to by Image->Adjustments->Invert or Ctrl+i but our work is not done here,we will have to change the blending mode to divide opacity to 50%.

STEP 5:

The background looks a little dull we will make it a bit bright by adding a new layer,fill it with #fbfaf9 color. Change the blending mode to overlay and opacity to 65%.

STEP 6:

Next we will introduce the Letter V. In place of V you can introduce the initial of your loved one (you can understand why I am using V here then ) we will be using the Hobo Std font sized at 330pt with White color #fbfaf9.

STEP 7:

We will have to apply various blending options to make the text look more realistic.

• Drop Shadow with the default settings.
• Inner Shadow with blending mode color to #fdf6f8.
• Outer glow with blending mode color to #fdf6f8.
• Inner Glow with blending mode color to white #fdf6f8.

• Bevel and Emboss with highlight mode to screen and color to white #fdf6f8.

The Final result would be as follows:

STEP 8:

We will now be decorating the V:

• We will be attaching wings to it by using the “wings brush set”.

The transparency of the wings is a little high so to make it bright just duplicate the wings layer and merge the two layers together.

STEP 9:

To add a little more drama to the text we will apply the “decorative brush” of #fbfaf9 color with opacity 50%.

STEP 10:

Moving on we will be applying a little glitter on the canvas around the letter as well as on the top right corner using “glitter brushset” of #fbfaf9 color.

STEP 11:

We will now construct a HALO over the flying V giving it an angle look. The feature I am about to use is only present in Photoshop CS5. To make a halo goto 3D->new shape from layer->ring, u will get a grey colored ring.

Now to make the color adjustments we will apply the following blending options:

• Drop shadow, inner shadow, outer glow, inner glow all with default setting only change the color to white.
• Bevel and emboss,color overlay with the following settings:

To add a little more shine on the left side of the halo we will apply the lens flare by Filter-> Render->Lens Flare.

STEP 12:

A little more hearts need to be introduced in the picture so we will use a “glossy heart image” behind V and also at the bottom right corner resizing each image and making it look like a pattern.

STEP 13:

We will now add a glow brush to make it a little more mesmerizing along with the small heart brush over the Halo making it look as it is emitting them.

STEP14:

Next we will add a little smoke using the “smoke brush” under V to give it a misty effect and along with it we will also add a cupid using the cupid brush of #fbfaf9 in our image(because no valentine day photo is complete without the cupid ).

STEP 15:

We are almost done with our image, now we will just add a little text saying HAPPY VALENTINES DAY on the bottom left corner of the canvas in font type as HOBO STD with #fbfaf9 color and blending option as bevel and emboss with the default settings.

This is it,I hope you all liked it.

The post Impress Your Loved One This Valentines With A Custom Made Love Card appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

Final Preview :

First Up grab the following stock pictures :

• The Lady by Jessica Walker
• The Skull by discordiA-stock
• Spotted Metal Texture
• Plain Metal Texture
• Circuit Board
• Cooling Tubes
• Metallic Wires
• Camera
• Lens
• Sextant by Marcus Ranum
  
• Bike

Oh yeah! we do require that many stocks, but its totally worth it.Lets Begin

Brief Description :

This is a overall walk through of the whole process. It begins with face. The first step is to image how the skull inside the face would look. Next we need to make our skull fit into the face. Also we make the skull metallic and then we start working on putting together the eye and other metallic face components. Finally we blend everything together!

Step 1 – Skull Anatomy

Extract the skull from its stock. Next open the face image and try to imagine how the skull would look. This is important as this will be your guide when you will try fitting the skull in the face. Next drag your extracted skull onto the face stock and switch its mode to Overlay/Linear Burn, whichever is more comfortable and get the skull in right alignment and size.

As you will notice, the jawline of the girl is pretty sleek and the jawline of the skull we have is pretty large.Therefore, we need to bring the two in harmony; goto Edit>Free Transform (Ctrl+T) and switch to the warp mode to set everything together. Take good care while fitting the skull in as this is really important since it will govern the overall shape of the whole manipulation.

Step 2 – Displacement Maps

Alright now we need to make the skull metallic and that too a two tone metallic. Here we will we using a very handy technique in photoshop called as displacement maps.Imagine a displacement map as a guide around which your texture is wrapped. This is different from normal texturing techniques as your applied texture does not look flat!

To apply a Displacement Map; save the Skull Image to a new file and call it displacemt.psd. Next desaturate the skull(Ctrl+Shift+U) and go to Select>Color Range. Choose the black color inside the nose cavity using the eye dropper tool and change the fuzziness to 110 and press ok. Some portion of the skull will be selected.

Now from the swatches select 50% gray and use the paint bucket tool with a tolerance 255 to fill in the selected area.Next to smoothen it out , goto Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use 1.5 as the radius and click ok. Hit Save and we are done with displacement.psd

Step 3 – Spotted Metallic Skull

Return to our original file and drag the spotted metal stock onto a new layer just above the skull layer and resize it so that it covers the whole image. Next goto Filter>Distort>Displace. Use the default setting click ok and select the displace.psd as the displacement map.

The evident difference in the spotted metal sheet wont be much but it will get cleared in a little while. Ctrl+ Click on the thumbnail of the skull layer to make a selection of its boundary.

Next Invert the selection(Ctrl+Shift+i) and make sure your current selected layer is the spotted metal and hit delete. This will leave you with a skull shaped spotted metal layer. Switch its blending mode to Soft Light.

Step 4 – The Dual Metallic Tone Skull

Like the above step we will drag the plain metal layer onto a new layer just above the spotted metal layer. Resize it to cover the whole image. Next goto Filter>Distort>Displace, use the default settings and use displace.psd as displacement map. Now make a selection around the skull. Invert the selection(Ctrl+Shift+i) and make sure your current selected layer is the plain metal layer and hit delete. Change the mode of this layer to darken and voila we have a dual metal tone skull!

Also at this point group the Skull, the spotted metal and the plain metal layer into a single group called the Metal Skin.

Step 5 – Eye Cavity

Next we have to make an eye cavity in the skull. To do this make a new layer. Now using the skull’s eye cavity as guide paint a cavity on top of it with a soft round brush with black color.

Also apply the following effect to make it more realistic.

Note : All the adjustment layer used below are applied to the respective layers only in which they are mentioned using the clipping mask option.They are not applied to the overall image.This can be activated by clicking on the option ‘Use previous layer as clipping mask’ while creating a new adjustment layer. Or by pressing alt and click between the adjustment layer and the layer below it.

Step 6. – Mechanical Eye Holder

To make a mechanical eye holder open the sextant image and select the upper portion of the sextant as shown and bring it into our file on a new layer above the eye cavity.

Arrange it as shown and use the burn tool and burn up most of the parts to give a faint reflection feel. Finally group the adjustment and the sextant layer into a group called Mechanical Holder.

Next apply a Brightness/Contrast layer and a Curves adjustment layer to it with following settings.

And here is the effect so far :

Step 7 – The Circuit Board

This one is pretty simple drag the circuit board above the mechanical part on a new layer. Ctrl+Click on the cavity thumbnail to make a selection around it. Now with the circuit board as your current working layer click on mask. This will hide the additional portion of the circuit board visible outside the cavity. Burn it to get a distant reflection finish.

Apply the following Brightness/Contrast and Curves adjustment to it. Group the adjustment and Circuit layer into a group called circuits.

And here is the effect so far:

Step 8 – The Wires

This one is pretty basic step. Extract the wire from the wire stock and bring them on a new layer.

Next Duplicate it three times and arrange it as shown.

Finally apply the following Brightness/Contrast and Curves adjustment layer to each one of them with following settings.

Burn them a little to give them a realistic feel. Group all the three different wires into three different groups.

Step 9 – The Eye Holder

A good place to start off with the eye holder is to select the Camera Lens along with it upper border from the stock image.

Resize it and place at the middle of the cavity .Use the rulers to match the lower portion of the lens with the lower portion of the right eye on the face (Unhide the face layer for a little while doing the placement).

Step 10 – The Eye

Next extract the lights from the lens image and resize it and place it on top of the camera lens.Switch the mode to Overlay.

Apply a Hue/ Saturation adjustment layer with the following settings:

Group the Eye holder,Eye and the adjustment layer into a single group called the Left Eye. And here is the effect so far :

Step 11 – The Jaw Hydraulics

We need to introduce a jaw hydraulic system which will make the jaws of the terminator work. To do this open the bike stock and extract the front suspensions from the image.

Resize them and put then right below the cheek bone and ending at the lower jaw bone.

Step 12 – Blend the Jaw Hydraulics

To blend them in make a small black colored ellipse a little larger then the thickness of the suspension. Position this ellipse near the end of suspension on the lower jaw bone. Ctrl+Click on the suspension to select it and make sure that ellipse is the current selected layer. Rasterize it and hit delete.

To blend the upper portion of the suspension with cheek bone simple add a layer mask to suspension and mask the additional portion visible over the cheek bone. This makes it look like the suspension is connected below the cheek bone and into the lower jaw bone.

Apply a Curves adjustment layer to the suspension layer with following settings to take away it shine and give it a dull finish. Group the Jaw Hydraulics Layer together.

Step 13 – The Cooling Tubes

Extract the tubes and the hole from the tubes image.

Next Rotate and Resize it and position it on the forehead. Make sure that this layer is below the eye cavity layer. Finally also keep in mind that the end of the tubes should come below the eye cavity to give an impression that they are going inside the eye cavity.

Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to the tubes with settings brightness -90 & Contrast +75 to blend them in.

Step 14 – The Cooling Tubes Shadow

Ok now to make the tubes blended we need to paint two kinds of shadows. First one is that of the tubes to do this simply take a soft round brush of diameter a little more then the width of the tubes and on a new layer right below the tubes paint a black shadow with a soft brush, to give them a very slight shadow.

Also make a black circle of approximate size as the hole and push this layer below the hole such that only a little portion of the circle is visible through the top left hand. Now change the blending mode of this layer to Multiply and opacity 70%.Group the cooling tubes layers together.

Alright till the above point we have got a dual metallic tone skull with a robotic eye, hydraulics and cooling tubes. Now we being with the cool part of blending the face with the metal.

Step 15 – Making The Right Selection

The layer containing the Girl face has to come above the Metal Skin Group.

Now we will slowly mask the face to reveal the metal below. To get this right we will do a horizontal cut first. Ctrl+Click on the Skull Thumbnail to select the skull. Next select the polygonal lasso tool and the alt key pressed draw a horizontal line across the face of the face of the girl and draw a polygon around the selection to the right of the line to remove it .

Next press Ctrl+Shift+i and click on mask to mask the left portion revealing metal underneath. We can still see some portion of the cheek in the mask hence we will use a soft brush and manually mask that portion.

Step 16 – Cloning the hair

As you might have noticed masking the bit of cheek left has given us a transparent portion. To fill it up we will select the clone stamp tool. Alt+ Click on the Hairs of Girl and on a new layer we will slowly paint over the transparent portion.

Step 17 – The Torn Edges

This is really fun to make simply select the lasso tool and on the horizontal line make a zigzag selection.

Next goto the face mask and fill the selection with black color. This will give us jagged edge on the divide.

Step 18 – Highlights and Shadows

Select the dodge tool and soft brush with size around 21px and dodge the whole outline of the skin. and apply the following blending effects to the face layer.

And here is the effect so far:

Step 19 – Burn It!

Goto the plain metal layer and use the burn tool and burn right around where the skin meets the metal. This completes our face and metal blending.

Step 20 – The Right Eye

Ok zoom in on the right and select the pupil.On a new layer above the face layer fill the selection with #ff0000. Change the mode to Overlay and we are done!

Alternate Version:

The post Turn Your Photo Into A Terminator Style Robot Using Photoshop appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

This tutorial covers the creation of Prince of Persia style city of Babylon! Landscape manipulations can be tricky especially if you have your mind set on some old architecture. The single biggest problem that you might face lies in finding the right kind of architecture stocks.

Final Preview:

Ok enough background lets get started first up grab the following stocks :

1. Window by DarkBeCky-StOcK
2. Tower by jm-stock
3. Fort by Amor-Fati-Stock
4. City by Amor-Fati-Stock
5. Sky

Note : The stocks used here are the copyrights of the respective owners.

Step 1

Open the window image and very carefully extract the window out of the image. To accomplish this easily; switch to Blue Channel(Ctrl+5) [This channel has the maximum amount of contrast] and use quick selection tool and brush size 90px to make a selection around the window. Once done switch to RGB mode (Ctrl+2).

Next Invert the selection(ctrl+shift+i). Goto Select>Modify>Feather(7px) and Hit delete. This will leave you with a nice window overlooking nothin! In case you are left with some extra bits here and there, simply use the eraser and a small soft brush and erase the extra chunks.

Finally Call this layer Window.

Step 2

Ok next open the tower image. The image is amazing but for our work it has two problems. The first is that in the fourth level in the tower has too many trees in the front and the second being that the color of the tower is different from the rest of the city. We will deal with both issues separately. Start off by switching into an appropriate channel(I selected Blue) and use quick selection tool to select the tower.

Once done, invert the selection(ctrl+shift+i) and hit delete.

Step 3

Next we will tackle the trees, this is a bit tricky we will use the clone stamp tool here. Select clone stamp tool,use Alt+click to mark the cloning point.Mark the cloning point near the left top edge of the window on the third level as shown in the figure.

Next leave alt to switch to the cloning brush, point it to the left top edge of the window on the fourth level and start cloning slowly. Make sure that you don’t warp the lines formed by the bricks as it will make the tower look unrealistic.Once done goto Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal. We flip it to get in alignment the light falling on tower with the rest of the scene.With a little patience and careful painting you will achieve something like this.

Leave the tower like this as of now once we are through with our city blending steps we will work on the color aspects of the tower.

Step 4

Next bring in the fort picture. In this picture we will only remove the sky. The plants will be hidden by the city image. To select the sky in one go; choose magic wand and set tolerance as 50 and click anywhere on the sky. Finally delete it and our fort image is ready to use!

Using the above steps delete the sky from the city image too!

Step 5

Now comes the difficult part of sewing all images into one. To do this efficiently we will start off with the city image. Arrange the city image towards the bottom of the window as shown.

Duplicate this layer and arrange it towards the upper right corner of the window. This completes our basic city layout.

Step 6

Resize and introduce the fort image and arrnage it towards the right of the city image.

It looks good but there is a bit of space left towards the left.To fill the space we need to get two extra Keeps. To accomplish this simply duplicate the fort image and put this towards the left of the base fort image and use the mask tool to hide the extra bits and pieces.Repeat this step one more time to fill the remaining space with one more Keep.

Tip : If you find a little gaps here and there, or you need to hide the trees. Simply use the clone stamp tool to give the keep wall a smooth finish.

Step 7

And now we come to the tower, this is the easiest step of them all just resize and arrange the tower behind the keep.

Thats it! this completes our layout process.

Step 8

In this step will fix the color of the tower to match with the rest of the city. Select the tower layer and goto image>adjustments>match color [In the source select the name of your current PSD file and in layer choose the layer that contains the city image] and use following settings:

Next goto Image>adjustments>Brightness/Contrast and punch in Brightness -> +30 and Contrast -> -15.

This will finally make your tower blend in with the rest of the city.

Step 9

Now we need to give this image an interesting sky. Simply open the sky image, stretch it by around 25% and arrange it as shown.

To fill up the left over space on the top duplicate the sky layer flip it horizontally.

Use a soft medium eraser to blend the two skies together.

Step 10

Before we move onto the light adjustments we need to group all the layer that belong to the city area(All Layers except window and sky layers) and merge them to form a single united image. Next merge the two sky layers together. So we will have a total of 3 working layers now Window, City and Sky! If you want you can leave your manipulation here only as all the basic blending of the architecture is done.

Step 11

Now we will introduce some light adjustments to give it an overall dramatic feel. Goto layer>new adjustment layer>Hue/Saturation and put following setting in the red channel.

We need to have a curve layer adjustment too with above shown. The whole city seems to glow with a yellowish tint as of now.

Step 12

Now above the Sky layer we will introduce a radial gradient from #3e3e3e to #b6ad0c where the darker portion should be behind the tower. This will make the sky glow yellow. Switch the mode of this layer to color and reduce the opacity to 75%.

Step 13

We are almost done, but the city still seems to glow a bit more then the amount of light falling from the sky, therefore select the burn tool with a large radius and burn the whole city layer to make it dark. Next select a smaller radius burn tool and burn the glowing areas a little more till you feel the image is right.

Thats it we are done!

The post Make a Prince Of Persia Style Babylonian Architecture in Photoshop appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

Final Preview:

First up grab these amazing resources, this is all we need to complete this tutorial.

1. Background
2. Smokey Fire Brushes
3. Burnt Texture

STEP 1:

Open a new document of size 1024X768 pixels. Make a new layer(ctrl+shift+n) and fill it with black color. Now insert dungeon image on a new layer and rename it “background“, desaturate (ctrl+shift+u) it,and reduce the opacity to 60%.

STEP 2:

Now import the burnt texture on a new layer, rename it “burnt texture” and desaturate it too, reduce the opacity to 60% and change the blending mode to overlay.

STEP 3:

Create a new layer(ctrl+shift+n) and call it “burnt look“, select a color #d26f0e, fill the layer with this color,set the blending mode to overlay and reduce the opacity to 75%. With completion of this step we will get a burnt look on the background, like it had been on fire recently

STEP 4:

Now we need some red in the image to give it a fiery glow. To do this we will introduce a gradient layer. Create a new layer(ctrl+shift+n) call it “fiery glow” ,With #b87a72 as selected color, apply a radial gradient as shown and reduce the opacity of this layer to 80%.

STEP 5:

Now we come to an interesting point in the tutorial. We will introduce 3D text here. This can be achieved by using various 3D Text programs to write and then import tit into photoshop. Here i have used Xara 3D but you can also use adobe illustrator to achieve the same effect.

STEP 6:

Now we will press (ctrl+click) on the text layer to make a selection around the alphabet.

STEP 7:

Import the burnt texture image once again on a new layer and call it “Burnt Texture Temp“, use the selection tool and drag the above selection of the alphabet over the burnt texture image right click on the image and select Layer via copy and name this new layer as “burnt T”.

STEP 8:

Now set the visibility mode of the “Burnt Texture Temp” layer to off and overlap the “burnt T” layer with the text T layer with that set the blending mode to color burn.

STEP 9:

Now we will give the texts some effects. To do so right click on text layer> choose blending options and use following settings :

• Drop shadow and Inner shadow with the default setting.
• Satin with settings as shown

• And finally Stroke – size 1px, opacity 76% color(black).

Once done we will have something looking like this:

STEP 10:

Now we will work on the Front portion of our alphabet.Select the front portion of the alphabet ( Here I selected it using the magic wand tool) and repeat step 7 for the front face of T, but keep the blending mode to normal this time, name this layer as “front T”.

STEP 11:

We will be applying the following blending options on the “front T” layer

• Drop shadow and Inner shadow with the default settings.

• Satin with following settings :

• Gradient overlay with following settings

After applying the effects we will have a burnt look on T as shown below:

STEP 12:

Next we are going to introduce the shadow on to the text. take a soft round brush with size 100px with 0% hardness with black color and slowly paint the shadow always keeping in mind the direction of light and the perspective of the shadow.

STEP 13:

Here I have introduced another alphabet N by repeating steps from 5 to step12.

STEP 14:

Next we will be adding a little mist to the whole image using the “smoky fire brush”. Simply select the brush and make a new layer and call it “smoke“. Using a light grey shade add smoke and reduce the opacity of this layer to achieve our final result.

Hope you enjoyed it and found it useful! Support us by sharing it with your friends. Also subscribe to our RSS feed for more great stuff!

The post Create a Spooky Mystic 3D Typography appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

The post 40 Smashing Digital Manipulations To Inspire You appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

2. Horror Style Text Effect With Dirt and Splatter

3. Stylish Text Effect

4.Splashing Water Text Effect

5. Fiery 3D Text

6. 3D Typography With Lightning Effects

7. Explosive  3D Text Effect

8. Advanced Texturing For 3D Text

9. 3D Text With Abstract Brush Decoration

10. Advanced 3D Typography In Photoshop

11. Fiery Hell Effect in Photoshop

12. 3D Text Based Desert Scene in Photoshop

13.  Create a Classy Metallic 3D Text Effect

14. Explosive 3D Typographic Effect Using Cinema 4D

15. Make An Elegant Floral 3D Text

16. Kaboom! 3D Text Using 3DS Max

17. Make and Awesome 3D Text Meteor

18. The Transformer Effect

19. Amazingly Textured 3D Text

20.  Colorful 3D Abstract Text Effect

21. 3D Grunge Text With Illustrator and Photoshop

22. Night Club Themed 3D Typography

23.  Glossy 3D Text Using Xara 3D and Photshop

24.  Blending Xara 3D Text in a Cool Wallpaper

25.  Create a Modern 3D Text Effect

The post 25 Beautiful 3D Typography Text Effects in Photoshop appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

Final Preview

Level : Advanced

Time Required : 2 to 3 hours

Resources :

Caster

Fire 1

Fire 2

Skull

Texture

Alright lets begin by creating a new file of 1400x1700px. And fill its background with black color.

Extract The Caster

Open the caster stock now and extract the subject very carefully from the image. The method employed here is to use quick selection tool along with channels.To learn this method of extraction refer to this post.

Once extracted resize the caster, and be sure to hide the lower portion of his legs.

Extract The Fire

Add the Fire 1 stock. To delete the black portion use the Magic Wand to select the black portion, then go to Select>Similar. After this go to select>modify>expand 6px. And finally apply select>modify>feather of 2.2px. Finally hit delete and you will lose all the black portion. Use the same technique to extract the fire from the second stock as well.

Match The Color

Notice that Fire 1 is a more of an orange and Fire 2 is more of a yellow. To match the colors of the two stock so that they blend well together we will make Fire 2 more orange in color. To do this go to Image>Adjustments>Match Color. In the pop up that opens select your PSD file and select the layer that contains Fire 1 and press enter.

Mould Fire Into A Shape

In our design we would like the fire to form a tube kind of thing. To do this replicate the layers and assemble them as you see fit. Use the layer mask, free transform, eraser tool and move tool to assemble.To blend two overlapping layers of fire, set the blend mode of the upper layer to screen. In my case I used five fire images ,four from Fire1 and one from Fire2 and three layer is in screen mode.

As can be seen from the above image I tried to depict that the fire is being release from caster’s left hand. To achieve this I resized two layer and put them in screen blend mode above the caster’s hand.

Tip : When working with co dependent layers always make sure to link all the layers together and keep them in a group of their own.

Add The Skull

Extract the skull from its stock and bring it on Top of the Fire layers. Now go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal . Then press Ctrl+T and resize and rotate the skull on top of the fire. You might also need to use the distort feature to match the perspective.

Blend The Skull

This is the tricky and the most fun part of the whole tutorial. First desaturate the skull by pressing Ctrl+Shift+U and set the blend mode of skull to lighten.You would now be able to see a part of Flame on top of the skull.

Check which of your layers are overlapping the skull and add a layer mask to each one of them.

Now take a soft small brush and black as your color and use the portion of eyes and teeth of the skull as reference to paint over the layer masks of the underlying fire layers.

Finally change the blend mode of skull to vivid light and reduce the opacity to 20%. Once done we will see that the skull portion of the fire image now has distinct eyes and teeth.

We just need to give one final touch up. Add a layer mask to the Skull layer and hide a little rear portion. This makes the blend in complete.

Light Adjustments

So far the image is looking good but the man is not showing any glow from such a close fire. Hence even though it may look okay, it will not be believable. Hence we will now try to match the illumination of man with the fire. To do so simply click on the man layer and go to layer>new adjustment layer> Channel Mixer. Check the “previous layer as clipping mask” option. Now punch in the following setting for Red, Green and Blue Channels.

Now our man looks in conjunction with the illumination.

Add The Background

This is the simplest of all the steps. First Delete the layer with black background.In its place add the texture as the bottom most layer and desaturate it. Don’t worry about the fire for now.

On top of this layer add a new layer and with foreground color as Black and background color as white, go to Filter>Render>Clouds.

Next go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and use the below settings.

Finally blend the cloud layer by switching it to difference mode.

Alternate Version

In this version I have added a cave background from this stock. Also i have taken care of the lightning of the place according to our heroes fireball!

The post Create a Fiery Texture Manipulation With Light Adjustments appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

Preview

Before we start grab these amazing resources :

• Alley
• Cracks
• Vintage Car
• Bottle
• Zombie by Nicole
• Dried Blood Brush Pack

1. Adjust the lighting of the scene

In this layer we will adjust the lightning of the scene and make the contrast a little high to give it a sharp dramatic effect. Go to Image > adjustments > shadow/highlights. On the pop up menu click on ‘Show More Options‘ and add the following settings :

Next we need to add a brightness/contrast layer by clicking on Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Brightness/Contrast.Check ‘Use previous layer to create clipping mask‘ hit OK. Now set Brightness to +50 and Contrast to +100. Similarly, add a ‘Hue/Saturation‘ Layer with clipping mask checked. Here we will be doing a bit of adjustment so follow closely. We need to select different Hues from the drop down and adjust their settings individually without disturbing the master settings.

• Red » Hue 0, Saturation -58, lightness 0

• Yellow » Hue +28, Saturation -18, lightness +21

• Green » Hue -100,Saturation 0,lightness -30

Once done you would have something like this with you.

2. Crack the ground

Add the cracks stock image to the manipulation and desaturate it (Ctrl+Shift+U). We desaturate it as we need only the texture and not its color. After this drag this layer between the brightness layer and the alley layer. Make sure that all the three layers Hue/Saturation, Brightness/Contrast and Crack Layer are all in clipping mask mode for the Alley Layer.

3. Map the cracks to the road

Now press Ctrl+T to enter free transform and right click on the selected portion and select distort.Now modify the perspective such that the crack resembles the shape of the road. You will also need to make it wide. If it becomes wider then the road don’t worry use the eraser tool to remove the extra road. Once done change the crack layer’s blend mode to Overlay.You should have something like this by now.

Tip : To create a clipping mask use Alt+ click between the two layers. The upper layer becomes a clipping mask to the lower layer.

4. Add the Car

Now it time to add the car, the first thing we need to do is extract the car from the background. This should be pretty simple considering the background is totally white. I used the magic wand to select the background and remove it. To check other methods of selecting an object click here.

Now we need to mask the tires and tilt it to the right using the Free Transform (Ctrl+T). Once Tilted move it down till the right most portion of the car touches the road.

Also make sure that the other side of the car is touching the wall so that it looks like it leans of the wall.

5. Match the Car with the Scene

As you might have noticed the car is too bright and doesn’t match the alley. So add a new brightness/contrast adjustment layer with clipping mask option selected. Use the following settings Brightness -100 and Contrast -20. Also we need to add a shadow to the car. For this we will add a layer below the Car layer and use a soft brush of 20px and paint a horizontal shadow. Notice how the shadow climbs the wall and paint it accordingly; a little on the wall to complete the leaning effect. Once done change the blend mode of shadow layer to overlay and reduce the opacity to 70%. Group all the car layers in a group called Car and you will have something like this.

6. Put some Bottles.

We will be adding two bottles one vertical and one horizontal to give a extra feel of a dirty alley. To do so first extract the bottle and place two bottles opposite to car.

Mask the unnecessary portion of the horizontal bottle using Layer Mask. Add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer to the bottle layers too. Use following settings Brightness -50 and Contrast 0.

Add a shadow layer below the bottle layer and using a 3px soft brush paint a thin layer below the horizontal bottle. Change the blend mode of the layer to overlay and opacity to 50%.

7. Paint the walls with dried blood

Open the dried blood brush pack and add a splatter to the left hand wall with #43110e color . Adjust the perspective by using free transform>distort and add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer with clipping mask on and following settings brightness -21 and contrast +28. Put these layers into a single group called ‘Wall Marks’.

8. Spill some dried blood on the road

As in the above step we need to follow the same step here with same settings. Only difference will be that the splatter should be rather large since we need the hand of the zombie to ultimately fuse into the blood pool.Put these layer into a single group called ‘Alley Marks’.

9. Extract the zombie

Now we come to the difficult part of extracting the zombie from it stock. To learn how to extract the zombie refer to this tutorial. I used the quick selection tool with varying sizes along with channels.

Once done add the zombie to the front portion of the road above the ‘Alley Marks’ group. Adjust the size of the zombie according to whatever suits, and adjust the body so that its left hand comes right on top of the splatter.

10. Scar the zombie

To do this we need to open the brush pack and choose appropriate brushes to add to the body. I added an elongated scar to the left hand and one to the head and the other hand each. Keep the color of the brush a little dark, I used #210c0c. We also need to blend the left hand of zombie with blood puddle I used #552f2a and a small soft brush and slowly painted over the hand and fused it with the puddle. Make sure that all the scars are on their own layer.

11. Make the zombie look scary

To make the zombie a little more scary we will make it a shade darker.We will first adjust the shadow/highlights of the zombie by selecting the zombie layer and clicking on image>adjustments>shadow/highlights and use the following settings.

Next add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer to the zombie with following settings brightness -45 and contrast +100. Make sure that the layer and all subsequent scar layers till the zombie layer are used as clipping mask as shown.

You will now have something like this:

12. Make those eyes Red

To make the eyes more fleshy and scary select the outline of the eye using pen tool or the lasso tool. Then fill this selection with white color and reduce the opacity of this layer to 20% and the blending mode to softlight. Next select the eye balls using the same technique and make them red in color. Make the blend mode as Hard Light and reduce opacity to 50%. That should definitely make the eyes pop!

13. Give zombie its own shadow

Right the zombie is not looking real that is because its not casting any shadow! To cast a shadow simply Ctrl+Click on the thumbnail of the zombie layer to select the outline of the extracted zombie. Now with the silhouette of the zombie selected create a new layer and fill it with black. Bring the opacity down to 60% and the blend mode to multiply. Now go to edit>transform>flip vertical. Hit Ctrl+T and select distort after right clicking. Now match the perspective of the shadow with the ground.

14. Introduce some Smokey Effect

Finally to finish the manipulation on top with a tinge of smokey effect add a layer to the top with rendered clouds. To do this make a new new layer(Ctrl+Shift+N) and select the foreground and background colors as white and black. Now go to filter>render>clouds. Reduce the opacity of this layer to 50% and blend mode to overlay. Finally add a layer mask and hide the portions of cloud visible on the upper portions of the walls. And we are Done!

The post Make A Scary Alley Scene With A Zombie In Photoshop appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.

1. To extract the dancer from its background we need to make sure that the contrast between the background and the dancer is high.  Move to the channels palette shown below to choose from different channels.

2. Next goto the channels and check each channel separately, the shortcuts are Red – Ctrl+1, Blue - Ctrl+2, Green – Ctrl+3 , RGB – Ctrl+~.The objective here is to find a channels that gives the maximum amount of variation of the Dancer as compared to its background. Hence in this case we will choose the Blue Channel. . Make sure that only one channel is active at a time.

3. Select the quick selection tool and the brush size as 60px and  start selecting the background. This will make a rough Raw selection around the Dancer.

4. To fine tune the selection alter the brush size and make finer selections. I have marked the areas that need finer tuning with Red Circles. The brush sizes that i have used ranged frm 1px to 3 px depending on the thickness of the object to be selected.

5. Once selected make sure that all channels are visible and the currently selected channel is RGB. Then revert to the layer view with the Dancer Layer selected and your selection from the channels view still intact. Hit delete and voila! You will now be left with a perfectly selected dancer with somewhat jagged edges.

6. To give a smooth finish goto select>modify>feather. Put 1 px and hit OK. Now press ctrl+shift+i to invert the selection and hit delete. So now you will be left with a curvier dancer with smoother finish. Here is what my dancer looked like.

Additional Tip :

You can also fine tune your selection in the quick  selection mode by clicking on refine edge.  And to remove any unwanted parts use the eraser tool.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learnt how to extract objects quickly and precisely.

The post Extract Any Object From An Image Using Channels appeared first on Tutsnow - Photoshop Tutorials.