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First, I’d like to thank Joubert Quentin a.k.a hybrid-creation for allowing me to create this tutorial based on his image, Your Skull is Red. You can see his portofolio in DeviantArt or his personal site. Before we start, take at look at the image we are about to create below.
In this tutorial we will learn how to create selection, adjusting color, and adding depth to image.
For this tutorial, we will need these images:
We’ll start by cutting this man from his background. For this type of selection, I prefer to use the manual way, path. From paths panel create new path then using pen tool draw path around the man. As you can see i don’t care much about his face because we will remove it later.
Once we’re done creating path, hit ctrl+Enter to change it to a selection. Press ctrl+J to duplicate the selection to a new layer. You can also do this by selecting menu Layer > New > Layer via Copy. To help focus on the man, hide Background by clicking its eye icon.
To remove his face we can just use an eraser.
Now, we need to create his bottom hat. To do this we must draw manually using clone tool. Activate clone tool and check Sample All Layers. This option allow us to clone on a separate layer and keep the original picture safe. Then create a new layer. With clone tool sample a similar color from his hat by alt+click it.
With clone tool, draw his bottom hat. This might take a while, I spend 10-15 minutes for this. To keep it natural I suggest you to use different clone source every time you click.
Using lasso tool, create ellipse selection underneath his hat and fill it with black.
Add Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to give it a soft realistic shadow.
We need to manually draw his back collar. The step is a bit similar to what we do when creating bottom part of his hat. Create a selection in collar shape, sample color from his front collar, then draw it directly with brush tool. To avoid flat color we must use many color source from his front collar.
Draw shadow inside his collar and add another Gaussian Blur.
Now we’re done with this man. Select all (ctrl+A), click Edit > Copy Merged (ctrl+shift+C). In our new background paste the man (ctrl+V) and resize it (ctrl+T). See image below for reference.
We still need to fix lighting on the man. To do this, we will use non-destructive burning and dodging. First, alt+click New Layer icon. In the dialog box select Use Previous, Mode: Overlay, and Fill with Overlay.
See picture below! The light source is behind the man so his back must be lighter than his front. To fix this, paint with burn tool to make it darker and dodge tool to make it lighter.
Here’s what we see if the layer is in Normal blend mode.
Off course this man must have shadow. We know that the light source is behind him, so the shadow must be in front of him. Duplicate the man layer and hit ctrl+T. Hold ctrl and move its corner until it lies on the ground.
We don’t want to see his twin lying on the ground right? We want his shadow.
So, here’s the trick. Hit D, this will change foreground color to black. Then hit shift+alt+delete, this will fill layer with foreground color (in our case, black).
We still need to focus on the detail. As you can see below, cane’s shadow moves a little and there’s a hole between his feet. I fix this by doing minor transformation and painting with black.
Add Gaussian blur to create a soft realistic shadow.
Farthest shadow need to be more blurry. So, select those part, soften the selection with Feather (Select > Modify > Feather), and another Gaussian Blur. Here’s a tip: because we’ve just perform a Gaussian Blur we can just hit ctrl+F to repeat it again. If you want to use different radius use ctrl+alt+F.
Add layer mask and add black to white linear gradient to make the shadow fades away.
Selecting the water tower with path is not a good idea. You’ll get frustrated doing it. The easiest and smartest way is using color information in channel. Our image is in RGB, that’s Red, Green, and Blue. The water tower stands in front of a clear blue sky. So, the sky will be very visible in Blue channel. Now, I want you to duplicate Blue Channel by dragging it to the new channel icon.
Add Levels (ctrl+L) with this setting.
You can see that the sky has magically disappear. Try that with pen tool!
Some part of the water tower is turning white. We can fix it easily by painting it with black.
Here’s the basic principle of masking: “White reveals, Black conceals.” We want to select the water tower, not the sky. So, the sky has to be black and the water tower has to be white. Wait! Our image is completely wrong. That’s easy, just hit ctrl+I to invert it.
Ctrl+click blue copy channel to convert it to a selection. Copy the image and paste it behind our faceless man.
You might notice that the there’s a small part of the sky in the water tower. Here’s one easy way to fix it. Ctrl+click water tank layer. Contract selection by 1 px (Select > Modify > Contract). Click add layer mask icon.
Here’s the result.
Fix the lighting with non-destructive dodging and burning. We have done this in step 11.
It’s time add depth to this image. Cut one of the hat collection from old top hat set. Paste it and place it near the edge of the canvas. Hit ctrl+T and rotate it to give a more dynamic movement.
Give it a Gaussian Blur. Because this hat is near us, we’ll give it a big radius.
Add another hat and give each different radius depends on its position.
Dont forget to give shadow to the water tower. The step here is similar to what we did when creating the man’s shadow. Duplicate water tower layer, fill it with black, transformation, add Gaussian blur, and fading it with gradient mask layer.
Again, don’t forget to add shadow for those hats.
I want to add more blue to the sky. For this, I add adjustment layer Channel Mixer on top of all layers with these settings.
Paint everything with black except the bright sky in top right. Now, only that part is affected by the Channel Mixer.
To add more contrast add adjustment layer Levels with this setting.
Paint everything with black except the faceless man.
Finally, I want to make this picture warmer. Add an adjustment Layer Photo Filter with Warming Filter (85), Density 25%.
And here’s what we have now. I hope you like the final effect. If you have better tips about the technique used here I’d love to hear it.
To help you learn this tutorial you can download the psd file here.
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Mohammad Jeprie is a blogger, author, and graphic designer from Indonesia. He is the creative mind behind DesainDigital. You can find him in DeviantArt, Facebook, and Twitter.
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 20:02
Hi Mohammad,
That is fantastic!!! What a great tutorial, I’ll probably wear my scrolling feature out trying to learn how to do it!! I really like the effects of the gaussian blur. Makes things so much more realistic. Really enjoyed. Thanks for sharing such a great process.
Sunday, July 31st, 2011 21:25
very very nice……..!!
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 09:38
Wow that is awesome. If I had these kind of skills I could start creating my own images instead of spending hours on the web trying to find one similar to what I want for my blog posts. I am not very familiar with photo software. I have Gimp, but can’t do much with it. Could I do something like this using Gimp?
Also, can you tell me if you are using a plugin for that pink share box or was that something you custom coded into your theme? I have been searching for a good plugin that will give me a similar look and style to that.
Thanks.
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 13:39
cool piece- keep up the great work
Thursday, April 15th, 2010 23:52
A great example of pure magic.:) Thanks very much.
Friday, March 19th, 2010 18:47
the invisible man! cool idea and very nicely done… thanks for the tutorial
Friday, March 19th, 2010 11:40
Beautiful work ! I like the idea and the result is very very good ! thanks for the tut
Thursday, March 18th, 2010 10:07
Man, that looks hard! No wonder I never succeeded as a photo manipulator. Nice tutorial, btw. I’ll be sure to try it when I have plenty of time. This might take me 3 weeks to settle!
Friday, March 19th, 2010 13:01
3 weeks? That’s crazy. You still have to eat and sleep right? Let’s make it 2 months. :)
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 17:06
Great tutorial. Very thorough, simple and above all effective! Keep the good work coming!
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 15:15
scary… but great tutorial :) you can learn many other things also. excellent
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 18:22
Yeah scary huh. Reminds me of an old horror movie.
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 19:30
Thumbs up Jeprie. Great Tut.:) Glad to have you in team.:)
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 15:25
Great tutorial….nice explanations and a nice finished product. THX!
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 14:37
Mohammad big appreciation from my side as well, really high quality tutorial with well explained and easy techniques used to achieve this amazing effect and outcome!
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 13:03
Thanks again. Nice to hear that the techniques used here is quite similar to yours.
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 02:30
Cool tutorial. Thanks for putting this together.
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Logobird
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 02:30
Cool tutorial. Thanks for putting this together.
Saad Bassi
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 19:30
Thumbs up Jeprie. Great Tut.:) Glad to have you in team.:)
lava360blog
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 15:15
scary… but great tutorial :) you can learn many other things also. excellent
Mohammad Jeprie
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 18:22
Yeah scary huh. Reminds me of an old horror movie.
JC
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 15:25
Great tutorial….nice explanations and a nice finished product. THX!
Nickio15
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 11:10
great tutorial !! ++++++++++
Mohammad Jeprie
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 13:05
Thanks.
Mohammad Jeprie
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 13:03
Thanks again. Nice to hear that the techniques used here is quite similar to yours.
Dainis Graveris
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 14:37
Mohammad big appreciation from my side as well, really high quality tutorial with well explained and easy techniques used to achieve this amazing effect and outcome!
Mohammad Jeprie
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 17:12
Thank you. Glad to hear that you like it.
DesignTutr
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 17:06
Great tutorial. Very thorough, simple and above all effective! Keep the good work coming!
Dila.13
Thursday, March 18th, 2010 10:07
Man, that looks hard! No wonder I never succeeded as a photo manipulator. Nice tutorial, btw. I’ll be sure to try it when I have plenty of time. This might take me 3 weeks to settle!
Mohammad Jeprie
Friday, March 19th, 2010 13:01
3 weeks? That’s crazy. You still have to eat and sleep right? Let’s make it 2 months. :)
Damon Day
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 09:38
Wow that is awesome. If I had these kind of skills I could start creating my own images instead of spending hours on the web trying to find one similar to what I want for my blog posts. I am not very familiar with photo software. I have Gimp, but can’t do much with it. Could I do something like this using Gimp?
Also, can you tell me if you are using a plugin for that pink share box or was that something you custom coded into your theme? I have been searching for a good plugin that will give me a similar look and style to that.
Thanks.
yahya
Sunday, July 31st, 2011 21:25
very very nice……..!!
Ann
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 20:02
Hi Mohammad,
That is fantastic!!! What a great tutorial, I’ll probably wear my scrolling feature out trying to learn how to do it!! I really like the effects of the gaussian blur. Makes things so much more realistic. Really enjoyed. Thanks for sharing such a great process.
g3niuz
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 13:39
cool piece- keep up the great work
impotenta
Thursday, April 15th, 2010 23:52
A great example of pure magic.:) Thanks very much.
PSDDude
Friday, March 19th, 2010 11:40
Beautiful work ! I like the idea and the result is very very good ! thanks for the tut
john
Friday, March 19th, 2010 18:47
the invisible man! cool idea and very nicely done… thanks for the tutorial
Gordonpetr
Friday, March 26th, 2010 18:19
Hi.
Very nice and useful tutorial! thank you! :)