Hello all!
For Halloween I decided to throw a pretty nifty little pic together and show you how to make it, which I have named “Vanished.” This Photoshop Tutorial or Photoshop Lesson isn’t meant completely for beginners. This photoshop tutorial really assumes you know your way around photoshop but I try to step by step it. However, this is not completely me holding your hand. =)
First things first: open the picture. You can download a zip file of the images we will be working with here. This also includes my PSD file so you can see what I masked in the sections where I give you creative control.
Now open the image of Jen and duplicate the original layer. You do this by going to Layer -> Duplicate Layer. If the option is grayed out, you may need to unlock your original layer. Double click on it and then click on and it will unlock it.
Rename your new duplicated layer “unsharp_mask” (to rename a layer, double click on it’s name). Then click Filter->Sharpen->Unsharp Mask and use the settings:
Amount: 99%
Radius: 56%
Threshold: 13 Levels
Now create a new layer (Layer->New Layer). Name the layer “eye” and then select the paintbrush tool (B on your keyboard) and with a white brush, paint over her eye. Then set this layers blending mode to Overlay.
Create another new layer and name it “hair.” Use a black brush to paint over the visible edges of her hair so it is all black. We don’t really want her to be seperated from the background.
Now hit Layer -> Merge Visible. This will flatten our image.
Now duplicate this layer and name it displacement. Click Filter -> Distort -> Displace. Leave the settings at their default and click OK and select the file displacement.psd included in the zip file. Set this layers blending mode to Hard Light and click Layer -> Layer Mask -> Reveal All and with a black brush, paint over her face and the edges of her shoulders.
Time to start coloring the image! Whenever possible, use adjustment layers to color an image. It’s a great non-destructive habit to get into.
So click Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Brightness and Contrast. Set the brightness to 28 and the contrast to 12.
Next, click Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Color Fill and fill it with color #23455e and set the blending mode to Exclusion.
Now click Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Levels and set the shadow input level to 65, the midtone level to 0.87 and the highlight to 147.
Now for my favorite coloring method, the Gradient Map! Click Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map and at 0%, set a stop for #112236. At 20%, set a stop for #254760. At 80%, set a stop for #b9bbc7 and then finally at 100% set a stop for #e6eaf3.
For the next step, you are going to repeat this 3 times for each one of these boxes. Just first draw the rectangle similar to what I have, make a new layer and with a soft white brush, paint along the left side of the box. Then set the blending mode to overlay, add a mask and with a black brush, click at the bottom and the top of the line to make it get wider in the middle. Do this for each rectangle.
Now open the file bokeh.jpg, copy it into a new layer on your document and transform it to fill the canvas. Then hit filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur and set the angle to -45 and the distance to 398. Set this layer to Color Dodge and adjust it’s position to where you like it.
Open the file streaks.jpg and copy/paste it into a new layer on your document, make it fill the screen and set its blending mode to Screen. Then hit layer -> Add Layer Mask -> Reveal All and with a black brush, paint away the parts you don’t like.
Last step! Create a new layer and with a soft brush with a color of #ff36bf, paint around the edges of her body or face. Set the blending mode to Overlay and there you have it!
I hope you all enjoyed this. If you have any questions, feel free to add me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/ihateartists and hit me up.
Have a safe weekend, everyone.
