How to Create a Gothic Photo Manipulation of a Brave Warrior in Photoshop

Step 15

Drag, drop and place “Smoke stock 25”. Transform it as is shown. Then, click on white canvas next to this layer and mask with big soft brush remove sharpen edges.

Step 16

Add new Adjustment layer with “Invert” (Layer > New Adjustment layer > … or marked shortcut). Click on created layer with right mouse button, then choose “Create clipping mask”.

Step 17

Back to “Smoke stock 25”. Change blending mode of this layer to Multiply. Darker parts will be visable, lighter will be removed.

Step 18

Back to layer with “Smoke stock 20”. Hold ctrl and click on layer with “Smoke stock 20” and on clipping layer with Invert. Drag it and drop to “New layer symbol”.

Step 19

Drag duplicated content on the top of layers. If you need, you can mask parts of smoke by clicking on white canvas next to this layer and using big soft brush.

Step 20

Place and mask “Nordic warrior” stock. Character have to be bigger, because he is standing closer to viewer than monk. See the red guides. For masking character, use small brush. Why not Magic wand tool? Shape will be really rough and edgy. For bigger precision use brush on mask.

Step 21

Try to fit character to background (just a little). Add new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment layer > … or marked shortcut). Click on created layer with right mouse button, then choose “Create clipping mask”. Set it as is shown.

Repeat this step, but use Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. You will gently change tint of stock.

Step 22

Add new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment layer > … or marked shortcut). Click on created layer with right mouse button, then choose “Create clipping mask”. Set it as is shown.

Click on white canvas next to this layer and mask with big soft brush middle part of character – see thumbnail. Leave only edges on top of stock – see thumbnail. By doing this you can make glowing lights on the character.

Step 23

Add new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment layer > … or marked shortcut). Click on created layer with right mouse button, then choose “Create clipping mask”. Set it as is shown.

Mask center of the character. Click on white canvas next to this layer and mask it with big soft brush. You can easly make lights on model. See thumbnail.

Step 24

It’s time to make highlights. Add new layer (Layer > New > Layer …, Shift + Ctrl + N or marked shortcut). Click on created layer with right mouse button, then choose “Create clipping mask”. Pick soft round brush, around 30 px. Set its opacity to 50%. Pick light-blue color (92b2cf) and draw highlights on model.

When you are done, just change blending mode of this layer to Linear dodge (Add) and decrease its opacity to around 33%.

Step 25

Now you are done with models. You should take care of whole background. Add new layer (Layer > New > Layer …, Shift + Ctrl + N or marked shortcut). Choose big soft round brush and set its opacity to around 25% and color to navy blue – #171c25 (for lighter shadows use #596571 color). I’ll show you, how I’ve done that at normal (100%) opacity, for easier effect. Draw shadows on each of the trees, shadows below characters (remember about perspective). Don’t be afraid to make strong shadows – if it’s your vision, do it! :)

See the result of shadow painting (as yours should looks like this).