How to Create an Elf Photo Manipulation with Adobe Photoshop

Step 44

Open the ears image and take the ear only to add to the left ear of the existing model and convert it to a Smart Object. Use Ctrl+T with the Warp mode to tweak the ear to be longer to make it look like an elf's ear.

Add a mask to this layer and use a hard black brush to hide the lower of the ear .

Step 45

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and fill in the following settings to make the ear sharper.

Duplicate this layer and flip it horizontally and move it to the right ear.

Step 46

Create a group for these ear layers and make a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to desaturate the ears:

Make a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to decrease the contrast of the ears:

Add a Curves adjustment layer to increase the light on the upper of the ears. Paint on the lower to keep its brightness.

Step 47

Create a new layer on top of the layers and a small brush with the color #e6d4ce to paint the missing hair for the model.

Make a new layer and use a lighter brush's color (#f3e0da) to paint some flying hair for the head.

Step 48

Create a group for the hair layers and use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to desaturate the hair.

Make a Photo fFilter adjustment layer and pick the color #0cdbca.

Add a Curves adjustment layer to decrease the light on the middle of the hair part. Paint on the outer or any areas you feel too dark.

Make a new layer and use a small brush with the color #a4e9a9 to paint more flying hair on the outer of the headl to fit the light and color of the background.

Step 49

Create a new layer on top of the layers and use a small brush with the color #d1cdd3 to paint on her eyebrows to give some fantasy feel for the model.

Make a new layer below the arrows' group and use a small black brush the opacity about 30% to paint shadow the stripe on the shoulder.

Step 50

Create a Gradient Map adjustment layer on top of the layers and pick the colors #e38691 and #30653f. Change this layer mode to Soft Light 50%.

Make a Selective Color adjustment layer and change the White settings:

Create a Curves adjustment layer to enhance the contrast of the middle of the background a little. The selected areas show where to paint on the layer mask.

Step 51

Add a new layer and use a soft brush with the color #97afa8 to paint on some parts of the hair to correct their color. Alter this layer mode to Color 50%.