Photoshop Tutorials

Create a Photo Manipulation of an Emotional Dancer in a Forest

Create a Photo Manipulation of an Emotional Dancer in a Forest
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create a scene of an emotional dancer in a forest. You'll learn how to combine and blend different stock photos in a cohesive scene, adjust color, use layer masks, manage lighting, work with groups, and more.

What you'll be creating

We'll start this tutorial by creating an autumn forest scene from two stock photos. Then we'll adjust color, shade and light as well as make a dreamy effect. Later we'll add the model and do some retouch to match her with the scene. After that, we'll use two stocks to create a lighting effect. Finally, we'll use some adjustment layers to boost the final result. You'll need Photoshop CS3 or newer to follow this tutorial.
dance51-final

Tutorial Resources

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop with the settings below:
dance1

Step 2

Open the forest image. Use the Move Tool (V) to drag it into our white canvas:
dance2
Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal:
dance2a

Step 3

To create some depth to the background , go to Filter > Blur > Gassian Blur and set the radius to 6 px:
dance3

Step 4

To make some light for the background, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves and increase the lightness:
dance4
On this Curves layer mask use a basic, soft brush with black color to erase the left:
dance4a

Step 5

To make the left darker I used another Curves adjustment layer :
dance5
On this Curves layer mask use a soft black brush to erase the right to keep its brightness:
dance5a

Step 6

Open the ground image. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+Option/Alt+Shift+N to make a new layer. Active the Clone Tool (S) and use it to remove some branches on the ground:
dance6

Step 7

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Option/Alt+Shift+E to merge the background layer and the clone one. Move the merged layer into our main document:
dance7
Click the second button at the bottom of the Layers Panel to add a mask to this ground layer. Use a soft black brush to remove the trees and blend the ground with the background:
dance7a

Step 8

Apply Gassian Blur with 4 px to this ground:
dance8
On this Filter Mask use a soft black brush to remove the blur effect on the foreground:
dance8a

Step 9

To change the color of the ground, I used an adjustment layer with Clipping Mask. Go to Layer > New Adjutment Layer > Hue/Saturation:
dance9
dance9a

Step 10

Continue changing the ground color with a Color Balance adjustment layer:
dance10
dance10a

Step 11

I used a Curves adjustment layer to add some light to the ground:
dance11
On this Curves layer mask use a soft black brush to erase the left and make the right brighter:
dance11a

Step 12

Continue using another Curves adjustment layer to darken the left:
dance12
Erase the right on this Curves layer mask to keep it brighter:
dance12a

Step 13

The ground needs some vibrant color so I used a Selective Color adjustment layer to do it:
dance13
dance13a

Step 14

To add a dreamy effect to this ground, go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color:
dance14
Lower the opacity of this layer to 30%, also use a soft black brush to remove this effect on the higher part and reduce it on the ground:
dance14a
dance14a[1]

Step 15

To add some mist to the whole scene, I made a new layer, used a soft brush with white color to paint on the right of the pic. Change the mode of this layer to Soft Light 50%:

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24 comments on “Create a Photo Manipulation of an Emotional Dancer in a Forest”

  5. I'm only new to composites and just came across this by a fluke. Just what I was looking for to learn and practice.
    Thanks so much...

    Reply

  13. Thanks. Your tutorial is great as well as the other is. Keep going. But you didn't say how you removed the model from it's original background!!!!

    Reply

  18. Wow , very inspiring Shows that I still have a long way to go Thanks though for sharing your brilliant work

    Reply

  22. I am highly inspired by your tutorials.As a learner,I found it very helpful.Thank you very much.

    Reply

  23. Looks like something I should try now. Thank you for the step by step Tutorial. I’ve book marked your post. :) Keep Going!!!

    Reply

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