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.

Tutorial Resources

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop with the settings below:

Step 2

Open the forest image. Use the Move Tool (V) to drag it into our white canvas:

Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal:

Step 3

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

Step 4

To make some light for the background, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves and increase the lightness:

On this Curves layer mask use a basic, soft brush with black color to erase the left:

Step 5

To make the left darker I used another Curves adjustment layer :

On this Curves layer mask use a soft black brush to erase the right to keep its brightness:

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:

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:

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:

Step 8

Apply Gassian Blur with 4 px to this ground:

On this Filter Mask use a soft black brush to remove the blur effect on the foreground:

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:

Step 10

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

Step 11

I used a Curves adjustment layer to add some light to the ground:

On this Curves layer mask use a soft black brush to erase the left and make the right brighter:

Step 12

Continue using another Curves adjustment layer to darken the left:

Erase the right on this Curves layer mask to keep it brighter:

Step 13

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

Step 14

To add a dreamy effect to this ground, go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color:

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:

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%:

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

Minnie says:

December 15, 2019 at 3:40 am

The color choices are spectacular!! Great JOB!

SELVA says:

February 27, 2017 at 1:07 am

NICE AND GREATE TUTORIAL

Anonymous says:

February 27, 2017 at 1:06 am

NICE GREAT EXPLAINE THE TUTORIAL

Debbie says:

June 4, 2016 at 9:05 pm

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...

Anonymous says:

May 17, 2016 at 12:23 am

hi!could you tell me how to extract a model from its original photo?

CM says:

January 13, 2016 at 4:08 pm

I like this because it shows skills and it shows emotion

D6woSQJPLX70ngt says:

August 28, 2015 at 4:43 am

very good!

Irina says:

August 13, 2015 at 8:38 am

It's my creation http://j-p-g.net/if/2015/08/13/0540766001439480057.jpg
Thanks for this divine lesson.It's a miracle

irina says:

July 30, 2015 at 1:00 pm

The most amazing lesson!!!!! better seen.Thank you for this fab ripping tutorial

Anonymous says:

February 12, 2015 at 11:26 pm

Amazing Tip i like your steps

Trang says:

January 30, 2015 at 10:20 pm

Thank!!!

Anonymous says:

December 15, 2014 at 2:56 pm

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!!!!

Maidul Islam says:

October 17, 2014 at 4:22 am

Amazing. . Very nice,

Maidul Islam says:

September 13, 2014 at 8:29 pm

A very smart approach to explain the things, Ilike your step by step tutorial.

Mireille D says:

September 10, 2014 at 5:27 am

Thank you for this great achievement and tutorial that I had fun to be completed in 2 different versions:
http://cartes-mireilled.eklablog.com/photomontage-scene-de-foret-en-automne-a109215440

Nayan Chowdhury says:

August 26, 2014 at 10:41 am

Emotional model and emotional background scenery very pretty with tutorial.

Rorisang says:

July 30, 2014 at 12:32 am

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

AmikVey says:

July 27, 2014 at 11:59 pm

very good

Gytis says:

July 25, 2014 at 3:48 pm

I will use this one for my girl photo.

Jorge Flores says:

July 24, 2014 at 2:58 pm

Beautiful work. Thanks so much for sharing.

Enamul Kabir Sarker says:

July 23, 2014 at 11:43 am

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

Thiru Kumaran says:

July 22, 2014 at 2:34 pm

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

Ramay says:

July 22, 2014 at 2:48 am

thanks for your tutorial, I really learned a lot