This Tutorial is from Asian designer knows as Jayan Saputra

In this tutorial, we’ll manipulate a picture so it looks like a woman burning in flames. The idea behind this manipulation was to create a nice looking illustration, only by using simple techniques and tools such as the Brush tool and Warp command. I hope you enjoy the tutorial and try it with your own stock imagery.

Final Image Preview

Below is the image you will create in this tutorial. Want access to the full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.

Step 1

For this project, I used two nice images that suits for the manipulation; image1, image2. I would like to thank the author of this two great pictures, which is thiquinho and huibidos from sxc.hu. And before we continue with the steps, I need to inform you that this tutorial is written using Photoshop CS3.

Step 2

Let’s start with image1, open and duplicate this image by using the Image > Duplicate command from the menu bar. In the Duplicate Image dialog box, you can name it anything you like, but to follow this tutorial reference, name it “PassionFire” and hit OK. By doing this, we kept the original image. Be sure to save.

Step 3

With the “PassionFire” image active, duplicate the “background” layer. Set the foreground and background color to black and white by pressing D on the keyboard. Click the “background” layer again and fill it with the foreground color ~ which is set to black. See the images below.

Step 4

Reactivate “Layer 1,” then press Command + Shift + U to apply desaturate command. Now invert the color by pressing Command + I. Your image should look like a film’s negative now.

Step 5

Duplicate “Layer 1,” then apply the find edges filter from Filter > Stylized > Find Edges. Next, invert the color by pressing Command + I and change the Blending Mode to Hard light. There, your image now has contrast white line and a very dark background.

Step 6

To give the white line more contrast, duplicate the “Layer 1″ copy then change the Blending Mode to Screen.

Step 7

Now we move to the second image. Drag image2 into “PassionFire” document image window using the Move tool. If the Paste profile mismatch dialog appears, just click OK to fix it.

Step 8

The fire image from “image2″ should be in “Layer 2″ now. Change its Blending Mode to screen, this will hide all the black colors in “Layer 2.” If done right, your image should be similar to the one below.

Step 9

Duplicate “Layer 2″ by pressing Command + J. Make sure you use the Screen Blending mode, same as the original “Layer 2.” Next, make “Layer 2″ become invisible by hiding it from the layers panel.

Step 10

Click the “Layer 2 copy” to make it active, then use the Free Transform command ( Edit > Free Transform) to rotate and resize the fire image like shown below. Don’t forget to press Enter when you’re done transforming.

Step 11

Still in the same layer, now use the warp command (Edit > Transform > Warp) to bend the fire image - so it following the hair flow. Press Enter when done. See the example below as a reference.

Step 12

If you feel the result is not quite good enough, simply use the Liquify filter to fix it. I assume you already know how to use the liquify filter; the Forward Warp tool and Twirl Clockwise tool is the only tool I used to get this result (see image below).

Step 13

Duplicate the “Layer 2″ copy, then use the Free Transform command to resize and rotate the fire image in the current layer. Don’t forget to reposition the fire image too. Once you get this composition (see image below), hit Enter.

Step 14

Repeat the previous process to get the hair covered with fire. Just duplicate and modify the layer until you get all the hair part covered. If needed, use the Liquify Filter again. The end result of this process should look like the image below, notice how many layers are used.

Step 15

Okay, now activate “Layer 2″ and make it visible again. Then Change the Blending Mode to Vivid Light. This step will colorize only the white line in the layer below it.

Step 16

Still in “Layer 2,” apply the Free Transform command to resize and rotate the fire image like shown below. The purpose is to cover up the girl’s body and hair with the fire texture. Press Enter when you’re done transforming.

Step 17

We’re gonna blur the fire image in “Layer 2,” To do so, apply the Gaussian Blur filter from the Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur menu. Fill the Radius around 10 to 15 pixels, then click OK when done. Blurring the fire image will cause its texture to blend smoother with the layer below it.

Step 18

Now add a layer mask to “Layer 2.” Then use a soft round Brush tool with Opacity at 100%. Set the brush size according to your need, then just mask until the fire outside becoming hidden. See the process below.

Step 19

Sure we will remove the white line shown in the image (marked in red rectangle below). First, add a new blank layer below “Layer 2.” Then simply paint it with black using the soft round brush tool.


Step 20

Now go to the top most layer (mine is: “Layer 2 copy 6″), add two adjustment layers which is Hue/Saturation and Brightness/Contrast. Careful not to change the layer adjustment order, or the color effect will be wrong. Below you can see the setting I used to complete this step, also pay attention to the adjustment layer order.

By adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, we unify all colors. The Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer brings more color contrast and makes sure the image color’s looks like real fire.

Step 21

I’m sure you notice the fire sparks effect. I create it using the Brush tool with this simple setting. No special brush needed, but if you have one that will be useful then feel free to use it. Below you can see all the settings I used within the Brush palette, of course you can change the setting as you like. Just make sure the brush spatter enough and vary the size.

Step 22

Now to use the modified brush, create a new blank layer below the adjustment layers ( mine is named “Layer 4″). Choose 50% gray from the swatches palette, then you can start creating the fire sparks. Remember not to be monotone, resize the brush size if needed. I start using a big sized brush, then reduce it to smaller size (you can change brush size faster by pressing the bracket keys on the keyboard ).

If you’re not sure how to do this steps, just imagine where and how the fire sparks will flow if it was real fire. For me, imagining stuff is very helpful.

Step 23

To make it more interesting, create a new layer and change the Blending Mode to Screen. Then use a normal soft round brush (not the one we modified earlier), with an Opacity of 50%. Just click in the part of body, neck, and hair. I’m not sure how to explain this, but you can see the difference between the above and below images.

Conclusion

And that’s all of it! Hope you learned something new and had fun. You can view the final image below or view a

After editing:

Before:

Open background image and place your photo into a new layer.

In order to remove superfluous areas, choose Rectangular Marquee Tool , create selection.
Go to Image > Crop.

Extract an object from its background.
Choose Filter > Extract.
Select the Edge Highlighter tool , and draw to define the edge of the head. Drag so that the highlight slightly overlaps both the foreground object and its background. Use a large brush to cover wispy, intricate edges where the foreground blends into the background, as with hair.
Define the foreground area by doing the following:

If the object has a well-defined interior, select the Fill tool . Click inside the object to fill its area

Choose Filter >Liquefy.
Modify a contour of hair, eyebrows and other using Forward Warp tool

Pushes pixels forward as you drag.

In order to increase hair volume, select the hair segment (use smooth selection), copy and paste it into a new layer.

____________________________________________________________

Transform hair segment using free transformation.

Merge two layers: portrait photo and hair segment.
Disguise sites of a joint of hair using Dodge tool and hair brush. Download them here.

Retouch interrupting sites of hair using Smudge tool

In order to make hair bright and light do following:

• Click the Quick Mask mode button in the toolbox.
• Choose soft round brush and fill hair area.
• Click the Quick Mask again.
• Choose Select > Inverse selection.

Fill selection with carroty light color.

Choose Soft Light Blending Mode and Opacity 49% for this layer.

________________________________________________________________

Duplicate the previous layer.
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (4-5).
Apply Dodge Color Blending Mode Opacity 11%.

Add shine to light sites of hair using Dodge Tool.

Choose Smudge Tool and small soft brush for it.

Extend eyelashes using this tool.

In order to make eyes bright and green do following:
Create smooth round selection fill it with color, which you want in a new layer.

_______________________________________________________________
Apply Overlay Blending mode and Opacity 60%

Duplicate the previous layer.
Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (3,5)
Erase central part and apply Screen Blending Mode, Opacity 60%.

Click the Quick Mask mode button in the toolbox.
      Choose soft round brush and fill face area.
      Click the Quick Mask again.
      Choose Select > Inverse selection.

Fill selection with light color.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur (3.5).


_______________________________________________________________

Create a face peppered with freckles.

• Choose carroty color. and small soft roun brush.

• Apply the following brush settings:

                1. Shape Dynamics.
                2. Scattering
                3. Dual Brush
                4. Wet Edges
                5. Smoothing.

Create soft selection and fill it with freckles using created brush in a new layer.


_____________________________________________________________
Apply Color Burn and Opacity 42% to this layer.

Fill lips area with pink color using soft brush in a new layer.

Apply Soft Light Blending Mode to this layer.

Return to background layer.
Transform background layer using Perspective transformation.

Click the Quick Mask mode button in the toolbox.
Fill background area with black/white gradient.
Click the Quick Mask again.

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

___________________________________________________________________
Go to Image >Adjustments > Photo Filter.
Apply Warming Filter.

Create a new layer.
Place it above hair layer.
Fill hair area with black color using soft brush.
Go to Filter > Texture > Grain.(100; 100; Soft).

Apply Screen Blending Mode.
Duplicate this layer. (Opacity 60-80%).

Add vector mask to face layer.
Erase sights of hair on several flowers areas.

Create a new layer.
Click “D’ to default colors.
Go to Filter > Render > Clouds.
Go to Filter > Stylize > Glowing Edges (14; 15;17).
Erase face area using large soft brush.
Apply Screen Blending Mode and Opacity 74%.

Create round selection.
Go to Select Refine Edge, apply the following settings:

Select > Inverse selection.

And here is the result

by www.alfoart.com

Open a picture in Photoshop, pick the Pen tool and make sure it’s set on Paths and Add to path area (+).

Here, I want to cut out the Stig from BBC’s Top Gear. If the subject in your picture is detailed and needs more precision to cut out, zoom in and out as you progress.

Make sure you’ve closed the path so it can be made into a selection. It is done when you connect the first and the last anchor point and it’s marked with a small circle near cursor. Fine tune and adjust the path.

Refine and smooth edges (add some more anchor points if you need them). If the space between two anchor points is too big, you can’t precisely control modifications. So adding one in the middle should correct that. Just practice.

Right click on the path, choose Make Selection… and click ok.

Copy and paste the selection to another image that you trying to modify.

You can save this selection as a shape. Go to Path palette. Select the path, then go to Edit / Define custom shape…, name it and click ok.

Open a new document in Photoshop and select Custom shape tool. In small browser, you’ll see saved shape.

Choose preferred color, select Fill pixels and click and drag on canvas to create your shape. If you want to maintain same proportions as the original selection had, hold down shift.

If you select Shape layers first and then create the shape, it’ll create a vector shape. The advantage of vector shape is that it won’t pixelate if you scale it up or down. Remember that you must rasterize the layer if you want to apply some effects (Layer / Rasterize / Layer).

Open a new document in Photoshop and choose a size for your picture.

Fill the background with some dark color (use Bucket tool). We need some contrast since the candy cane is white. I’ll go with dark gray (#565656).

Create a new layer (Layer / New / Layer…) and name it Candy cane. Pick the Pen tool and set it like this:

You all know how the candy cane looks like so roughly draw one. In the end make sure you’ve closed the path. The first and the last anchor points are the same.

Now, smooth the edges. Pick the Convert point tool, go over every anchor point and twist and turn until you get rounded shape.

When you’re finally satisfied with the shape, pick lighter shade of gray for foreground. Right click on a selection, choose Fill path…, make sure Foreground color is selected in the next window and click ok.

After that, right click again on a selection and choose Delete path.

Change foreground color to dark red (#941414). Create a new layer and name it Red stripes. Now hold alt and place your cursor on the border between layers Candy cane and Red stripes until it turns into two circles that intersect each other and click.

That will make so called clipping group. That means whatever we draw it’ll be on the cane only, so no need to worry about crossing over the edges.

Select the Red stripes layer (if it’s not selected already), pick Brush Tool (with hardness on 100%) and start painting stripes wherever you want. The stripes will look better if you don’t paint them looking like a school fence. That means try to make them a little less straight. On ends, paint stripes a little short because it’ll give it more of a 3D look.

Create a new layer and name it Thin red stripes. Make a clipping group for this layer also. Choose a lighter red for the foreground color, pick a smaller brush and paint some more stripes.

Now we’ll create a shadow. Create a new layer, name it Shadow and create a clipping group. Pick a bigger, softer brush (around 20px) and set the foreground color to a lighter gray (I’m using #6f6e6e). Again, no fear to go over the edge because of a clipping group, so feel free to paint with the brush half on the candy cain and half outside. Start from the top and go down the left side to the end of the shorter part. The second part is from the bottom of the arch and down the left side all the way down. Try to go from outside in when starting to paint a shadow, because it’ll look smoother.

Set the blending mode of Shadow layer on Multiply.

Create a new layer, name it Primary Highlight and create a clipping group. Set the foreground color to white. Pick a hard, round brush around 20px and paint through the middle of the cane, ends and near the edge where the shadow was applied.

Go to Filter / Blur / Gaussian Blur… and set the radius on 2px. Change the blending mode of Primary Highlight on Overlay and decrease opacity so it looks good.

Create a new layer, name it Secondary Highlight and create a clipping group. Pick a smaller hard, round brush (around 10px) and paint some more highlights. Apply Gaussian blur with a slightly bigger radius (I used 3.3px). Decrease the opacity as you see fit.

In the end, we’ll create a shadow that cane drops. Select Candy cane layer (it should be highlighted blue), right click on it and choose Blending options… Apply Drop shadow and Inner glow with these settings.

I’ve chosen a sharp shadow, but it’s up to you to set these values as you see what’s best for your picture.

before that, you much learn how to cut images with a pen tool

First, you’ll have to separate the object from the rest of the image. To do that, use the Pen tool. Before you start, check to see if Paths and Add to path area (+) are selected in options.

Create a path around your object.

Sometimes, you have to make two or more selections to finally select the object and not the unnecessary space somewhere in the object (like this space shown on image below). Make a path around outer rim, then switch to Subtract from path area (-) in Pen tool options and make a path(s) around part(s) that don’t belong in final selection. Go to the Path palette and click on Load path as a selection. After that, right click on a selection and choose Delete Path.

Go to Edit / Copy (or press ctrl+C on keyboard) and then open a new document (File / New…). Values in Width and Height are taken from dimensions of copied image from clipboard, so we need some extra space since we don’t need “boxed-in” image. Set higher values just in case. It’s easy to crop the image later if needed.

Go to Edit / Paste (or press ctrl+V on keyboard). Desaturate the object (Image / Adjustments / Desaturate or ctrl+shift+U).

Now go to Filter / Blur / Smart Blur… Set Quality on High and Mode on Edge Only. Radius and Threshold are individual for every picture so it’s up to you to find what the best for your picture is. I’ve used these values.

Invert the image (Image / Adjustments / Invert or ctrl+I).

Go to Edit / Stroke… Set Width as you see the best for your picture, select color and set Location on Inside. You don’t need to modify other options.

Picture that looks like technical sketch…

Cartoon Drawing Photoshop Images Effect

1. Open an image that you would like to manipulate. Make sure your image is in RGB mode. To check this, go to Image under the menu bar - Mode - RGB Color.
Make a duplicate of this layer as you will be working on this layer going forward.

2. Now we will be applying the Poster Edges filter. To do this, go to Filter > Artistic > Poster Edges.

3. After the Poster Edges effect, we will Adjust the Brightness & Contrast with the values: Brightness Value: 10 Contrast: 30.

4. Now we will do an artistic cut out effect to give it that cartoon look. Go to Filter > Artistic > Cut Out. And this is what you get!

The original image

As you can see, the girls skin is not that smooth and it also has some imperfections. We’ll get rid of them in a few steps:

1. Using the healing brush to remove imperfections

Select the Healing brush (J) and while holding down the Alt key, select an area that you want to use as a pattern:

Then click on the imperfections to remove them. You may select a different pattern as you wish in order to fit your work area. Using a smaller brush size gives you a more accurate correction.
This is my result:

2. Smoothing the skin using the Median Filter

We need to make a selection of the skin (we don’t want to smooth the eyes or the hair too).
Press Q to enter the Quick Mask Mode, and using the Brush Tool (B) with the appropriate size, define the needed area:

Press Q again to get the selection, press Ctrl+Shift+I, right-click inside it and select Layer via Copy:

Apply the median filter (Filter-Noise-Median):

Reduce the layer opacity to 80%:

3. Adding a bump as a final touch

Create a new layer.
Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge the layers.
Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer.
Apply a Gaussian blur (Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur):

Set the blending mode to Soft Light and reduce the opacity to 45%:

This is my final result:

Click the image for full size

by Bueaka

Photoshop Indiana Jones tutorial 

Well if you’re a movie buff of any bearing you would be aware of the looming release of ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. You would also definitely have seen some of legendary poster artist Drew Struzan’s work (bow). His art for this latest movie is classic Jones, classic action adventure, it’s brilliant. Hell, everyone should have their own Indy Poster. In homage to Struzan, let’s do it.

A quick analysis of a few movie posters - you’ll notice a trend in either warm or cool gradient backgrounds with one highlight.

For this tutorial you’ll need:

• One skull or suitable spooky image
• One Aztec/Mayan type carving
• One hero shot, preferably backlit (of course yourself!)
• Shots of rocks, walls, trees, steps for a backdrop
• The SF Fedora Font set (get it here)

A standard movie poster is 27 x 40″ (68.6 x 101.6cm) with about 150ppi (pixels per inch) but that’s a big file so choose a size that suits.The Background 

We’ll start with a gradient of warm color.  Bring up the gradient editor and add color points as shown, then apply.

Drop in and clearcut the skull, then use the EDIT>TRANSFORM>WARP tool to distort the image to a suitably scary state.  DESATURATE to lose the color.  I applied a PLASTIC WRAP filter to give it some sheen.

SKULL COLOUR - We’ll place the skull large at the top, and add a layer style by double clicking the skull layer in the layers tab.  We’ll give it a COLOR OVERLAY  (we’ll use a lot of these) setting the color to a bright orange and using a vivid light blend mode.  

SKULL SHADOW - Duplicate the skull layer and erase all but the areas you want deep shadow.  The eye sockets in this case. Then adjust the layer style to a deep brown with a COLOR BURN blend mode

SKULL HIGHLIGHT - Duplicate the original skull layer again, remove the layer styles and crank the contrast right up to get a few strong whites for highlights.  Set the layer blend mode to SCREEN.  This will give the teeth some punch.

Now we’ll flatten the image and apply a little DRY BRUSH filter and some NOISE to give it a painterly gritty effect.

Ok that’s the background.  Now a backdrop to frame our ‘hero’.  Drop in some background rock or tree life, and DESATURATE.  Apply plenty of contrast for deep highlights.  Now apply another COLOR OVERLAY layer style using a deep brown color and linear light mode.  Set the layer mode to SCREEN.

Now DUPLICATE the layer, remove the styles and set the layer mode to HARD LIGHT.  A little DRY BRUSH can’t hurt either. Erase the edges a little to blend with the background.

Now let’s add some steps for our hero to stand on - another greyscale image with a COLOR OVERLAY layer style.  This time set to SOFT LIGHT mode and a light brown color.  We set the layer mode to LUMINOSITY on this one.  As you might be starting to guess, there is experimentation here.  Play. Learn. Enjoy.

Now we pick up speed.  We take our Aztec carving, color it rich blue using the HUE/SATURATION tool, hollow it out using the eraser tool and place it at the base.  Then we create a new layer and paint over it with black (with some opacity) so it’s subtle.

The hero 

Now we’re ready for our hero. Create a new layer and airbrush in a white glow to sit behind the character. This is our focal point. Now add a layer style to this and use an OUTER GLOW with a yellow color. Glow on glow. Now we’ll paste in our character (handsome fellow…) To give it some inky grunt, I like to apply UNSHARP MASK with a high radius. Adjust LEVELS to a point you’re happy with, where the hero looks a part of the scene.

Now DUPLICATE the hero layer. Set the new layers mode to LUMINOSITY, and then apply a layer effect. In this case we want three effects to ‘style like Struzan’.

Outer Glow - This will give the character an ink-like outline. Set this to a very dark brown, blend mode to OVERLAY, a little SPREAD and a little NOISE until you get a rough brown outline

Color Overlay - This will give the character the same tone as the rest of the image. Set blend mode to OVERLAY and choose a soft brown to blend the character with the scene.

Stroke - this will mimic the halo outline of a backlight. Set color to white, blend mode to OVERLAY, position to CENTER.

Now to give the character a painterly feel, apply a little DRY BRUSH filter, excluding the face with a feather selection. A little NOISE and UNSHARP MASK perhaps for good measure.

Almost there!  Just the text to go.  For this you’ll need the Fedora set which you can find here.

Enter name here!  To this text we’ll apply another layer style, this time with a heavy black DROP SHADOW, a GRADIENT OVERLAY (as shown) and a black STROKE.

Now we’ll select the text and click the CREATE WARPED TEXT tool in the text tool bar.  Here we can use the ARC selection to bend the text slightly.  Then rotate a little for lift.  Indy would be proud.

Using the FEDORA TITLE font, we can complete the movie title… and our poster!   Drew often uses paint spatter to soften his work, you could mimic this for a finishing touch by downloading or creating your own photoshop brush.  Might cover that in another tutorial.

All kudos to Drew Struzan for this incredible style, his posters have been an integral part of cinema for as long as I can remember.  Hell I grew up on them.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Look forward to more in the future.

by Rick Davison

Step 1 - Open a studio portrait with a solid color background

Below is an image I opened to demonstrate this tutorial. The image below is an example of one of the worst situations. For portraits, a good color background would be green or blue. But for this tutorial, I will use a studio portrait with red background and lots of skin, hair, and even a drop shadow to show you this tutorial in the worst situation. In most situations, removing background will be a lot easier but it is important to learn how to mask difficult images so that you’re prepared to mask most images.

Step 2 - Select a color range

Choose Select > Color Range. In the Color range tool, click on the background. Hold the shift key and continue clicking the background until you have the entire background in white. Click OK when done.

Step 3 - Smooth the selection

The selection may look perfect, but if you zoom in you can see that it may not be especially if you’re trying to mask hair. To fix this, choose Select > Modify > Smooth and smooth the selection by 1 pixel. This will remove all tiny dots without making the selection too round. Making it too round will cause problems with the hair later.

Step 4 - Create a layer mask

First, to create a layer mask, you will have to unlock the Background layer. To do this, double click on the layer and a window will appear with the layer settings. Just click OK with the default settings.

Now choose Layer > Layer Mask > Hide Selection. This will create a new layer mask with the selected area (the background) in black.

Step 6 - Manually paint the mask to correct errors

Hold the Alt key and click on the layer mask thumbnail. You should now see the black and white layer mask in the document window. You can see that the mask is not exactly perfect. For example, the red lips was masked out because Photoshop thought it was part of the background when we used the Color Picker tool. To fix this, just paint it out with white using the brush tool. But make sure that you’re working on the layer mask and not the layer.

Step 7 - Place the background file

Choose File > Place, browse for the background image file and click OK. The image should be placed into Photoshop as a new layer with a transform box allowing you to resize the image. Resize the image so that it its into the document boundaries. When resizing, hold the shift key to main the image aspect ratio.

Move the layer to the bottom. We’ve just masked an image, but wait we’re not done. Look at the image below. The hair still has a red outline and near the legs (not shown in the picture), it has a red glow. This was caused by the drop shadow in the original image. In the next steps, we’ll work on fixing this issue and working on the hair.

Step 9 - Use the Levels tool to shrink the mask.

First, zoom into an affected area with the glow. Select the layer mask then open the Levels tool (Image > Adjustments > Levels). Move the middle slider towards the right until the edge glow disappears.

Step 10 - Sponge the hair

There will still be some slight outlines around fine details such as the hair. Use the Sponge tool on desaturate mode and paint carefuly on the edge. Because the hair is usually not completely grayscale (black hair has some browns in it), you want to be careful not to over apply the sponge tool. Work only on the edge and zoom in so that you can be more precise.

If you’re working on hair that’s not black, create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, check mark colorize, and adjust the settings to match the hair color. Then, click on the Hue/Saturation layer mask, press Ctrl+I to invert, and paint the affected areas with white.

Step 11 - Match the two layers

The mask is perfect now, but we’re not quite done. This final step is one that many people forget and it is the most important step to make it look real. That is to match the brightness, contrast, and saturation with the background image. Add the appropriate adjustment layers but don’t edit the settings yet. For the image I used, the saturation is fine so I will just add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to fix the brightness and contrast.

Once you have the adjustment layer, you need to create a clipping mask so that it only affects the layer below. To do this, press Alt+Ctrl+G and it will create a clipping mask that will only affect the shape of the layer below and not the background.

Once you’ve done that, adjust the settings so that it matches the background. For example, the background I used has higher contrast and brightness. I will increase the contrast and brightness to match the background so that they blend in.

Final Results

Light Shaft-Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Open an image into Photoshop. This Photoshop effect doesn’t work with every photo, so you’ll need to pick a good photo to start with. A photo that is compatible with this Photoshop tutorial is one with a visible sky and that is partially covered with trees, clouds, etc versus a clear blue sky. Below is an example of a good image for this effect.

[click photo to show]

Step 2

First, we’ll create a duplicate of the layer. Press Ctrl+J or go to Layer > Duplicate to create a duplicate layer. You should now have two layers in the layers palette.

Step 3

Make sure that you have the top layer selected. Choose Image > Adjustment > Threshold. The Threshold tool creates a 100% black and white image (no grays). We’ll use this tool to help us separate the sky and the foreground.

In the Threshold tool, move the input slider all the way to the right. Then, move the input slider towards the left slowly until the sky appears. Once it appears, let go of the mouse button and click OK.

[click photo to show]

Step 4

What we’re creating is a mask that separates the sky from everything else. But chances are that it is not perfect. For example, in my image, the bride’s dress still shows up as white. To fix this, select the Brush tool and paint those areas black. The only thing that should be white is the sky.

[click photo to show]

Step 5

We’re done with creating the mask. We’ll now use this layer and blur it to create the light shaft. But first, we’ll need to make this layer blend into the layer below. Change the layer blending mode to Screen.

[click photo to show]

Step 6

This is where the results start to appear. Choose Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. The Radial Blur filter can create a zoom blur from any direction. In the Radial Blur filter, set the amount to 100%, blur method to zoom, and quality to best.

Before we work on the blur center setting, we’ll need to know where the source of light is coming from. The easiest way is to look at the shadows. For example, looking at the shadows in the image below, we can tell that the light source, in this case the Sun, is from the top left.

Now that I know that the light source is on the top left, I will move the blur center in the Radial Blur filter setting to the top left.

[click photo to show]

You should now have a beautiful light shaft like the image below. It looks a little too short, so in the next steps, we’ll extend it.

[click photo to show]

Step 7

Extending the light shaft is easy. Just duplicate the layer and apply the same Radial Blur again. To do that, press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer then Ctrl+F to repeat the previous filter. You should now have a longer light shaft.

[click photo to show]

Do this one more time (duplicate layer and repeat the Radial Blur filter). You can continue doing this, but usually the light shaft is long enough.

[click photo to show]

Here’s a timeline of the progress. Starting from the left is the image with no light shaft. Then to the left, the light shaft is created and lengthened.

[click photo to show]

Step 8

Now we have several layers and we’re going to merge all those light shaft layers into one. Select the top layer then press Ctrl+E to merge down. Do this again until you have only two layers: one with the light shaft and the background

[click photo to show]

Step 9

We’re almost done! We just need to tweak the light so that it looks natural. Right now, the light shaft looks white and unless you’re working on a black & white image, it will look unnatural. To fix this, we’re going to tint the light shaft with the Hue/Saturation tool.

Press Ctrl+U or choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. In the Hue/Saturation window, checkmark the Colorize option. Then, adjust the hue and saturation so that the light shaft color matches the environment.

[click photo to show]

Step 10

Another step? Well, this is more like a half step because it is completely optional. Sometimes, you may notice that the light shaft will go past foreground objects. You can mask out the areas where it is visible by adding a layer mask.

If you want to do this, add a layer mask by clicking on the new layer mask button in the layers palette or by choosing Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.

[click photo to show]

With the layer mask selected, choose the Eraser tool and erase the areas that you do not want the light shaft shining. I don’t quite like the results on my image and I prefer that the light shaft cover the father and daughter so I will simply disable the layer mask. To do this, hold the shift key and click on the layer mask thumbnail in the layers palette.

[click photo to show]

Final Results

Look how much drama is added to the photo. This effect can make good photos look great. How many wedding photos have you seen with a light shaft? Now you can add it to your photos easily with Photoshop.

[click photo to show]

	Mystical Light Shaft
	03.16.2008
	DennyTang http://tutorialpulse.com/47/mystical-light-shaft/