In this tutorial I will be walking you through how I created my digital piece, “What weather do you want?”.  This will be a simple photo manipulation tutorial that combines some adjustment layers, filter effects, and pen/lasso tool work.

What you need to get started

You will need to gather your stock images and for this piece I used the following photographs.  The main subject (which is me) is my own stock image because I took it solely for the making of this piece.  You can download it at the link provided below if you do not want to make your own.
My stock image - http://www.rohicks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/WW_meStock.jpg
Sky Stock - http://alegion-stock.deviantart.com/art/Sky3-stock-94057280

Step 1

Open the sky stock image in photoshop because we will be working directly on the sky file.  Double click the background layer and click ok on the dialog box to unlock it.  Now duplicate the background layer by pressing command+j (mac) or ctrl+j (windows).  Turn the visibility off to the original background layer to preserve it so we do not accidentally do something to it.

Step 2

Now we are going to do a quick photo fix (you can apply this fix to any photo to drastically improve it, as long as the tonal values are needing fixed).  We will be correcting some of the tonal values in the image.  Go to “Image > Adjustments > Levels” and set the 3^rd box (white point box) on the far right to “234”.  Then set the far left box, the 1^st box (black point box), to “2”.  This will allow the image to utilize the full tonal range of its histogram and not look so washed out.

Step 3

Now open my stock photo of myself if you are using it, or open your own stock photo of yourself or someone else.  Now using the pen tool or lasso tool, whatever comes easier to you outline your body.  After you are done outlining, if using the pen tool, right click and select “make selection”.

When the dialog box comes up enter “.1” as the radius and hit ok.  Now go to “Select> Inverse” and hit delete twice on your keyboard.  This will delete everything, but your subject and feather the edges of it.

Step 4

Now drag your subject onto your sky canvas or copy and paste it in, whichever you prefer.  Go to “Edit> Free Transform” and while holding down the shift key (to resize it constrained) resize your subject to your liking and move it over towards the right bottom corner.  Make a new layer and drag it underneath the sky layer so it is the bottom layer and fill this layer with black.
*Note* While using my free transform tool to resize I also leveled myself out by turning the corners of the free transform tool to line my feet up level on a ruler I had dragged out randomly on the screen.*

Step 5

With the subject layer (or me layer) selected go to “layer> New Adjustment Layer> Levels” and when the dialog box comes up make sure “Use previous layer to create clipping mask” is selected and hit ok.  This will bring up your levels adjustment and then set the far right box (the white point) to “226” and then set the middle box (the midtone box) to “1.14” (you may have to play with this if you are using your own stock subject and not mine).  This bumps up the highlights and midtones in the image to take out some of the dullness in it.

Step 6

Now go to “layer> New Adjustment Layer> Color Balance” and when the dialog box comes up make sure “Use previous layer to create clipping mask” is selected and hit ok.  When the color balance box comes up set the followings settings.

click on the shadows radio button
set the 3^rd box to -6

click on the midtones radio button
set the 1^st box to +15
2^nd box to -5
3rd box to -15

click on the highlights radio button
set the 1^st box to -5
2^nd box to -10
3^rd box to -20

Now click your subject layer (or me) to activate it, and go to “Image> Adjustments> Brightness/Contrast” and lower the brightness down by “-10”.

Step 7

Now we are going to work on the sky to get that peeled back look.  Click on your duplicated sky layer.  Create a new layer and make sure it’s filled with white (you can turn the visibility off of the “me” layer so it’s not shown for now).  Go to “filter> Render> Fibers” and set the variance to 20 and the strength to 5.

Go to “filter> Artistic> Plastic Wrap” and make sure the settings are 15 for highlight strengths, 9 detail, and 7 smoothness.

Now go to “Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur” and set it at 2 pixels.

Next go to “Filter> Blur> Motion Blur” use 90 for the angle and 800 for the pixels.

Last go to “Image> Adjustments> Levels” and set the far left box at 60, the middle box to 1.10, and the far right box at 200.  And set this layer’s blend mode to “hard light” and merge the layer down (command+e for mac / ctrl+e for windows).

Step 8

Now turn back your subject layer on (me layer).  You will need it on to adjust how you want the sky peeled back to fit your or my hands properly.  With it turned back on and the sky layer selected go to “Edit> Transform> Warp”.  Now using the different points on the grid transform the sky to look like it’s being peeled back and fitted to your hands as if you are dragging it from the left of the screen to the right (try to picture what it looks like to drag a big curtain across a stage).



With that done, we have a few more things to make this a little more realistic as if you were actually pulling it.  With the sky layer still selected go to “Filter> Liquify”.  Now select the “pucker tool” and make sure on the far right at the bottom the “show backdrop” is checked so you can see the rest of your layers.  Now with the pucker tool slowly press over the parts where your hands are to pucker the curtain to make it seem as if you were grabbing it at those two spots.

Step 9

This is our final step and now we need to add some shadows underneath our hands to look as if it’s over the top of the curtain.  Simply duplicate your subject layer (me layer).  Command+click (mac) or ctrl+click (windows) to bring up a selection of the me layer.  Fill it with a solid black and move it underneath the original me layer.  Now go to “Fliter> Blur> Gaussian Blur” and put in 5 as the pixels and hit ok.

Duplicate the shadow layer and set the opacity as 50% and merge it down with the original shadow layer.  That’s it you are done!

Step 10 (optional – sharpening)

This is a way to sharpen the full image (only sharpen images AFTER you have resized them to what you will be submitting to the web, your final print, etc.)  Select the whole image ctrl+a (windows) or command+a (mac) and go to “Edit> Copy Merged”.  Now hit ctrl+v (windows) or command+v (mac) to paste the layer in.  Move it to the very top of the layer palette.  Set this layer to overlay and 40% opacity.  Go to “Filter> Other> High Pass”  and set it as 2 pixels (this will vary depending if you resized the image – rule of thumb is set the high pass filter so the image looks just a TAD over sharpened).  And now you are done and with a sharper image!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, feel free to comment if you have any questions or feedback.
Thanks.

©2010 Ryan O. Hicks. All Rights Reserved.

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