Take My Soul Away

In this new tutorial we’re going to learn how to extract an object from a white background,create a paint effect using some brushes and create a quick HDR effect in a few easy steps. So let’s start.

Stock used

Model: http://dxlogic.deviantart.com/art/girl-stock-iii-206766488
Background: http://knald.deviantart.com/art/Vintage-paper-TEXTURE-PACK-152400787
Smoke: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1394829
Paint Spatter Brushes: http://www.starwalt.com/photoshop_stuff4.html
Floral Collage Brushes: http://www.starwalt.com/photoshop_stuff2.html

Step 1

First we open image of the model. Double-click with left mouse button on it to unlock the Background layer. Duplicate it using Ctrl+J, then hit Ctrl+L (Levels) over the duplicated layer.See the image for the settings i used.You can go even little bit further with the darkening.

Step 2

Select Brush Tool (B), hit D on keyboard to bring colors to default and set your foreground brush color to black. Make sure all your brush options are set to 100% and then paint in the same layer, over the light spots to fill them up with black.

Step 3

Now go to Select > Color Range and use the same settings as shown below. Press OK and then go to Layers Palette and turn off the visibility of the duplicated layer.

Step 4

Select model layer and click on the Layer Mask button. Now you can just delete the model copy layer, as we won’t be using it anymore. We needed it only for extraction.
So this was an alternative way for some cutting out, usually people use Channels to do this.

Step 5

So this is only the first stage of the extraction, now we’re going to need to blend this model with a desired background. So create a new layer below the model, grab Paint Bucket (G) and fill it with black color. As you see there are still some white edges. The cut out never works perfectly, so you either have to blend it properly or just do some more accurate extraction.

Step 6

Now let’s go to Layers Palette, right-click on the model layer mask and select Apply Layer Mask. Next hold Ctrl and left click on the model layer thumbnail, this should bring up the selection.

Step7

Select the model layer and hit Ctrl+Alt+R (Refine Edge). Use the same or similar settings as mine. You should see on the live preview on image how it’s working. When your done apply it by hitting OK.Output will create another layer with the settings below applied, so you can just basically delete or just turn off the previous layer.

Step 8

After extracting the model lets’s drop it on our background. Now with the model layer selected let’s create the painted effect with our spatter brushes using the Eraser Tool (E). Now using the same brushes but with the background layer selected erase the part in the front of the model.

Step 9

After we erase the top of the cup we bring our smoke stock. Use the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl+T) to scale the image and put it in the right spot. Set the Blending Mode of the smoke to Darken. Also we’ll add some reflection of the smoke on model’s face. Next, go to the Layers Palette again, hold Ctrl and left-click on the model layer’s thumbnail. This should bring up her selection. Then create new group right above the model layer and while having the selection active click on the Add Layer Mask button. Now when you add anything to this group, it will only affect the silhouette of our model. So first of all, create a new layer in this group and change its Blending Mode to Linear Burn, change the Opacity to max. 30% and paint with soft brush.I used the # f6a8a8 color for the red reflection.

Step 10

In this step we’ll play with the floral brushes above and on the smoke and we are changing some red tones using the Selective Color setting.

Step 11

Now we are going to create a HDR effect from a single image.Apply Flatten Image to the layers first.
Now, go to Image> Adjustments> Shadow/Highlights. Set the Shadow and Highlights amount to 40-50%.

Step 12

Duplicate the layer, then go to Image> Adjustments> Desaturate (for CS3 users, choose Image> Adjustments>Black & White and click OK).
After that, change the layer blending to Hard Light.

Step 13

Let’s add some extra color to the picture. Duplicate the original picture (we will call it Blur), and put it on top of the other layers.
Next go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set the Radius around 40 pixels.
Change the layer blending to Soft Light.
Flatten Image, add some  sharpening and we are done.
Have fun.

Final Result

Author : Ardian K

About The Writer
Hello! My name is Tommy. I'm a blogger, I love graphics design and now i went to Architechture Technical Senior High School. | Facebook |