We are going to do a Manipulation together. I did this one a few months ago and is still one of my favorites. We will work on a 600 x 800 pixels canvas. You can simply redo this photo manipulation with me, but I advice you to make another photo manipulation in the same time.
Doing [...]
We are going to do a Manipulation together. I did this one a few months ago and is still one of my favorites. We will work on a 600 x 800 pixels canvas. You can simply redo this photo manipulation with me, but I advice you to make another photo manipulation in the same time.
Doing this, you’ll learn more, believe me when I say this.
Download this file to follow along :
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I chose to make an abstract background. To fit the theme, I had to make something industrial / mechanic. For the moment, don’t think hard ! Just find picture about “industry” and put them all together on your canvas. I found these one on Image After and Stock Exchange.
Once dropped on the canvas, you should have something like this :
The selected layer is not an “industry” stock picture, it’s only a texture. You’ll need this later.
As shown, make a layer mask on every picture. To do this, left click + CTRL on the picture thumb in the layer window, you’ll see the selection appear. Then click on the layer mask button on bottom (red cross).
Now this is the blending part 
You have to make all these picture looking like only one. Take a large brush (~100px smooth) with a low opacity (change it from 20% to 50%), and brush in black on the different masks to smoother edges and make different areas blend together.
Here’s my layer window once finished :
See the masks, and compared to the start … There are no rules about it, watch your pictures and try by yourself… you can change your mind at any time: take a white brush instead of a black one and you can get the picture back, that’s why you have to work on mask, and not only with an eraser on the picture.
And here’s the actual picture :
To finish the background, add a “Hue / Saturation” layer with these settings :
This is what your background should look like!
Start by masking all except the baby, like this :
See I’ve already rotated the baby, but that doesn’t matter, you can rotate it during the integration section.
Duplicate the baby layer and go to Filter Gallery / Plastic Wrap, and use these settings :
Once done, change the blending properties of this layer to Multiply with 55% opacity. You should have this now :
You can now put your baby on your background. You should put the 2 layers of the baby in a folder, so they won’t move any more, and then drag it on the background, like this :
Now I want to make the baby as if he was coming out from some spider webs. So … let’s first find some spider webs pictures. I’ve found them once again on Image After and Stock Exchange.
Drag and drop them in the baby folder, and place them (approximately) like me :
Then, once again, add a layer mask to each picture, and brush in black all that is not needed. To proceed, hide one web picture, to exactly see what you do, brush it, move it, brush again … again, brushing on layer mask to hide some part is more about “feeling”, with practice, you’ll go faster and it will be easier. With some patience, you’ll have this :
Now, to give a real impact to the baby, he must have a dropped shadow on the background, to make the whole picture coming together. Like we already did, keep CTRL pressed and left click on the layer mask of the baby to get the selection back. Then create a new layer under the 2 baby layers and fill it with black (ALT + DEL when black is the foreground colour). You’ll have this :
Be sure to be on the shadow layer and go to Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur then put 16px as values and click OK. Reduce opacity about ~60%. Now you can move the layer where you pleased with it, here’s mine :
Take a concrete texture (did you ask me where ? on Image After and Stock Exchange of course …). Try to find one quite plain, without big cracks like this one :
Put it on top of your layers, just under the Hue/Saturation layer. As blending properties, I used Vivid Light with ~60% opacity, but you can browse the blending option to see different renderings. Now I had a Levels layer, with these settings :
