It's seriously easy to make, my instructions just appear complicated. This does have selective colouring, but im sure that those without it will be able to do something nifty to make it look similar. It's probably better if you have a reasonable knowledge of photoshop so you're not all "0MG WHUTZ A F1LL LAY3R?!?!?!", there isnt anything like maps or levels or anything, cause i dont even know how to use those. That being said, lets get started!ONE
Choose your images. Today we will be working with images from
this gorgeous shoot. For this blend its best to find images with a darkish bg so it will be easy to blend. Also look for a shoot with a variety of images and preferably some lovely colours to make the graphic pop, and remember to make some b&w just to add some extra variety and because we dont want an overload of colour.
TWO
Now, head back to photoshop and create your canvas. For this i used a 650x500 canvas, and then just created a new fill layer, black.
THREE
Now start pasting in your images. Go one at a time though! Adjust the image to the size you want and then put it where you think is best. But how to make it all pretty and blend you might ask? Click the eraser tool. You want to choose a soft circle brush and set it onto about 150-190 px. Now go around the images and just erase the edges, keeping the person intact. So you shouldve gone from
this to
this. Duplicate layer and set to softlight. repeat a similar method for the rest of your images. Always use the large eraser brush so there is a smooth transition between images. otherwise you'd end up with something like
this rather than
this. It might not seem like a big deal but trust me, it looks much worse. Also, overlapping images is good, it adds to the smooth, blended look. And dont forget to duplicate the layers to softlight either!
Hot damn, i hope you understand so far lol.
FOUR
The graphic is quite nice now, but it just missing something. So lets go find a super awesome stock to slap on there!! Me being the very happy person that i am chose an image of dead lilies.(sp? idk) You can probably pick anything you want, but remember that a dark bg is best for the blending process. Now just do what you did in the last step, get your eraser and blend it into the rest of the image, duplicate, softlight. You should now have
this.FIVE
I always find that a nice circle gradient aids a graphic. Create a new fill layer, white. Go to gradient tool select the circle gradient thing (sorry, im at a loss for technical terms) and make a medium gradient which covers a majority of your image so far. If you dont understand, basically what you should have after that is
this. Now lower the opacity down to around 60%.
SIX
I never ever ever make a graphic without using a hue/saturation layer. Never. So go and create one and lower the lightness down to -27. I usually stay within the -20 to -30 zone. You can play around with it though if you feel like it.
SEVEN
Here come the colours. Create a new selective colour layer. Set to:
REDS
cyan: -91
magenta: +23
yellow: +100
black: 0
YELLOWS
cyan: +94
magenta: +20
yellow: +55
black: 0
WHITES
cyan: +14
magenta: -29
yellow: -62
black: 0
BLACKS
cyan: 0
magenta: 0
yellow: 0
black: -7
Keep in mind that this is just what i did, your images will probably have different colours to mine, so feel free to do your own colouring. Should now have
this.EIGHT
Merge visible layers, select all, copy, go back to when the layers werent merged and paste. Hopefully you understand what a mean. Now set newly pasted layer to softlight.
NINE
Add another selective colour layer.
REDS
cyan: +14
magenta: +39
yellow: +38
black: -17
YELLOWS
cyan: +22
magenta: -6
yellow: -48
black: +18
WHITES
cyan: +30
magenta: +19
yellow: -63
black: +9
NEUTRALS
cyan: 0
magenta: 0
yellow: +4
black: 0
BLACKS
cyan: -5
magenta: 0
yellow: -5
black: 0
Should have
this.TEN
Nearly done!!! Create new text layer, i used arial, 7pt. But its basically up to you from here on out. I also set the spacing to 500. Then just write about a sentence of whatever the hell you want. I chose what i did, a, because i really love that line of lyric, and b, i thought it added to the whole mystery/creepy thing i had going on.
ELEVEN(!!!!!!)
Last step!! New layer, get a 1px white brush and just draw a random squiggle.
FINISHEDDDDDDD.If there is anything you would like further explanation of just let me know. And if you do use this tutorial please post what you made, i'd love to see your results!!
