When you think of photo manipulation or compositing what comes to mind? Do you imagine artists who put together huge elaborate scenes with 1000’s of layers and special effects? Do you imagine someone who has graphic design training and has the ability to paint and illustrate? What if I told you, you can make a beautifully composited image out of 2 brushes and a texture? You don’t have to create hugely complicated fantasy scenes. By learning just a few simple tools and compositing techniques in Photoshop you can offer your portraiture clients a high-end look without spending countless hours in photo manipulation. After reading this tutorial you will be able to make your portrait work stand out without buying a bunch of special props and lighting and backdrops. Everything I used in this image either comes standard with Photoshop or is creative commons and downloadable for free on the web. I hope this tutorial is an encouragement to you and that you take away three things…
1. Composites don’t have to be elaborate and complicated to be beautiful and unique…
2. By creating simple image templates like this, you can develop a product that you can sell over and over again. Doing it this way keeps you from reinventing the wheel for every portrait.
3. Work smarter not harder. The key to making money in conceptual portraiture is finding a method or style that is easily replicated and quick to produce. This image is both.
This portrait was created using 2 brushes and a texture. That’s it. Simple and quick! Once you create this file you will have it ready to go with all those who purchase this image. If you are not a children’s photographer or you do not own a moon prop that is no problem. I want you to take note of the methods more than the style. The method is meant to be simple. There are textures and brushes for free all over the web. You can use this simple “1 texture, 2 brush method” for any portrait in any genre. Textures can be turned into backgrounds and the specialized brushes are used to bring the theme together. Brushes are an amazing tool and really add a lot to a composite. If you are unfamiliar with the types of brushes available for Photoshop then you will LOVE this post “The wacky and wonderful world of specialized Photoshop brushes. Free Photoshop Brushes.”
NOTE: When you create your image, take note of your lighting setup and details of the shoot. Then, when you sell this theme to your client (and you will because it’s different and cool and you are awesome!) all you have to do is snap the model, cut them out and stick them in! So let’s get started!
Another Note: You need a basic foundation knowledge of the tools in Photoshop to follow this tutorial. This tutorial is for beginners.
The resources…
- THE TEXTURE: The background texture in this image is by Manuela Busack Photography. I contacted her to see if this texture was still available. She creates beautiful, painterly textures as freebies and makes them available to her followers of her Facebook page. I highly recommend you follow her. Unfortunately, this particular texture is longer downloadable however, there are many painterly textures available for download for cheap or free from websites such as iStockPhoto, Dreamstime, DeviantArt and Flickr: Creative Commons. If you are unfamiliar with how to find and work with stock images you can read all about it on my blog post “Stock Photography: Should you use it? Where to find it…”
- THE CLOUD BRUSH: The cloud brushes are by rubina119 and can be download here…
- The other brush I used is standard issue Photoshop (I think). It is from the set called Natural Brushes 2 and the brush’s name is Pastel Dark 118. I love that brush and use it a lot. If you do not have this brush set then choose a standard brush that looks like a textured pencil or crayon.
Pulling it all together…
1. Open your starting image in Photoshop… this was my starting image…
2. Select just the portion of the image containing the model and the prop and delete or mask out the rest. I used the pen tool to do this however you can use any of Photoshop’s selection tools. I love the pen tool. If you get frustrated using it I have a technique that might help. It’s called the dash-dot-dash method and you can view how to do it on my blog post “Using the dash-dot-dash technique for frustration free use of the pen tool“… If you are not familiar with Photoshop’s selection tools you can view a quick overview of them here “Selection tools demystified”
3. Once you have your model and prop cut out, import the texture you have chosen into your file by clicking File>Place…
4. The texture will probably come in on top of your model/prop layer. That’s fine. Once it is placed hit enter and just grab the layer and drag it underneath your model layer. You will need to scale your texture to cover the entire background of your image. You can size it up or down by clicking Command+T (Mac) to activate the transform tool and then grab the little handles to cover the entire image.
5. Now to add the stars… turn off your model layer to reveal your background. Create a new layer on top of your background and label it “stars”… Open the brush set called “Natural 2”. If you do not have this brush set with your Photoshop then choose any brush that gives a crayon or fat pencil look.
Choose the brush named “Pastel Dark 118 px”. Pick a yellow tone from your image by selecting it with the eye dropper tool. On the new layer, hand draw in stars and dots randomly over the top part of your background…
6. Now we just need to add the cloud! Turn your model layer back on and create a new layer on top of everything. Load the cloud brushes you downloaded into your brushes pallet. If you are not familiar with how to install brushes you can learn the process here…How to load new brushes in Adobe Photoshop – Make sure your brush settings are 100% Flow and Opacity. Make the cloud bush large enough to cover the bottom of your prop. Place your cloud brush over the bottom of the prop and click once. If the cloud is too transparent you can duplicate the layer upon itself until it is no longer transparent. That’s it! Your template is finished!
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Keep learning and keep #SharingItForward!
Lady Caroline
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This was helpful Caroline, thank you! Always love your tutorials. 🙂
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Thank you so much! I love to hear these posts are helpful. 🙂
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