• Grunge Textures

Final Image Preview

This image is inspired from the cover of LAYOUT, dasar & penerapannya, a graphic design book by Surianto Rustan published by Gramedia in Indonesia. Before starting this tutorial, see the result below. Click here to see the image at a higher resolution. The Illustrator and Photoshop files can be found at the bottom of this post. You can also see more of work at my website DesainDigital.com

Step 1: Creating Word in Illustrator

Open up your Illustrator. Create new document (File|New) with Document Profile: Print, size: A4.

Create word LAYOUT using tool type.

Step 2

Select the word. Click Object|Expand. Click OK.

Click Object|Compoundd Path|Release.

Step 3

With tool select arrange every character until align nicely.

With the direct selection tool, move some points within the U to give it more room.

Here’s what i come up with.

Step 4

Select all the characters. Then from the toolbox, click the switch icon to switch the fill and stroke color.

Step 5

Above the L character create a box.

To make sure it aligns perfectly with the L, click Edit|preferences. Make sure you select Snap to Point. This small step will save you lots of time when arranging objects.

Step 6

Create a box behind the Y.

Another box behind O.

Another box behind T.

Step 7: Start Adding Text – L

Activate the type tool. Hover the cursor over the L. You will see a circle around the cursor. Now click to insert some text inside the L shape. I used the famous lorem ipsum text generated from lipsum.

I’m using Helvetica Neue Lt Std here because it’s simply the best font ever and works in every style. For L i use Bold Condensed style. If you dont have this font feel free to use other similar font.

Step 8

Double click the text to select all. From the paragraph panel select alignment justify.

Click on the small arrow to open the panel menu and select Hypenation. Move slider to Better Spacing.

Here’s what i have so far.

Step 9

Paste some more text inside the box above L. Change the style to Light Condensed.

Step 10: Y

Lets move on to the Y now. This one is much more complex and take more time doing it. Paste some text into the box, not the Y shape. Use style Light Condensed.

Select characters inside the Y shape and change its style to bold condensed.

Repeat this process with all the text found within the outline of the Y.  As I said before this takes lots of time.

After the required characters have been changed to bold, you can then click the eye icon in front of the Y shape layer to hide it. Here’s what i have so far.

Step 11: O

Select the outer circle of O. Resize it until it is taller than its box.

Step 12

Select the outer circle and box. Open the pathfinder panel and click Exclude. Right click and ungroup.

Step 13

Select top and bottom path then hit delete.

Step 14

Add text to each path. Use align justify for right and left path. Use align center for circle path.

Step 15: U

Select the U shape. Using tool move rotate it 90 degrees.

Step 16

add another load of text. Use style bold condensed.

Step 17

Using the rotate tool, rotate the U shape back to its previous place.

Step 18:T

Add text to T shape.

Step 19

Open the panel character. Double text leading size, in my case from 7,2 to 14.

Step 20

Add text to the box behind the T shape. Use the same text leading like in the previous step.

Step 21

Insert minus leading. Remember step 19? I have text leading 7, so in my case i use -7.

And we’ll have both text overlapping and create a T shape.

Step 23: A

We haven’t worked on A. With the pen, create a shape covering half the A.

Step 24

Insert some text.

Step 25

Using the move tool, rotate the shape until it perfectly aligns horizontally.

Step 26

Using the rotate tool, rotate the shape back to its previous place.

Step 27

Do the same to the other half.

Step 28

Don’t forget to add text to the bridge. After this you can hide A shape.

Finally this is what i have.

Step 29: Export to PDF

Now, we need to import this into Photoshop. First, we need to save it to a format that can preserve its vector quality. I recommend PDF for this.

Click File|Save As. Choose format file PDF. In PDF setting use Press Quality. This setting is used for commercial printing and saves all the details relating to the composition of the image.

Step 30: Import to Photoshop

In Photoshop click File|Open. Choose the PDF file we just created. Use resolution 300 pixel per inch or 300 ppi.

Why we use resolution 300 ppi?

Press Quality setting creates a 300 ppi PDF. So, using resolution 300 ppi, the file is imported at full size, without losing any pixel resolution. This means we still have every detail created from within Illustrator. The picture below shows the imported picture in 100%, white background. As you can see, the text still very sharp.

Step 31

PDF will be imported as a transparent picture.

Step 32: Start Editing in Photoshop

Hit ctrl+A, ctrl+C. Create new file with size A4 with a resolution of 300 ppi. Hit ctrl+V to paste our text here.

Hit ctrl+I to invert text color to white. Click Layer|Convert to Smart Object. Hit ctrl+T. Rotate text.

Step 33

Create new layer under text. Add a radial gradient from black to white.

Step 34

Download grunge textures from deviantart. Paste it behind text.

Use blending mode Multiply with 65% opacity.

Step 35:

Return to our text layer. Click Layer|Layer Style|Drop Shadow. Use setting below.

Use this setting for the Outer Glow.

Conclusion

Yeah, we’re done!. As you can see, all techniques used here is just simple. You can learn it from a basic book on design and typography. What you really need here is just patience and lots of free time. Please share your opinions on the comment form. You can see the final image below or from this link.

Here we will be converting a daytime image into a night one.

The PSD file for this tutorial can be found at the bottom of  the post

This is the original image which we will be converting it into a night one. Click this image to download the original image.

This is the final image we will be creating.

STEP 1 : In the first step remove the sky  from the original image.  You can use the pen tool or any other selection tool  for removing the sky. I have indicated the area to be removed with the red arrows. I have used the pen tool to select the sky.

This is the image we get after removing the sky. The removed sky is pasted on another layer.

STEP 2: Now go to Blending options> color overlay . Select blending mode as “Color”. Choose the color #56c1ff

STEP 3: Now go to blending options>gradient overlay. Select the gradient “yellow-green-blue”. Now set the blending mode to color burn.

STEP 4:  Now the image looks like this with the pasted sky layer.

STEP 5: Apply the effects color overlay and gradient overlay to the sky layer. The same options are applied as mentioned in steps 2 and 3. Now the image looks like this.

STEP 6: Now add the moon. Click the image to download the moon image.

STEP 7: Change the blending mode of the moon to screen.

STEP 8: Apply blending options> outer glow to the moon.

Apply Inner glow to the moon. The settings are as shown.

Now apply Satin effect to the moon. The settings are as shown.

Now apply color overlay to the moon. The settings are as shown.

Now apply gradient overlay. The settings are as shown.

STEP 9: Now with a small sized brush(1-2 px), draw the stars.

STEP 10: Now apply outer glow to the stars. The settings are as shown.

STEP 11: Now adjust the levels. The settings are as shown.

THE FINAL IMAGE WE GET……………

HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY TUTORIAL.

You can download the PSD file here

The psd file for this tutorial can be found at the bottom of the post

Create a new file (1600px * 1200px) and fill it with black color. Take a new layer, name it “clouds”. With background color black and foreground color white, go to the filters-render-clouds.

Create a new layer above the clouds layer. Fill it with radial gradient. Foreground color #683838 background color black.

Set the layer blending mode to hard light.

Select the brush tool. Press F5. In the shape dynamics change the control to fade 200 and minimum Diameter t0 25%

Now take a a new layer. Name it “firework”. With brush size 9px draw the lines to show the explosion. Use 3px brush to show other thin lines

Select the explosion on the firework layer. This can be done by pressing ctrl+left click on the Firework layer thumbnail. With the explosion still selected, delete the firework layer. Take a new layer. Now go to Select-Modify-Contract by 1px. Again go to Modify then Feathers 1px. Now fill it with white color.

Double click this layer to enter the blending mode. Click on Outer glow. Change the size to 27px as shown in figure.

It will look something like this

Select the brush tool again. Press F5 key. In shape dynamics increase the size jitter to 100%. See the image below.

Click on scattering. Increase the scattering to 100% and count to 2.

I have used 11px and 3px brush to create the sparks.

The final step. Create a new layer, it should be placed on the top of all layers. Change the foreground color to #984448 and background to#997f3b. Fill radial gradient as shown below.

Set the layer Blending Mode to Vivid light. And your firework is ready.

Hope you like it

You can download the PSD file here

I have used following images for source

http://shoofly-stock.deviantart.com/art/Butterfly-Stock-5-36155166

http://erdmute.deviantart.com/art/mega-leaves-111983334

http://eli-stock.deviantart.com/art/Pink-Flower-3-101697444

http://buzillo-stock.deviantart.com/art/girl-7-116862818

http://www.pxleyes.com/images/contests/hawaiian%20flowers/fullsize/sourceimage.jpg

First separate girl from the background. I have used pen tool for cutting

Now cut out a flower. One petal of this flower is hidden….so i have merged other petal using clone tool and healing tool

Now reduce the size of flowers and place them here and there. Merge the flower layers.

I wanted to place some flowers between her legs. So here is a little trick. I have copied the “girl” layer and erased almost everything except her front leg.

Place the pink flower under the “girl” layer. Separate the flower from its background using magic wand.

Now place a butterfly behind the girl so that it looks like girl’s wings.You can add little butterflies if you want. Color of the butterfly can be changed through  color balance (ctrl+b).

I will add some shadow now. Use Burn tool to give shadow using midtone range and exposure 50%.

Copy the wings layer. Put this copy layer under the original wing layer. now go to filters-blur-motion blur: Angle=0 and Distance=85. this will give the wings glowy effect

finally the background. I have used lens blur for the background.

Insert a new layer, place it on the top. fill it with #bb7711. And set the layer blending mode to soft light. This will make all the colors match with each other.

Its Done.

PSD File

Here is what we are going to do:

We’ll use this one: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1166996

Name the layer to “Kid“. Duplicate the “Kid” layer by right click on the layer and choose Duplicate Layer or CTRL+J for shortcut command.

Name this duplicated layer to “KidCopy” and close the “Kid” layer for a while, we’ll use it later on.

Desaturate the Duplicate Layer. Go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate.

On the “KidCopy” Layer, Remove the background and the eyes. I used the Pen Tool (P).

Once your done the image will look like this.

Now we need a texture. We’ll use this Concrete texture downloaded from GrungeTextures. Open it to photoshop. Name the layer to “Texture“. Rotate it to 90° CCW. Go to Edit>Transfrom>Rotate 90° CCW.

Hold CTRL+CLICK on the “KidCopy” layer so that it will be in selection mode. Click the “Texture” Layer and inverse the selection. Go to Select> Inverse. Now press DELETE.

Now Set the “Texture” layer to Multiply. Desaturate the “KidCopy” Layer. Go to Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. The image will now look like this.

Working on the eye. On the “Textures” layer, Select an area using Polygonal Lasso Tool (L). Try to select below the eye and once your done selecting press CTRL+J to duplicate the selected area. Same Process on the Right eye. Name the left duplicate to “Left Eye” and “Right Eye” for the right side.

Now move the “Left Eye” and the “Right Eye” layer below the “HandsomeCopy” Layer by click on the duplicate layer and dragging it below on the layers palette. Heres the position of the Layers.

Place the “Left Eye” and “Right Eye” Layer to the proper position Using Move Tool (V). See this image below.

To adjust the Lightness of the Right Eye and Left Eye Layer, go toImage>Adjustments> Hue/Saturation then adjust the Lightness to -40 so it will be a bit darker.

Choose Burn Tool (O). Set the range to Highlights and Exposure to 30%. Start Using burn tool on the sides of the eye.

Working on the hair. We will use Curves to match it with the skin and to make it more lighter. Select the “KidCopy” layer, Choose Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) and select the hair.

Go to Image>Adjustments>Curves. Adjust at your taste.

Now our image will look like this after we adjust the hair:

Now to finish, Choose Burn Too (O) and try to apply some darker area on the nose and the eye a little. Open the “Handsome” layer to bring back the background. Now we’re done!!!!

I hope you learn something on this tutorial and let me hear your feedbacks.

You can download the PSD File

I came from the photography scenary and discovered the Tilt Shift Lenses about two year ago. Tilt Shift lenses focus on a single part of the photo and shift (blur) the surrounding area to create an optical illusion of miniaturized scenery. Real Tilt Shift lenses are quite expensive, but a similar effect can be achieved by using Photoshop.

Here is what we are going to do:

We’ll use this one: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1214107

An above ground shot is usually best for this type of technique. Cityscapes, crowds, streets, and similar things are perfect.

Open the shot in Adobe Photoshop and click onto “Quick Mask Mode” or press the “Q” key.

Select the gradient tool.

Select the “reflected gradient”.

Draw vertically upwards from where you want the point of focus to be up the screen to the top of the window, and release the mouse button. A red transparent line should appear.

Go back into “Standard Mask Mode” pressing “Q” key.

In Photoshop CS go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur (Or if you have Photoshop 7.0 you can use Gaussian Blur). Then select the amount of blur you’d like. You’re free to experiment.

(Optional) For a more “plastic” feel you can increase the saturation and contrast in the photo.

There you have it – you should have a nice “fake tilt shift” photo. You can experiment with lots of different photographs – some are a lot better than others for “miniaturization”.

Deltastock, an on-line forex and stockbroker company are holding a competition to breathe some life into their web presence.  They want graphic and web designers to come up with new creative concepts for their business , with the best designs winning cash prizes ranging from $250 to $2,500.

The deadline for submissions is 12th November 2009, and see below for the design brief.  More details can also be found on their website. Happy designing!

DESIGN BRIEF for banner & landing pages design contest

Here is the final image of what we are going to make.

Let’s Begin.

Create a new document with width 864px and height 1152px with resolution as 100px and background as transparent.

Making of the Hair and Face:

Now select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and draw a circle of  218px width and 205px height. Fill it with #f5dbaf. Name this “face”.

We will make the hair now. Create a new folder above the “face” layer and name it as “hair”. Now create a new layer and select the Pen Tool (P). Make a shape something as shown below. Fill it with #2e1801. Name it as “hair_bg”.

Let’s give some highlights to her hair. Select the pen tool again and create some shapes above the “hair_bg”. Use random colors for it. I have used #81613f, #906231, #81613f, #ff9d54 and #af7940. Always experiment with different colors. I have made this.

Remember to keep all the highlights and the “hair_bg” in the same “hair” folder. Now lock this folder and switch off the layer visibility.

Create a new folder and name it as “eye” above the “face” layer. Select Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and make a circle with 22px width and height. Fill it with #ffffff and give a #000000 border to it. Create a new layer and make a circle with 17px width and height. Fill it with #32bde5.

After switching on the layer visibility of the “hair” folder you should have made something as shown below.

Select Pen Tool (P) again and in a new layer create her nose. Fill it with #81613f.

We will give some freckles on the girl’s face now. For this select Rounded Brush Tool (B) with 1px diameter and color #81613f. Randomly create the freckles on both sides of her cheeks.

Now select Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and create a circle of 30px width and height above the freckles layer. Fill it with #f8a49f.

Now duplicate this pink blusher layer and fill it with #f73c5a. Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Keep the Radius as 3.9px. Click OK.

Press Ctrl+T to transform the selection to 85%.

Make a new layer again and select Pen Tool (P). Make a small lip shape as shown and fill it with #ce567a.

We will make her neck now. So, select the Pen Tool (P) again and above the “face” layer and below the “hair” folder make a new layer and make a shape as shown below.

Making Her T-Shirt:

Above the neck layer make a new folder. Name it as “t-shirt”. Create a new layer and select the Pen Tool (P). Create the t-shirt as shown. Fill it with #e10a0a.

Let’s add some design to it. With the help of Pen Tool (P) and Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) I have made something like this. You can obviously make your own different patterns.

In a new layer above the “t-shirt” layer create a rectangle of 147px width and 22px height using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M). Fill it with #44cefb.

Now create another layer above this t-shirt layer and select the Brush Tool (B). Select the Dune Grass brush with 30px diameter. Select #bffdfa color as Foreground and randomly make some fur on top of the blue layer.

Making of Her Jeans:

Make a new folder above the “t-shirt” folder and name it as “jeans”. Create a new layer in it and select Pen Tool (P). Start making her jeans as shown. Fill it with #000d11.

Once you are done with it duplicate it and press Ctrl+T to transform. Flip Horizontal and place it as shown.

We will make the zip now. For this in a new layer select Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and make a rectangle of 6px width 27px height. Fill it with #013140. Place it above the two jeans layer so that it looks like a zip layer.

We will give some stitch pattern to this. So make a new layer above this rectangle layer and make some rectangles of 1px width and 2px height using the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and fill it with #74858b. Duplicate it and make a stitch pattern.

In a new layer, create a circle of 45px width and 44px height with the help of Elliptical Marquee Tool (M). Fill it with #74858b. Make this circle near the sides of the jeans to give it a feel of jeans pockets. Once you are done select the layer and Ctrl+click on the right jeans layer. With the selection on, Add Layer Mask to the pocket layer.

Now in a new layer as you made the stitches before make the same for the pockets too. Now duplicate both the pocket and the stitch layer and place it on the other left side too.

We are done with the jeans now!

Making of Her Shoes:

Create a new folder beneath the “jeans” folder. Name it as “right_shoes”. Make a new layer and select Rectangular Marquee tool (M). Create a rectangle of 30px width and 7px height. Fill it with # fcfacd. This will look as socks.

Create a new layer and select Pen Tool (P). With #032a73 as Foreground Color create a shoe shape.

We will make the lace holes in the shoe now. Select #fcfacd color as Foreground and make a circle of 3px width and 3px height with the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M). Duplicate it to get this.

Time to create the shoe lace! Again, in a new layer with Pen Tool (P) create a lace as shown. Fill it with #70c2dd.

With the lace holes it will appear like this.

The shoe is almost done. But some highlights are missing. So, select the Round Brush Tool (B) with 3px diameter and create two strokes as shown with # 0880a8 color.

Similarly, with the help of Pen Tool (P) make a shape as shown for highlighting the shoe. I have used #066296 for this.

We are done with the shoe now. Duplicate this full “right_shoes” folder and place it as the left shoe. Modify the shoe shape a bit so that both don’t look the same.

We have made this much till now.

Making of Her Hands:

Create a new folder above the “neck” layer and name it as “hands”. Select the Pen Tool (P) and create a hand shape as shown. Fill it with #f5dbaf.

Similarly, make her right hand too. But this time fill it with #dec08e.

Making of the Candy:

Below her left hand create a line with the Line Tool (U) with weight as 3px. Fill it with #000000. Press Ctrl+T and rotate the stick to -32 degree.

In a new layer make a circle with Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) of 38px width and height. Fill it with #ab7bf2. Place it near the stick.

Now, select the Rounded Brush Tool (B) with 5px diameter and create a spiral above the lollipop circle. I have used #6d39bc color for this.

Double click on the layer and set the following Layer Styles.

Drop Shadow: Blend Mode: Multiply, Opacity: 75%, Angle: 120 degree, Distance: 5px, Spread: 2px, Size: 0px.

Bevel and Emboss: Style: Pillow Emboss, Technique: Smooth, Depth: 16%, Direction: Up, Size: 0px, Soften: 0px, Angle: 120 degree, Altitude: 30 degree, Glass Contour: Cone, Highlight Mode: Vivid Light, Color: White, Opacity: 75%

Stroke: Size: 2px, Position: Outside, Blend Mode: Normal, Opacity: 100%, Fill Type: Color, Color: #a375e7

Click OK. Your Lollipop will look like this now.

Making of Her Jewelry:

We will make some jewels now. Make a layer above the “neck” layer. And make a small circle of 5px width and 5px height with Elliptical Marquee Tool (M). Fill it with # 03c0fd.

We will make a pendant for this.

Make a small circle of 5px width and 5px height with Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and fill it with #ffffff and place it below the blue beads.

Give some shine in #ffffff to the blue beads.

You can give a sparkle too to the pendant.

Making of the Shadow:

Add some shadow effect so that the picture looks real. I have used Pen Tool (P) for this and have used #000000 color. Decrease the opacity to 7%.

Making of the Background:

Now, you have finished with making the Lollipop girl. Just need to add a good background to it. Make a new layer beneath all the layers and select the Gradient Tool (G). Make a gradient with #efd39c and #eea982.

Select the Radial Gradient and make a gradient as shown.

Conclusion:

So, now your Lollipop Girl is all ready! Hope you enjoyed reading and doing this tutorial. Feel free to ask any questions if you think I have missed out something or if somewhere the technique was not very clear.

Enjoy working with photoshop!!

Download the psd file from here.

I thought I’d share with you today a few post processing techniques I use when importing photos.  It’s possible to make some subtle and in some cases not so subtle enhancements to your image to really make them stand out.  A potential danger of post processing is to go too far in making alterations which can make the photo look false and unrealistic (if that’s not what you’re aiming for), so it’s important to bear that in mind.

You might have already come across the tips I’m going to list below but if you have a great post procesing technique that I haven’t mentioned, please post a response at the bottom of this post.

Take RAW Photos

One of the most versatile ways to alter your photos is to take pohtos in RAW format.  I use a Canon EOS 20D and I’m sure it’s similar with many cameras but you have the ability to take photos in RAW & Jpeg mode at the same time.  This takes up more space on your card naturally but it means you have a jpeg image for immediate use and then a RAW photo for making alterations at a later date.

If you open a RAW image in photoshop, an editor window will appear (as shown below).

From this window you can change virtually all characteristics of the image ranging from brightness/contrast & colour alterations to vignetting and sharpness. Once you are happy with your settings, you can then save your settings and/or open up the image in Photoshop and then make further alterations if you so wish.

Sharpen using the High Pass filter

This can be found in the menu Filter > Other > High Pass

To use this filter, open up an image that you wish to sharpen. In the example below the butterfly is slightly blurry.

If you duplicate this layer(control/cmd +j) and then run the high pass filter (filters > other > high pass), a box will appear with a radius slider. The image will be mostly gray.  To achieve the optimum sharpness, move the slider so that the edges of the image are starting to come through the gray, in this case 1% seems to work well.

Hit “OK” and then set the layer mode to overlay.  This enhances the edges of the image and makes the photo look sharper.  If you want the image to be sharper still, simply duplicate the high pass layer.  If that makes the image too sharp, then simply reduce the layer’s opacity.  The finished effect is shown below

Remove Artifacts using the clone stamp tool

The clone stamp tool is useful to remove unwanted elements in a photo.  This could be anything from facial blemishes in a portrait photo, to unwanted elements in a landscape scene.

Clone stamp copies an area which is artifact free and pastes it on top of the unwanted element in the photo.

In this example, I want to remove the leaves on the ground.

Simply select the clone stamp tool (s), adjust the brush head ( using [ or ] ) to get the right size and then hold down the alt key and click near to the area you wish to hide. Release the alt key and then proceed to brush over the unwanted element. The result is shown below

Soften a photo’s background using gaussian blur.

This is useful when you wish to improve the blurred background of the image.  It’s often the case that noise will creep in when taking photos at a high ISO level and that is particularly noticeable if it is noise within a blurry background. I’ve found this also useful when taking photos in a zoo, when you dont want the blurry cage in the image. Below is such an example.

So here, I want to blur out the cage. In order to do this, duplicate the layer (ctrl / cmd + j) and select filter > blur > gaussian blur.  Next, add a layer mask to this blurred layer and then proceed to hide the blurred layer where the owl is in focus. Use a brush with 100% opacity for the centre of the owl and then use a lower opacity for the extremes where the owl and the background meet.

The end result will look like something like this

Alright! Well I saw a post a while back by abduzeedo called sparkling hot girl and really liked it, so inspired buy his piece I made this one.  A lot of light effects are being used lately so here is another cool way to make your images look wicked hot! In this tutorial I am going to focus on how to get the cool patterns rather than the extraction of the girl but I will touch on it. This is my first ever tutorial, so hope I explain myself. The PSD file for this tutorial can be found at the bottom of the post.

We are going to be making this/something similar:

Step: 1

Open photoshop and create a new document File>New. Create it any size you like, for this I made it 800×1000

Step: 2

Make sure your foreground and background colours are set to Black and White, you can hit X then D to do this. Create a new layer and name it “Origional” then Filter>Render>Clouds.

Step: 3

Still in your “original” layer go Filter>Pixelate>Mezzotint… A dialogue box will appear, I choose the setting medium strokes. But play around with the different setting to get new unique looks.

Step: 4

Still in your “original” layer go Filter>Blur>Radial Blur. In the dialogue box make the settings Amount:100, Blur Method: Zoom and set the quality to best.

Step: 5

These next steps are where you get to be creative and decide how crazy you want to go depending what setting you enter for the Twirl dialogue box.

Duplicate the layer called “original” twice and call them “twirl1″ and “twirl2″ using command/control + J. Now lock and turn the eye off on the original layer. ( I keep this layer just incase anything goes wrong, or if I want to add more later on.)

In your “twirl1″ layer go Filter>Distort>Twirl… We are going to be doing this step a couple of times and depending on how you want it to look you will enter different settings. For my first “Twirl” I enter +77

Then in layer “twirl2″ do the same Filter>Distort>Twirl… but change the twirl amount to (negative) 200. Now change the blending mode of Twirl2 to Lighten. Right, now its starting to take shape!

Step: 6

Now we are going to merge these two layers, to do this select both layers and then use command/control + E and name it “swoops” Using the Lasso tool create a selection of your image, try to draw around cool looking swoops and sweeps.

Now right click and select “refine edge” play around with the settings, mainly feather to get it looking similar to mine. Here are the settings I used, but these can differ. Once happy go Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

Step: 7

To give some life and colour to this image go Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation… Check the tick box colourize and play with the setting till you get something nice. My setting can be seen below.

Duplicate the layer “swoops” Now go Image>Adjustments>Curves… Pull the curve down like I have, and this will put some blacks back into the image to make the lines in the swoops look a lot nicer!

Change the blending mode of the copy to “luminosity”.

Step: 8

The girl. This part may take a bit longer for un-experienced photoshop users but stick at it and give it a shot. Open the girl image with File>Place. We are going to use the bezier pen tool to trace the outside of the girl, or whatever you decide is going in the image.

Once you have a full selection, right click and create selection. Now again we are going to use Select>Refine Edge to cut the girl out. You have used this already during this tutorial so again play with the settings till it looks good, a bit of feather will help a lot. Once happy go Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection.

Now change the blending mode to hard light, I do this as it brings some of the background swoops through as if they are coming out of her. Depending on the colours of your image you cut out you may need to trial different blending modes to get a good look.

Step: 9

To finish up we are going to add some glowing trails. Create a new layer name it glow trails. Select the paintbrush tool and then go Window>Brushes to bring up the brush settings. We need to add scattering and shape dynamics.

Now double click on the glow tails layer, this will bring up the Layer Style dialogue box. Ad glow and change the blending mode to “Colour Dodge“. Again its up to you how much glow you add and what colours you use. My settings are shown below. Now draw on your funky light trails!

All done! Now you can enhance your image further by adding other colours or adding other assest! Up to you! Remember this is just a guide and one way to do it! Experiment with each step to get a different look and make it your own!

PSD File