Trip Home Summer Scene

Manipulation
Posted by: Andrei Oprinca on August 10, 2011 in Manipulations, Tutorials 36
Comments
Welcome to a new manipulation tutorial. I will try to make this easy to follow for
beginners. I will show you how to combine a few free stock images and create a
beautiful warm summer scene. If you followed the Manipulation Secrets series it will be
a lot easier for you to follow this tutorial. Enjoy.

Final result preview

Stock & resources used

Grass field: http://phatpuppy.deviantart.com/art/Phatpuppy-PremadeBackground-138719270

Sky: http://lemnosexplorer.deviantart.com/art/Sunset-s7-Stock-Image105784152

Woman: http://f2fstocks.deviantart.com/art/nv08-89539826

Dog: http://tigg-stock.deviantart.com/art/Dog-stock-9-83787573

Tree: http://cheyenne75.deviantart.com/art/TREE-14-201214809

Birds & butterflies: http://madetobeunique.deviantart.com/gallery/

Grass brushes: http://archeleron.deviantart.com/art/My-Grass-Brushes82240003

Step 1
Start by opening the grass field stock image and reduce its width to 1000px (enable
Constrain Proportion when resizing).

Step 2
Open the sky stock image and use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to select the sky
only, cut it and paste it on a new layer above the grass field. Create a layer mask for the
sky layer and use a soft brush to blend the bottom edge with the grass field.

Step 3
Now that your have the main background structure, its time to make some adjustments
in order to get that warm summer feeling to it. We will first start with the field and then
we will go with the sky.
The best way of achieving the look we want is by using a Gradient Map adjustment
layer. So, add a new gradient map adjustment layer between the sky and the field layers.
Set the blend mode to Overlay. Use the colors shown in the image below.

I wanted to create more sun light on the far side of the field. I used Gradient Fill
adjustment layer this time with a light yellow color and Vivid Light blend mode and
38% Opacity.

Step 4
Now lets move on to the sky. Although it looks spectacular as it is, I wanted to warm it
up just a bit more. Again I used a Gradient Map but with different color settings this
time and I used the layer as Clipping Mask so that the adjustment layer would only
affect the sky.

Step 5
Open the woman stock image and use the Pen Tool (P) to subtract her from the original
background and paste it on your scene above all the layers on the palette. Right away,
create layer mask, we will use it on the next step.

Step 6
Now you have to blend to woman with the grass around her and make her look like
shes really standing in the middle of that field.
For that, the best thing to use is a grass brush. I used the one that I indicated in the
resources section at the beginning of tutorial. Just paint with the grass brush over the
womans feet on the layer mask (make sure that Color Dynamics is deactivated on the
brush settings (F5) ).

Step 7
Just like we did with the sky and the field, we must now make some adjustments to the
woman so that she fits in the scene. Adjust the contrast with the Levels Adjustment
layer and then correct the color using the Photo Filter Adjustment layer, both as
clipping mask so that you only affect the woman.

Step 8

Before adding any other form of life to the scene, lets work on the light a bit. If you
followed the Manipulation Secrets series, when I talked about light, I said that you
should have a main light or key light and that all elements should be placed according to
the main light. You must also cast all shadows according to that light.
We have no natural sun in this scene but lets assume its on the left of the scene. I
created a glow of light to simulate that. I used a big soft brush and light yellow color
(#FAD396). The blend mode used is Overlay. Then, I duplicated the layer and I
changed the blend mode to Screen for more light. You must do this behind the woman.
See image below.

Step 9
Now that we have a sun in the scene, it casts some lights on the woman and other
objects on the scene. Create a rim light on the womans body using Inner Shadow and
Color Dodge blend mode. I explained this technique on the Manipulation Secrets
series Part 3 B) Surface lights. You should add this light on the most important
elements on the scene which we will add on Step 13.

Step 10
Paint a faint shadow of the woman with the brush or if your not good at painting,
duplicate her layer and make it pure black and add somg Gaussian Blur and reduce the
opacity. This will add more depth to the scene.

Step 11

You can make this scene look warmer still by adding some sun rays. Just select a hard
brush with a diameter of about 30px and draw some lines from where you created the
fake sun and then use the Motion Blur filter. I used a light yellow color and the blend
mode I found worked best for this particular scene was Overlay.

Step 12
Open the tree stock image and place it on the right side of the scene as shown in the
image below. You can use the same light trick I shown on step 9 to illuminate the tree
leaves.

Step 13
Add the dog, butterflies and birds to the scene. When you add the dog, flip
it horizontally so that the highlights on its body face the sunlight that you created on
Step 8. In order to blend his feet with the grass use the same technique as with the
woman on Step 6.
Regarding the butterflies and birds, download multiple ones so that you have some
variation.

Step 14
As a last step, select the top most layer on your palette and press
CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E to create merged stamp of all the layers, set its blend mode to
Screen and reduce the Opacity to 20% and youre done.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. As always, feel free to post your comments and share, it
helps a lot. You can post your results on my Flickr group page or on our Facebook wall.