How to create a light dancer in photoshop

In this photoshop tutorial you will see how to create a simple and colorful photo manipulation using only photoshop. You will learn techniques to colorize your brushes and create beautiful light effects. The difficulty of the tutorial is medium.
This is the final result

All brushes used in this tutorials and other resources you need to complete this tutorial are listed below.

Resources needed

The main stock image used on this tutorial is from shutterstock but I saw that it is also available on deviantart.
The brushes that will be used on this tutorial can all be founded on the Light Streak Brushes
Starlight fractal

Step 1

The first thing you have to do is to extract the dancer from the background image and paste it on a different layer but keep that background image because we need part of the floor. Make sure the dancer’s layer is on top of the layer containing the floor.

Create a layer under the dancer and the floor, this will be the background. Using a radial gradient, choose the Foreground Color #11111f, Background Color #000000 and draw a gradient from the center of the image.

Select the layer with the floor and create a layer mask (Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All). Use the Gradient Tool (G)  to create a radial mask and hide part of the dance floor.

Step 2

Make some color adjustments to the dancer using a Curves Adjustment Layer.

Step 3 – The abstract light shapes

It’s time to add the abstract stuff. Open the Starlight image and put it on a new layer between the dancer and the floor layers. Change its Blending Mode to Lighten.

Step 4

Download the Light streak brushes (or use your own if you want) and pick one that you like and paint with it on a new layer.

You have multiple options of coloring your brushes and it’s up to you and your own taste which one you choose.
For this tutorial, I chosen the color gradient technique because it allows you to create more variations in colour. For this technique, create a Clipping Mask for the layer where you painted with the brush (SHIFT+CTRL+N -> Use Previous Layer to create Clipping Mask) and select the Gradient Tool (G). Use the Linear or Radial Gradient and on the Gradient Editor change Gradient Type to Noise. Click the Randomize button until you get something you like and draw the gradient. Apply a 50px Gaussian Blur to the gradient layer in order to get a smoother transitions of the colours and set Blending Mode to Pin Light.

To make it brighter, I also added to the light brush layer an Outer Glow of 191 pixels and 33% Range and set the Blending Mode of the glow to Color Dodge.
Add more brushes and use the same coloring technique.

Step 5 – More light

Create a new layer on top of all layers on the palette, select the Brush Tool (B) and a big soft edge brush. Paint 2 dots with a blue sky color on the dancer’s body and a  yellow one where the hand touches the ground. Set Blending Mode to Overlay.

Select the dancer layer and apply an Outer Glow of 65px, Range 79%  and Blending Mode – Color Dodge.
You can create the glowing dust rising up from the floor using a soft edge brush and apply Shape Dynamics and Scattering.

Step 6 – Color rain

Make a new layer above the background layer (the one with the gradient, that you made on Step 1), fill it with black and go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Set Amount 260%, Uniform and Monochromatic. Apply a Motion Blur filter of 120 pixels and 45º angle.

Open the Levels by pressing CTRL+L and use this settings.

Set Blending Mode to Color Dodge, create a Clipping Mask layer on top of this noise layer and draw a colorful linear gradient. Use the same technique shown in Step 4.

I hope you liked this tutorial and that you learned something new. Of course you can add more things if you like.  Also if you have any questions or want to show your own design post a comment with a link to your image.

Floral design Brushes

Initially made for my other website, www.starbrushes.net, this brush pack is now available here because Starbrushes no longer exists.
There are 52 high resolution brushes in this set. Average resolution is 1200 pixels.

Important:

You have permission to redistribute this brush set on your website as long as you don’t remove or modify the contents of the pack.
You must use the same preview image as in this website (there is a higher resolution image in the pack).
However you are not allowed to sell this set. If you upload these brushes to your site you must specify that Commercial use is not allowed. Also include a link to this page.

                                                                    Download Free

#8 The Brush Tool – Photoshop for Beginners

Learning the basic settings and the potential of the brush tool is very important for any Photoshop beginner. The reason is because besides the fact that you will use the brush tool very often, the same interface and settings are used by other tools like the Eraser  Tool or the Clone Stamp Tool. In this video tutorial I will make you an introduction to the brush settings.

Take My Soul Away – Photoshop Tutorial

In this new tutorial we’re going to learn how to extract an object from a white background,create a paint effect using some brushes and create a quick HDR effect in a few easy steps. So let’s start.

Final Result

Stock used

• Model: http://dxlogic.deviantart.com/art/girl-stock-iii-206766488
• Background: http://knald.deviantart.com/art/Vintage-paper-TEXTURE-PACK-152400787
• Smoke: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1394829
• Paint Spatter Brushes: http://www.starwalt.com/photoshop_stuff4.html
• Floral Collage Brushes: http://www.starwalt.com/photoshop_stuff2.html

Step 1

First we open image of the model. Double-click with left mouse button on it to unlock the Background layer. Duplicate it using Ctrl+J, then hit Ctrl+L (Levels) over the duplicated layer.See the image for the settings i used.You can go even little bit further with the darkening.

 

Step 2

Select Brush Tool (B), hit D on keyboard to bring colors to default and set your foreground brush color to black. Make sure all your brush options are set to 100% and then paint in the same layer, over the light spots to fill them up with black.

Step 3

Now go to Select > Color Range and use the same settings as shown below. Press OK and then go to Layers Palette and turn off the visibility of the duplicated layer.

Step 4

Select model layer and click on the Layer Mask button. Now you can just delete the model copylayer, as we won’t be using it anymore. We needed it only for extraction.
So this was an alternative way for some cutting out, usually people use Channels to do this.

Step 5

So this is only the first stage of the extraction, now we’re going to need to blend this model with a desired background. So create a new layer below the model, grab Paint Bucket (G) and fill it with black color. As you see there are still some white edges. The cut out never works perfectly, so you either have to blend it properly or just do some more accurate extraction.

Step 6

Now let’s go to Layers Palette, right-click on the model layer mask and select Apply Layer Mask. Next hold Ctrl and left click on the model layer thumbnail, this should bring up the selection.

Step7

Select the model layer and hit Ctrl+Alt+R (Refine Edge). Use the same or similar settings as mine. You should see on the live preview on image how it’s working. When your done apply it by hitting OK.Output will create another layer with the settings below applied, so you can just basically delete or just turn off the previous layer.

Step 8

After extracting the model lets’s drop it on our background. Now with the model layer selected let’s create the painted effect with our spatter brushes using the Eraser Tool (E). Now using the same brushes but with the background layer selected erase the part in the front of the model.

Step 9

After we erase the top of the cup we bring our smoke stock. Use the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl+T) to scale the image and put it in the right spot. Set the Blending Mode of the smoke to Darken. Also we’ll add some reflection of the smoke on model’s face. Next, go to the Layers Palette again, hold Ctrl and left-click on the model layer’s thumbnail. This should bring up her selection. Then create new group right above the model layer and while having the selection active click on the Add Layer Mask button. Now when you add anything to this group, it will only affect the silhouette of our model. So first of all, create a new layer in this group and change its Blending Mode to Linear Burn, change the Opacity to max. 30% and paint with soft brush.I used the # f6a8a8 color for the red reflection.

Step 10

In this step we’ll play with the floral brushes above and on the smoke and we are changing some red tones using the Selective Color setting.

Step 11

Now we are going to create a HDR effect from a single image.Apply Flatten Image to the layers first.
Now, go to Image> Adjustments> Shadow/Highlights. Set the Shadow and Highlights amount to 40-50%.

Step 12

Duplicate the layer, then go to Image> Adjustments> Desaturate (for CS3 users, choose Image> Adjustments>Black & White and click OK).
After that, change the layer blending to Hard Light.

Step 13

Let’s add some extra color to the picture. Duplicate the original picture (we will call it Blur), and put it on top of the other layers.
Next go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set the Radius around 40 pixels.
Change the layer blending to Soft Light.
Flatten Image, add some  sharpening and we are done.
Have fun.

Final Result

 

Autumn Leaves Brushes

This pack contains a selection of 5 high resolution autumn leaves brushes.Created with CS5 but should work with all previous CS versions. Download and enjoy.

Carnival Masks Brushes

This pack contains 6 high resolution Photoshop brushes. It was created with Photoshop CC but should work with all previous versions of CS.Enjoy!

Girl stock: http://cathleentarawhiti.deviantart.com/art/Ellena-5-385292811