Download the photo used in this tutorial right here: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/887676 Starting with a simple stock photograph we will transform this image into a very cool composition combining 3D motion type streaking colors to imply motion and some cool brushing here in Photoshop to create this very cool image effect. Learn about lots of cool features in Photoshop CS4 in this tutorial!
Finished Image:
1. Download the stock image I am using from the stockXchange (www.sxc.hu) for free. Open the image in Photoshop and we are ready to go.
2. Next we want grab our Crop tool and set the size of the tool to 740x415 and cut the image down to size.
3. Because so much of this image is one color and really pretty much a solid color at that this makes a perfect candidate for The Magic Wand or Quick Selection tools. I was never a huge fan of the Quick Selection tool and it does have its uses, but for this image we will stick with the good...scratch the good, just old Magic Wand tool. Set your Magic Wand like mine and then select the sky area of the image. Next to add to the selection using the Magic Wand we want top hold down the shift key and just click in the area we want to add.
4. Use Select>Invert Selection or the Hotkey Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + I to inverse the selection and wrap those “marching ants” around the snowboarder and not the sky. With him selected use Select>Refine Selection and the settings I have in the following screenshot to get a nice selection around him.
5. Now that we have our selection we can use the copy to new layer hot key Cmd/Ctrl + J to pop him up onto his own layer. Now that we have him on his own layer be sure to select the layer with only the snowboarder and then hold the Cmd/Ctrl key and click the “New Layer” button to add a layer below him. Fill this layer with a dark red by using the hotkey Opt/Alt + Delete/Backspace.
6. Now that we have him on his own layer isolated and on top of a solid, darker, color we can see some areas of imperfection which need help and cleaning up. Typically you would use Photoshop's masking ability to clean this up in a non-destructive way, but here we will be a little lazy and grab the Eraser and clean up under his leg and around the edges of the jacket and really anywhere you feel needs to be touched up.
7. Next we want to draw a gradient across the document and use that to compress into our colored lines of streaking goodness. Select the Gradient tool (G) and select the Gradient Editor up there in the top left of the control bar in Photoshop. With that dialog box open you want to set the gradient type to noise and cut back on the reds and blues in the gradient and randomize it until you get something that is pretty even. We do not want crazy blown out highlights and shadows. Once you get something you like hit Ok.
8. Before we actually draw this green gradient you may be wondering why we are making this green when what we really want is red. I typically like to work with green, I don't know why it's just a personal preference, but feel free to work with red, or blue because we will be shifting the hue in just a moment. Create a new layer below the boarder and hold the Shift key down and draw the gradient from left to right across the document. You should now see this:
9. Next go Image>Adjustments>Hue and Saturation, or hit Cmd/Ctrl + U to bring up the Hue and Saturation dialog box. Use the following settings to go from green to red. NOTE: If you did not use green you will want to play with the Hue slider to achieve the color we have here.
10. Now, with that gradient layer selected, we want to duplicate it three times. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+ J three times to duplicate that layer and shut off the lowest layer (hit the little Eye icon to the left of the layer thumbnail.
11. Select the top most gradient layer we just duplicated and give it these Hue and Saturation settings:
12. Next, on that same layer we want to go Layer>Layer Styles>Blending Options or use the Blending Options pop up menu:
13. Here we want to play with the “Blend If” Sliders. We are going to stick with the top slider for this layer. What we want to do is hold down our Opt/Alt key and click (this will split that slider) and drag the split part of the black slider two thirds of the way across toward the white slider as shown in the screenshot:
14. Next we want to duplicate one of the red gradient layers by dragging it down and dropping it onto the new layer button or by selecting it and using the hot key Cmd/Ctrl + J and drag that red gradient layer above the orange gradient layer:
15. Next de-saturate that red gradient layer by hitting Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + U and then Open the Levels dialog box by going Image>Adjustments>Levels, or Cmd/Ctrl + L. Use the following settings on that De-saturated layer:
16. Next, with the black and white gradient layer selected go Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal and set the layer blend mode to “Screen”:
17. Next, over in the layers panel select the black and white gradient layer and hold the Shift key and select the red gradient (you should be selecting 3 layers total) and hit Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge hose layer together into one. Just ignore that layer group “StreakMaster” that is a bonus tip in the video.
18. Select the snowboarder and use the Move tool (V) and drag him to where ever you want his final position to be. After doing that select the red/orange/white gradient layer and hit Cmd/Ctrl + T to use the Free Transform tool and drag the left and right edges to the tips of his left and right hands respectively. As soon as you have made your changes hit the “Enter” or “Return” key to commit the changes:
19. We now need to mask this streak effect to the arms of this snowboarder. With the streaks layer selected hit the little “New Layer Mask” icon at the base of the layers panel to create a new Layer Mask:
20. Next set your Foreground color to black (D) and then grab the Brush tool (B) and select a simple brush tip by right clicking anywhere on your document and selecting from the dialog that pops up. Then be sure you have selected the Mask by clicking on the white thumbnail to the right of your layer thumbnail and begin painting over all the streak area we want gone as indicated by the screenshot:
21. Now that we have gotten rid of the streaks everywhere else we want to make these streaks look as if they are coming from further behind this snowboarder. Select the streaks layer by selecting the layer thumbnail (not that Mask thumbnail!) and going Edit>Transform>Warp. Now drag the top corners toward each other and play with the handles coming out of the corners to achieve the effect you see below:
22. Now duplicate that layer two times. We now have three copies of the same layer and Layer Mask. Shut off the top-most of these three masked streak layers and select the second of the duplicated streaks layers and set the blend mode to “Soft Light” and select both layer by clicking the top one and holding the Shift key and selecting the lower one, then hit Cmd/Ctrl + E to merge them. Your document should now look something like this:
23. We now want to apply a Layer Mask to this newly merged layer. Select the new Layer Mask button and grab the Brush tool (B) and right click again anywhere on your document and select a big soft edged brush and set the flow down around 40%. Note my settings and brush in the screenshot:
24. Now be sure to select the Mask and paint across the top of the streaks of light to make them fade out nicely.
25. Next turn the masked colored streaks layer back on and select the Mask then drag it to the Garbage Can and choose to “Delete” the Mask. We now have our streaks back as if we had never masked them at all. Next Cmd/Ctrl + Click the snowboarder layer thumbnail to load that as a selection (Note: we should still have the streaks layer selected in the layers panel, we just have the “Marching Ants” wrapped around the snowboarder). Next we simply want to hit Cmd/Ctrl + J to copy that section of the layer onto a New Layer.
26. Take the little shape we just copied up onto a New Layer and drag it above the snowboarder and delete the layer we copied from.
27. Now that the snowboarder is hidden we want to set the copied layer to “Overlay”.
28. Now select that last red gradient we have down in our layers panel and turn that on. Use Hue and Saturation (Cmd/Ctrl + U) to tweak the Hue if needed and then set it’s Blend Mode to “Overlay”.
29. About 5-7 minutes more spent on adding a little text and brushing and you get the final effect (all of the odd-and-ends are covered in the video).
Finished Image:
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