Free Photoshop Composite Tutorial — Starry Overlook
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In lesson 1 you’ll cover several concepts, including how to make a selection in Photoshop with the Quick Selection Tool, how to adjust selections with Select and Mask in Photoshop, and how to make a selection in Photoshop with the Pen Tool.
Step 1: Open the images in Photoshop
Head to the project files and open mountain-peak.jpg and mountain-range.jpg in Photoshop. You can open the images directly in Photoshop by going to File ► Open and then direct to the images on your computer.
Step 2: Mask out the rock with the Quick Selection Tool
In this step, you’ll learn how to make a selection in Photoshop with the Quick Selection Tool.
Grab the Quick Selection Tool (hotkey Q) in the Photoshop Toolbar and set the hardness to 100%. On a Mac, hold Control + Option and drag the mouse to the left or right to adjust the size and up or down to adjust the hardness. On a PC, hold Alt + Right Mouse and drag the mouse to the left or right to adjust the size and up or down to adjust the hardness.
Now, start drawing around the area you want to select. If your selection goes out of the boundaries that you want to be selected just hold Alt or Option to switch the Quick Selection Tool from “Add to Selection” to “Remove from Selection.” You’ll know this has changed because the “+” in the middle of the Quick Selection Tool will change to “-“.
Once you’re happy with the selection head to Select and Mask by going to Select ► Select and Mask.
Go ahead and add a slight feather to the selection in the adjustments on the right panel. Then click Invert to make sure we’re removing the area outside the rock. In the video, the area that we want to remove will be red. Last, in the Output Settings select New Layer with Layer Mask in the drop-down. This option creates a completely new layer with the mask we just created already applied. I like doing this so we have the original layer untouched in case we need it later.
Step 3: Remove the woman with the Pen Tool
Switch to the Pen Tool (hotkey P) and start making a path around the woman. If you need a refresher on how to use the Pen Tool be sure to check out our video for a quick recap.
Once you finish the path, right-click on it and choose Make Selection. Add a slight feather if you want, and then click OK to turn the path into a selection.
Again, we’ll want to invert the selection so we’re masking out the woman. To do this quickly with the shortcut Shift-CMD-I (Shift-CTRL-I on Windows) or if you prefer you can head to Select ► Inverse.
Once you’ve made the right selection you can click on the mask on the mountain peak layer from the last step and switch to your Brush Tool (hotkey B) and set your foreground color to Black (#000000). Then paint away the woman with the black brush.
Step 4: Remove the sky with the Quick Selection Tool
Next is to remove the sky in the mountain range image. To do this, use the Quick Selection tool just like you did in step 2. The only thing different here is that you might want to add a bit more feather to the selection in the Select and Mask panel. I added more feather here because I wanted the edges in the distance to have a softer edge compared to the peak that’s a lot closer to the viewer.
Step 5: Save your main Photoshop file
Last, make sure you save your hard work in Photoshop by heading to File ► Save As.
In lesson 2 you’ll learn how to use the gradient tool in Photoshop, replace the sky, and how to add photograph textures with blend modes.
Step 1: Add cloud and star layers to composition
Go to the source files and open sky.jpg in Photoshop and use the Transform Tool (CMD-T or CTRL-T) to scale and move the layer where you want. Make sure you’re holding down Shift when you scale the image so that it scales proportionally. Also, make sure this layer is behind the mountain layers so it appears correctly in the composition.
Head back to the source files and open star.jpg and place it on top of the sky layer. Then change the blend mode to Overlay to see the sky and star layers interact nicely.
Step 2: Adjust contrast with Black & White Adjustment Layer
To add contrast using the Black & White Adjustment Layer, you’ll first need to create the adjustment layer. To do this just head to the bottom of your Layers Panel and click the half white and black circle. Then select Black & White from the drop-down. You can set the sliders to any value you want, but to keep it easy I just clicked on Auto to let Photoshop pick values for me.
Then, change the blend mode of this adjustment layer to Soft Light and you’ll see the contrast increase in the sky.
Step 3: Make colors pop with Vibrance
You’ll add a Vibrance adjustment layer into the sky layers to bring out some of the colors. Adjust the Vibrance slider first and then use the Saturation slider to make subtle adjustments if needed.
Step 4: Use a gradient to add smooth contrast
You’ve seen how you can use the Black & White adjustment layer to add contrast to an image, and now you’re going to use a similar technique using the Gradient Fill adjustment layer.
First, add a Gradient Fill adjustment layer and set the far-left color to pure black with an opacity of 100% and the far-right color to pure white with an opacity of 0%. Make sure the Style is set to Linear and adjust the angle so the black starts at the top of the sky. Now, just like you did with the Black & White adjustment layer, set the blend mode to Soft Light and see how the contrast changes.
Step 5: Tweak colors with Channel Mixer
Next, you’ll tweak the colors in the sky layers using the Channel Mixer adjustment layer. After adding the layer, adjust the settings in the Output Channel to whatever value you want, but make sure their values add up to 100. If you need to recap the Channel Mixer adjustment layer be sure to check out this video.
After making adjustments to the color in the sky, you may want to mask out certain areas so the effect is only seen in parts of the image. To do that, just add a layer mask and use the brush tool to paint the effect on or away.
Feel free to go back into this adjustment layer or any other one that you’ve created and tweak the settings at any time.
Step 6: Create texture effect in composition
Let’s create some cool texture effects using the speckle-texture.jpg in the source files. After opening this image in Photoshop, place it in the composition and change the blend mode to something like Soft Light. Right now this muted a lot of the color adjustments that you just made in the previous step, but you’ll fix that in the next step.
Step 7: Add color to the sky with gradient fill
To bring some more color to the speckled texture you can create a new Gradient Fill adjustment layer. Make sure it’s clipped to the speckle layer by hovering over the adjustment layer and holding Alt of Option, then clicking on the speckle layer. By clipping this adjustment layer, you’re ensuring the effect is only applied to that specific layer.
Pick any colors you want for your gradient and the experiment with the blend modes to see the effect you get. Also, if the effect is too much at first remember you can always adjust the opacity of the layer!
In lesson 3 you’ll create more atmosphere in the sky layer using cloud images and Photoshop blending modes. Plus, you’ll learn how to make silhouettes in Photoshop with the Color Fill adjustment layer.
Step 1: Turn mountain layers into a silhouette
Group the two mountain images together by selecting them and hitting CMD-G on a Mac or CTRL-G on a PC. Now, add a Color Fill adjustment layer and set the color to black and make sure it’s clipped to the group. You can clip the adjustment layer by holding Option or Alt while hovering over the layer. You’ll see the icon change to an arrow, which means that the adjustment layer will be clipped to the group beneath it. After clipping, you’ll see the Color Fill apply just to the mountain layers, which will create the silhouette.
Step 2: Create atmosphere with cloud layers
Start by adding one of the cloud images to your Photoshop project and change the blend mode to screen, or any other blend mode you like. Adjust the overall opacity as needed and use a mask to hide or reveal certain areas of the layer.
Repeat this process for all the cloud images until you get the desired effect.
In lesson 4 you’ll learn how to make planets in Photoshop and how to use Photoshop layer styles to add effects.
Step 1: Prepare the planet surface image
Open planet-map.jpg from the source files and crop a square section from the image.
You’ll find the crop tool in your Photoshop Toolbar or with the hotkey C. If your Photoshop Toolbar is hidden, go to Window ► Tools to turn it on.
You can set a 1:1 (square) ratio at the top of the Photoshop menu.
Step 2: Create a circular selection from the square crop
After making the square crop in Photoshop, select the Elliptical Marquee Tool. The tool should be grouped with other Marquee Tools in your Photoshop Toolbar.
Now hold shift to make a perfect circle and select a section from the square crop, making sure you give some room on the sides.
Head down to add a mask to the layer and go ahead and apply the mask by right-clicking on the mask and select Apply Layer Mask.
Step 3: Use the Spherize Photoshop Effect
To make the circular selection look realistic you’ll add the Spherize Photoshop effect. First, head to Filter ► Distort ► Spherize and set the adjustment to 100%. Do this again, but this time set the adjustment to 50%. I like doing this twice with one set being 100% and one being 50% because I think it generates a better result.
Step 4: Adjust color & add layer styles to the planet
Change the color of the planet layer by adding a Hue & Saturation Adjustment layer and clipping it to the planet. Make sure Colorize is checked and adjust the hue and saturation slider until you get the desired color.
To create a glow around the planet you’ll use Photoshop Layer Styles. To access this panel just double-click on the planet layer and a new window will open.
Go down and check Outer Glow and set a gradient from a light blue to transparent, and make sure the blend mode is set to Screen. You may need to adjust Opacity, Spread, Size, and other settings to get the desired effect. What we’re going for here is a subtle glow, so just keep that in mind.
Step 5: Add a mask and adjust positioning of the planet
By adding a gradient mask to the planet layer, the Outer Glow added in the last step will be seen closer to the bottom-center of the planet. This will help to make the light seem to peek over the edge of the mountain range once we move the planet to the center of the composition.
Last, Transform (CMD-T or CTRL-T) the planet to make it large and place it in the center of the composition.
In lesson 5 you’ll learn a technique for creating Photoshop lighting effects from scratch, add final color adjustments, and learn how to export an image in Photoshop.
Step 1: Create light beams
Open sand-light-effect.jpg image in Photoshop and place it towards the bottom left of the project. You’re setting it here because the lines in the sand go from top left to bottom right, which is the direction we want the light beams to be going. We’ll make sure the light beams go the other way for the right side later in the tutorial.
Before you add a Motion Blur to this layer, go ahead and make it into a Smart Object so you’re editing non-destructively. This will ensure that you can come back to this layer and adjust any effect that you added.
Now that you’ve converted this layer into a Smart Object, head to Filter ► Blur ► Motion Blur. Set the angle in the direction of the lines in the sand, which are top left to bottom right. Crank up the Distance quite a bit, something over 1,000 should work great.
Change the blend mode to Screen to make this effect come to life. Use the Transform Tool (CMD-T or CTRL-T) to adjust the height and width as needed. Also, you may want to adjust the opacity to tweak the effect’s intensity.
Once you’re done with the left side, duplicate the layer (CMD-J or CTRL-J). To mirror the layer, head to Edit ► Transform ► Flip Horizontal. Use the Transform Tool again to adjust this layer and add a bit of variance to this layer so it’s not an exact duplicate.
Step 2: Add final adjustment layers
The sky appears a bit muted since adding these light layers, so go ahead and create a Vibrance adjustment layer to make the colors in the sky pop.
To add a bit more interests in the image, you may want to add a bit more contrast. One way of doing this is to add a Curves adjustment layer. An easy way to add contrast is by creating an S-curve. To do this just add two points on the curve and pull the top one towards the left and the bottom point towards the right. See, it looks like an “S” just like the name suggests.
Step 3: Export project for the web
To save the project for the web head to File ► Export ► Save for Web (Legacy).
Here you’ll want to drop your quality adjustment to save space on the final export (thus faster load times on the web) and resize the image from its original 6000×4000 size.
Step 4: Export project in Instagram
You could crop the original file for Instagram, but I typically suggest you duplicate the original project and then make changes to the project. This way you’re not going to make the mistake of possibly messing up the original file.
To duplicate an image head to Image ► Duplicate and then name the new project.
With your new project created, you can make changes to this file without worrying about messing up the original.
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