It sometimes takes a long time to find the perfect photo. Sometimes the object in the photo needs retouching, or the background just doesn’t fit. In this lesson, I will show you how to combine different objects into one composition. I will tell you how to find an image and explain some methods of combining images.
Let’s look at the final image:
Additional materials:
Step 1. The difficult part in this lesson is to combine several images into one, so that they are as similar as possible in terms of scale and perspective.
There are many free stock sites with images, for example: stock.xchng, morgueFile and Flickr (do not forget to read the terms of use of images on these sites); paid stock sites: Thinkstock or pixmac.
For the composition that we want to create, you need a car that is in the background. In our case, the background for the car will be expensive.
Step 2. After the background is found, you need to check the car for compliance with the scale and perspectives in relation to the road. To do this, create a new document of 1200 × 800px size, transfer the image with the road to it and adjust its size using the tool Free transform (Free Transform).
Now open the image Car, make sure that the layer with it is active and enter the menu Layer – Mask Layer – Hide All (Layer Mask> Reveal All) to add a layer mask to the layer. Using a black brush, separate the car from the background by painting over a layer mask. As you can see, the car looks good, but is not at the right angle to the road.
After a long search, I found a car that perfectly suits us: Honda S2000 4.
Step 3. Open the image of the Honda S2000 4 in Photoshop and with the tool Pen
(Pen Tool (P)) in contour mode, separate the vehicle from the background on which it is located.
Right-click on the created contour and select To form a selected area, then transfer the car separated from the background to our background with the road. With the tool Scaling: Edit – Transform – Scale (Edit> Transform> Scale), reduce the car to about 97% of its original size.
Step 4. When you take an object from another image and transfer it to yours, as in our case with a car, you need to carefully look at whether there is a reflection on the surface of this object and what is reflected in it. On our car there is a reflection of trees and sky. As you understand, the reflection on the car cannot exist by itself, we will have to add to our illustration a tree and the sky, which create the reflection.
Step 5. Open the image Tree. It is necessary to separate the tree from the sky so that it blends harmoniously into the general background of the image. First, duplicate the layer with the tree. With the active duplicate layer enter the menu: Image – Correction – Hue / Saturation (Image> Adjustments> Hue / Saturation) and set the Saturation parameter: -100.
Further enter the menu Image – Correction – Curves (Image> Adjustment> Curves) – this method will help to darken the branches, thereby facilitating their separation from the sky.
Now enter the menu Selection – Color Range (Select> Color Range), change the Scatter setting to 200. The tree will be highlighted.
In the palette Layers activate the original tree layer and enter the menu Layer – New – Copy to New Layer (Layer> New> Layer via Copy), in order to create a third layer with a tree.
Now activate the third layer with the tree and enter the menu Layer – Edge Editing – Remove White Halo (Layer> Matting> Remove White Matte). For a while, lower the opacity of the tree layer so that we can see the background of that image where we place the tree. Place the tree on the grass to the right of the road and change its size.
Step 6. It is necessary to remove all unnecessary parts around the tree. To do this, enter the menu Layer – Layer Mask – Hide All (Layer> Add Layer Mask> Reveal All) and on the appeared layer mask with a black brush mask those parts of the tree that you want to remove. The tree should merge smoothly with the grass.
Step 7. The background layer with the road looks a bit blurry, without contrast. To fix this, apply the Levels command to the background: Image – Correction – Levels (Image> Adjustment> Levels) and move the black slider slightly to the right.
Also, with the help of levels, adjust the car layer.
Step 8. Now let’s start creating a shadow from under the car. Activate the car layer, then enter the menu: Selection – Load Selection (Select> Load Selection) – a selection will appear around the car. Create a new layer and fill the selection with black color on it. Now apply a Gaussian Blur filter to the resulting shadow layer: Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur), blur radius 12px.
Using tool Move
(Move Tool (V)), move the layer with the blurred shadow under the car layer and move it slightly to the left. Add a mask layer to the shadow layer via the menu: Layer – Layer Mask – Hide All (Layer> Add Layer Mask> Reveal All) and hide some black areas of the shadow with a black brush on the layer mask.
Now load the selection for the car layer.: Selection – Load Selection (Select> Load Selection) and fill the selection on the new layer with black. To this layer, apply the Blur in motion filter: Filter – Blur – Blur in motion (Filter> Blur> Motion Blur):
Add a layer mask to the blurred shadow layer of the car, and mask those black areas of this layer that extend beyond its edges.
Step 9. Create a new layer above the car layer. With a black brush with a hardness of 0%, a diameter of 20 pixels and an opacity of 20%, mask the light areas of the tires.
Step 10. Now draw the windshield of the car. For this tool Pipette
(Eyedropper Tool) take a sample of color from the inside of the door. Then, create a new layer above the car and brush layer with a stiffness of 0% and start painting the windshield. For a layer with glass, reduce the opacity to 80%.
Step 11. To give the future poster a small retro effect, add an adjustment layer. Gradient map (Gradient Map) on top of all layers. For the gradient, choose the colors purple and orange.
Reduce the opacity of the adjustment layer to 15%. Duplicate the gradient map adjustment layer and for the duplicate layer change the blending mode to Overlap (Overlay). In the Layers palette, place a duplicate of the gradient map adjustment layer under the original gradient map layer.
Step 12. Add a yellow-orange sunset to the image. Create a new layer above the background layer and set the yellow-orange color (# FFAE00) in the color palette. Activate the tool Gradient 
(Gradient Tool (G)), select a gradient from foreground color to transparent and draw a gradient along the horizon line.
For a layer with a horizon, change the blending mode to Soft light (Soft Light) and lower the layer opacity to 20%. Since the horizon has a yellow-orange color, the same color needs to be added to the car. Create a new layer above the car layer, set the yellow-orange color ((# FFAE00)) as the foreground color and paint the horizon and paint over the edges of the car. Set the blending mode for this layer. Soft light (Soft Light) and lower the opacity to 20%:
Now you need to get rid of the backlight, which is not on the car. Select the car layer and enter the menu Selection – Load Selection (Select> Load Selection) in order to load the selection around the car. Now select the layer with the windshield and enter: Selection – load selection (Select> Load Selection) and turn on the Add to Selection marker.
Next, enter the menu Selection – Inversion (Select> Inverse), select the layer with the edges drawn in yellow-orange color and press the Del key.
Step 13. Now add text to the poster “TAME THE ROAD. “Font League Gothic in red (# CC3333). Under this text, place the slogan in slightly smaller letters and black.
Step 14. Go to the creation of the logo. First, activate the tool Text
(Horizontal Type Tool (T)) and write the text that will be located inside the logo. I will write “DESIGN INSTRUCT MOTORS”. Now use the Ellipse Tool to draw a red circle (# CC3333) around the text.
Now duplicate the red circle layer: Layer – create duplicate layer (Layer> Duplicate Layer) and duplicate layer fill in gray (#CCCCCC). Increase the gray circle using the Free Transform tool: Edit – Free Transform (Edit> Free Transform).
Add a layer style to the outer circle. Inner shadow
Stamping
Gloss
Circuit
Gradient overlay
Go to the red circle layer and add layer styles to it Inner shadow:
Gradient overlay:
Go to the text layer in the logo and add layer styles to it Shadow
Stamping:
Tie two circles together through the chain icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and with the tool Free transforme (Free Transform), pull the top center marker down to make an oval from the circle. Select layers with ovals and text and merge them into one layer.
Reduce the logo and place it in the right bottom edge of the poster. I also added contact information to the bottom left corner.
Step 15. Add flying birds around the text. Download and install the bird brush.
Step 16. In the final step, add sharpness to the image using the filter Colour contrast (High Pass). First, merge all the layers into one and duplicate the resulting layer. Apply the Color Contrast filter to the duplicate layer: Filter – Other – Color Contrast (Filter> Other> High Pass) with a radius of 10px and change the blending mode for this layer to Soft light (Soft Light)
In this lesson, we combined several images to create a single composition. This is our final result:
Posted by: Tyler Denis
Transfer: Lugovskikh Tatiana
Link to the source of the lesson
