This lesson will teach you how to create a beautiful “Welcome to Thailand” invitation. Our work is based on three simple photos, we will use tools like Curves, Brushes, Layer Styles and Blending options (Blending options mode). ). This lesson will be useful for both beginners and advanced users.
Materials for the lesson:
We should have this:
We use in our lesson the following photos:
Step 1. As always, the first step in creating a composition is to select and cut out the main elements; thus, we will use the selection tool to select a girl. Magnetic Pen Tool (Magnetic pen), you can also use any other selection tool at your discretion, so select the girl with ours.
If, in work, you are using a version of a program not lower than CS 3, then it will be much easier for you to complete the lesson, as in older versions of the program many tools are not available. One such tool is “RefineEdge“(Improving the edges of the selection). When a selection is loaded, use this tool with the following parameters. Notice that the tool parameters depend on the selection you made. If you used a magnetic selection tool, then set the following parameters.
Step 2. The next step in our lesson is to go to the menu “Levels“(Levels), to do this, press the key combination – CTRL+L. Apply the following parameters as shown. Our goal is to achieve a more professional-looking photo by adding light, since the original image looks dark and pixelated. We will improve the photo using Curves (curves) and Levels (Levels). But let’s start with Levels (Levels) to give a photo of light.
Step 3. Now let’s go to the Curves menu and, using the RGB channel, lighten the image, as shown below:
Step 4. Now, our image looks much more professional, less dark and more vivid, almost like a real studio shot. It’s time to transfer the cut girl to the photo of the sky, as shown in the picture below:
Step 5. Now we cut orchids, just like the girl, and transfer them to our composition.
Duplicate the layer of carved orchids and place them around the girl.
We placed one layer in front of the girl, the other behind her, to give the image the illusion of the girl’s surroundings with giant colors.
Step 6. The girl’s clothes seem too complicated, so we decided to remove several lines from her costume, using the tool Brush tool 
(Brush tool) with soft edges and color matching her clothes. Using a medium-sized brush, swipe it along its length, grabbing shadows and seams on clothes. Do not worry that now it looks like something inorganic, later everything will be perfectly combined.
To ensure that the image does not stand out strongly, change the blending mode to Screen (Screen).
Step 7. Processing the skin of a girl is the next step of our lesson. Using the tool Blur tool
(Blur), go over the skin, smooth it out, paying special attention to the places where pixilization is noticeable due to the compression of the JPG format, in other words – where there are color transitions.
This should be your result, with smooth skin, bleached clothes and a general adjustment of the photo layer:
Step 8. Also add a beautiful lace shape – it will add some mystery to our masterpiece. Thus, choose any pattern from your arsenal, but it should not be too elaborate. If you want to use the same arbitrary shape as in the lesson, then download the PSD file, open it in Photoshop, find the layer with the shape and move it to your working document.
Place the form on the photo, while using the white background color.
Step 9. Click Ctrl+T To transform the form, click the right mouse button and in the appeared menu select the command “Distort ”(Distortion), and transform the shape as shown.
Open the menu Layer styles (Layer styles) for this shape and add glow, also using white.
Step 10. Like any modern work of art, it should consist of many layers with lots of small details. Therefore, select Brush tool (Brush) with a pattern of V-leaves, go to the brush settings menu and apply the following options:
With the following scattering settings:
Use light blue as the foreground color and white as the background color. Randomly move the brush on the photo, capturing the border line of colors and shapes.
Step 11. Install blending mode (blending mode) leaves in the mode “Screen“(Lightening), to impart a translucency effect, but so that the leaves remain visible (distinct).
Using a smaller brush and a darker shade of light blue, create a new layer and brush over the image again, capturing the layer with the girl.
Install blending mode (blending mode) leaves that appear in the mode “HardMix“(Hard mixing).
Step 12. At this stage, we will collect the image in a single whole.
Since we want the PSD file to be available for download, we merged all the layers into one group and duplicated it. The first group is the group with which we will work, and the second group will remain unchanged, and if something goes wrong in the work, then you can always go to the second group and start working with it.
Thus, now our image is one whole, not consisting of layers, and we will wake up working with it. Go back to the menu (Curves), reduce the contrast (Red channel), as shown in the figure.
Step 13. Then switch to RGB channel (RGB channel) and lighten up a little bit the image:
Step 14. Create a new layer. Select Gradient tool
(Gradient Fill Tool) and use the default gradient called “medium Spectrum“(Average Spectrum). We will fill this layer with this gradient.
Then draw a line from left to right, completely filling the layer.
Step 15. Set the rainbow layer to “Screen“. Now our image looks half-visible and turns into a masterpiece.
Step 16. Reconnect the layers. (If you previously created a group without merging layers, then simply merge the rainbow layer with the layer below.)
Using the resulting layer, go to the “Curves” menu again, and darken the images by dragging the RGB channel line down.
Step 17. Go to menu Filter >> Sharpen >> SmartSharpen (Filter >> Sharpness >> Smart Sharpness). Apply the following settings. This will give the image not only good sharpness, but also add depth to the colors, freeing up the area for the gradient on the colored edges.
Step 18. Duplicate the layer. Using the top layer, go to menu Filter >> Blur >> GaussianBlur (Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur) and apply the following parameters (set to 3.7 pixels).
Step 19. Set the blending mode of the upper layer (blurred) to “Multiply” mode. This will give the image a glow without affecting sharpness.
