In this Photoshop tutorial, the author of Jenny Le will tell you how to create a surrealistic light portal. You will learn how to combine stock images and apply retouching, use layer masks and various techniques to create spectacular scenes.
Here is our final result:
Sources:
Let’s start!
Step 1
Create a new document and fill it with any color. I use white color and size 1000×1000 px (pixels).
Open the background image. Use the tool “Move \ Move” 
(V) drag the image into your work document. I only use part of the background. You can choose any part of the background image that you like.
Result after dragging:
Name this layer “Earth” (or as you like).
Step 2
I want to change the image of the sky on the left side of the picture, because I don’t think it looks very realistic.
To do this, standing on the “Earth” layer, I use the tool ” Lasso \ Lasso Tool
“(hot key” L “), to select the desired area on the right side of the image. When the contour is closed, right-click on the formed area. From the submenu, select the” Feather “tab. Feather radius, set 0.5 pixels:
Right-click on the formed area, from the submenu, select the item “Copy to new layer \ Layer via Copy“. So our selected part of the image was copied to a new layer. Move it to the left to hide the part that needs to be fixed. ?? Then select”Edit-Transform – Display Horizontally \ Edit-Transform-Flip Horizontal“:
Standing on the layer where the copied particle is located, click on the “Add layer mask 
\ Add layer mask “at the bottom of the layers panel, then use a soft black brush on the layer mask to merge the copied part with the general background:
Step 3
Press the key combination “Cmd / Ctrl + Shift + N“to create a new layer. Use the tool”Stamp 
\ Clone Tool “to remove birds from the background. Press the” S “key to select this tool (settings are shown below). Make sure that”Sample“tab selected”All layers \ Sample all layer “:
Hold “Alt“to select the source of the clone (sample). Choose the points closest to the birds. If you are not familiar with this tool, I recommend to go through the appropriate lesson on the site. Here is my result:
Step 4
Open the sky image. You can use your own images, but it’s better to choose a dark sky with good contrast – it will save your time. Using the tool “Displacement e \ Move Tool“drag it into our canvas to replace the sky background. You can convert and resize this layer to fit your photo (click”Cmd / Ctrl + T“to distort it).
Notice that I place the bright part of the sky in the middle of the top of the image to make the light shining from behind the portal (we will see this effect in the following steps).
After transforming the layer, name it “Sky”. Add a layer mask to the “Sky” layer, process the lower part with a soft black brush, for a smooth transition:
Step 5
There is a lot of noise on the “Sky” layer. To fix this, I duplicate the “Sky” layer (click Cmd / Ctrl + J), I turn to “Filter – noise – dust and scratches \ Filter-Noise-Dust Scratches“:
Create a layer mask for the sky copy. Then, using a soft black brush on the mask layer, process the parts that you do not want to blur (want to leave more sharp):
Step 6
Now we will create a portal.
Open the image “Rock”. You can use your own images if you cannot download this material from PhotoXPress. Open the image in Photoshop. Separate the rock from the main background by a convenient method for you (I use the tool “Polygonal Lasso 
\ Polygonal Lasso Tool“, as it is very easy in this case):
Move the “Rock” image into your work and place it in the center of the composition. Scale to fit:
Duplicate the “Scala” layer. Apply “Editing – Transform – Flip Horizontal \ Flip Horizontal“. Then move the copy to the right, place it as shown below:
Add layer masks for these rock layers. When working with masks, use a black brush with a high hardness (70-80%) (do not use a soft brush, it will give a very soft and unnatural result in this case) to clean some parts of the lower, upper, and central parts of the rocks. Below you see how I apply this brush to each of the rocks (now I call the “Portal Part 1” and “Portal Part 2” cliff layers – we got the portal doors):
Step 7
Let’s give depth to our portal. Create one new layer (as clipping mask \ slipping mask) above each part of the portal. Set the blending mode to new layers. “Overlapping \ Overlay“and fill them with 50% gray:
On the new layers, to darken and lighten some parts of the portal, use the tools “Lightening 
\ Dodge Tool“and”Blackout
\ Burn Tool“(press O) with a range of”Mid Tones \ Midtone“:
– 50-55% – Brightening \ Dodge Tool
– 20 – 30% – Darkening \ Burn Tool
I change the blending mode to “Normal” to let you see how these tools were applied (bright parts – “Brightening \ Dodge Tool”, dark parts- “Blackout \ Burn Tool”):
Result in “ Overlapping \ Overlay“:
Step 8
In this step, we will create a portal door shadow.
Create a new layer below the “Portal Part 1” layer. Hold the key Cmd / ctrl and click inside the thumbnail of the “Portal Part 1” layer to load the selection:
Go to “Editing – execute fill \ Edit -Fill“and fill this selection with black:
Select “Editing – Transform – Flip Vertical \ Edit-Transform-Flip Vertical“then click Cmd / Ctrl + T, to convert this part:
Lower the opacity of the shadow layer to 30%:
To get a softer look for this shadow, select “Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur \ Filter-Blur-Gassian“and set the radius 3:
Add a layer mask and using a soft black brush (Opacity and Press approximately 50%), blur the top and right parts of the shadow:
Using the same techniques we create a shadow for another part of the portal:
Step 9
I need to add more light to the portal, I use the effect “Inner Shadow \ Inner Shadow“because the light comes from the back. Right-click on the portal layer (working with each of the Portal Part 1 and Portal Part 2 layers), select”Layer Style – Inner Shadow \ Blending Options-Inner Shadow“and fill in the following settings:
We got the following result:
Step 10
To fix some parts of the portal, I again use the tool “Stamp \ Clone Tool“. Create a new layer, on top of the rest, and use this tool to remove some unwanted parts, as shown in the screenshot below:
Step 11
To change the light and contrast of the image, create a new layer and click G to activate the toolGradient 
\ Gradient Tool“. Select”Radial Gradient“set the default colors (black and white). Drag the gradient line from the center down:
Change the blending mode of this layer to “Soft light \ Soft light“(100% opacity):
Step 12
Let’s obscure the earth. Create a new layer. On it, using a soft brush with color # 091425, paint over the surface of the earth leaving a small undyed part around the portal. Put the layer blending mode “Multiplication \ Multipy“(100% opacity):
We changed the mood of the photo – from day to night.
Step 13
Open the “Fire” image. Make a selection around the “burning” part, then copy it into our document. Changing the size and converting the “Fire” (Cmd / Ctrl + T), place it on the portal:
Change the blend mode of the “Fire” layer to “Screen \ Screen“(100% opacity). You can see the darkest parts disappear. I add a layer mask to remove the remaining dark part and remove light highlights in some places to make the image look natural. You can change the size of the brush when working on a layer mask to achieve the best result:
Duplicate this layer and apply to copyEditing – Transform – Flip Horizontal \ Flip Horizontal“Use the layer mask using the method described above to make these lights appear out of the gap between the portal doors. Name these layers“ Light 1 \ light 1 ”and“ Light 2 \ light 2 ”:
Step 14
On the layer “Light 1 \ light 1”, I make a selection of the shining area and apply “Feather \ feather“= 0.5. Copy this part to a new layer, as we did in step 2. Move it above the light layer. Place the” particle of light “on the top of the portal. You can use”Eraser 
\ Eraser Tool“to clear all unnecessary fragments:
Step 15
To make the gap between the portal doors more noticeable, create a new layer and using a white brush, draw a line from the top to the bottom of the slot. Change the blending mode of the layer with the white line to “Overlapping \ Overlay “(100% opacity):
Step 16
In this step, we will add more light to the front of the portal. Create a new layer and use a soft brush with color. # ffd865 process the lower area of the portal, and then set the blending mode to “Overlapping \ Overlay“(opacity 70%). When drawing, I use a 100% opacity brush in the central part of the portal and reduce the opacity to 70% when processing the rest of the surface:
Step 17
Create a few rays of light emanating from the crevices. To do this, form a new layer. On it, use a soft brush with color ffd865 put a dot as shown below:
Press the key combination Cmd / Ctrl + T, to stretch it in length:
Set the layer blend mode to dotOverlapping \ Overlay“(layer opacity is 70%). You can use layer masks to remove any unwanted parts.
Name the layer with the stretched point “Ray”. Duplicate the “Ray” layer and move it to the right:
Create another copy of the “Ray” layer. Move the new beam to the center and increase the opacity of the layer to 100%:
Step 18
Open the image “Man”. Separate the man from the background, reduce and place it in front of the portal:
Name this layer “Man \ man”.
Create a new layer under the “Man” layer. Use the methods from step 8 to make a shadow on the ground for a person. Let’s name this layer “Human Shadow 1 \ man shadow 1”:
Create an additional shadow to make it look like a man really stands on the ground.
Create a new layer between the “Man” and “Human Shadow 1” layers (name the layer “Human Shadow2 \ man shadow 2”). Use a very soft black soft brush (3-5 pixels) to draw a shadow under the person’s feet.
Step 19
To change the color and lighting / shadows of a person (to match the overall background and mood), I use several adjustment layers. I place correction layers above the “Man” layer (we use these layers as clipping masks \ slipping mask).
Correction layers:
“Curves \ Curves“:
“Selective color correction \ Selective Color“:
“Hue / Saturation \ Hue / Saturation“:
On a layer mask “Curves \ Curves“, use a soft black brush to hide the unwanted effect of the correction layer on the person’s hands:
Step 20
To darken the shirt, because it looks too bright on a dark background, I create a new layer (like a clipping mask / clipping mask) and take a brush with color202229 I paint over my shirt. Change the blend mode of this layer to “Multiplication \ Multipy“(opacity set 80%):
To darken jeans I use a brush with color # 1b2030. To darken jeans, create another layer (like “clipping mask \ slipping mask”). Set the layer blending mode to “Multiplication \ Multipy“(100% opacity):
Step 21
It is necessary to create a glare of light on a person from the rays of the portal. Use for this effect “Inner Shadow \ Inner Shadow effect“. Right click on the” Man “layer, select”Blending Options“. I use a bright yellow color (# fde6c6) for light effect:
Step 22
In order to make this glow more noticeable, we use three more additional layers (like “clipping masks \ slipping mask”) to the “Man” layer.
On the first layer, take a soft brush with a very small size (color # ffd865) and draw a man around the contour.
You must do this carefully and creating a thin outline. When done creating the outline, set the blending mode for this layer to “Color \ Color“(100% opacity). For the other two layers, use blending mode “Normal \ Normal” (80% opacity) and “Overlapping \ Overlay“(opacity 80%):
Step 23
Correct the overall color of our image. To do this, we will create two adjustment layers on top of all the previous ones.
“Selective color correction \ Selective Color“:
“Color Balance \ Color Balance“:
Result after color correction:
Step 24
Let’s make the sky darker. Create a new layer at the top. Use a soft brush with color # 56707d for processing the edges of the sky, set the layer blending mode “Multiplication \ Multipy“(100% opacity):
Step 25
In the last step I use the adjustment layer “Levels \ Levels “(we will place this layer on top of all the others), it will help us to increase the contrast, especially of light tones. Go to”Layer-New adjustment layer-Levels“, reducing the value of midtones, but increasing the shadow and glare:
On the layer mask “Levels \ Levels”, using a soft black brush to reduce the contrast of the sky and the earth.
Here is our final result:
