Step
1
For the purpose of this tutorial you
can use the same photo as we did, or you can just follow along with another
photo of yours. Go to and download Stock 44 by The1stGrape-stock. Then open it up in Photoshop – put it on a new layer,
named Original.
Step
2
Now, this girl’s face is actually pretty clean. But if you want you can go ahead and remove any strawberry-marks and the scar in her forehead using the Spot Healing Brush Tool or the Clone Stamp Tool. Use the Clone Stamp Tool at low opacity if you also want to remove some of her make-up. Then use the Smudge Tool and add some noise if necessary to make the edits seem more natural.
Step
3
In the coming steps we will make the
girl’s hair a bit brighter, more like pure white. Duplicate the Original
layer, so that you do not mess things up 
Now working on the copy, go to Image
> Calculations. Use the settings below to create a new selection. Then
create a new layer Hair and fill the selection with white.
Step
4
Create a Layer Mask for the layer Hair.
Fill it with black and start brushing the Layer Mask with a white color to
reveal the white stand of hair. Duplicate the Hair layer to balance the
effect (adjust its opacity to a good level). Group both the hair layers, then
click the eye to hide the group.
Step
5
Right-click on the Original Copy
layer and click “Convert to Smart Object”. This will allow us to apply filters
in a non-destructive way (which is way cool). If you do not have CS3 or later,
you will have to apply the filters in the classic way. Start with Filter >
Stylize > Glowing Edges, then Sharpen > Sharpen.
Step
6
Add a Levels Adjustment Layer to
balance the contrast, place it below the Hair group. Add a Black &
White Adjustment Layer on top of everything.
Step
7
Duplicate the fx layer (Original
copy), set its blending mode to Screen and lower the opacity a bit. If you
used Smart Object, then change the Edge Width of Glowing Edges to 2 for this
layer.
Step
8
Hide both Adjustment Layers, then
create a new layer on top of everything and Stamp Visible (Ctrl + Alt + Shift +
E). Name the layer FX Masked. You can now group Original copy and
Original copy 2 into FX and hide this group. Also, show the Hair
layer.
Step
9
Add a Layer Mask to FX Masked.
Using a black brush, start brushing the mask so that the girl’s face is
becoming visible. Also, all the hair should be masked out so that it does not
look so unreal. This could take some time to get it right. Use soft brushes of
various sizes. You can use the Smudge Tool to smudge the mask a bit in some
places to get a better transition effect. Continue until you have something
that you like. I am going for a half man (woman) / half robot kind of thing
here.
Step
10
Add a new Layer just under the top
Black & White Adjustment Layer, name it Black Fills. Grab a soft brush with low
opacity, start brushing areas to indicate shadows. This will make her face
“pop” a bit more in the picture. Below are my drawn areas indicated in red.
And here it is in black.
Step
11
Now you can extend the canvas size
if you would like to. Do this by going to Image > Canvas Size. I changed the
width to 4000, so that I get some room to work with.
Hide the Hair group, the Original
layer and make sure the background layer is all black. All that is showing now
is the white outlines, right? Good! Go to Channels and click the icon in the
bottom saying “Load channel as selection”, then go back to the Layers palette,
create a new layer and fill it with white.
Double-click the layer and add a bit
of white outer glow to it. Duplicate the layer, increase the size of the outer
glow and lower the opacity of the layer. Group the two outer glow layers into Outline
Glow.
Step
12
Generate a fractal using Apophysis,
or simply download a brush pack with fractals from DeviantArt. Place it
in line with the hand, wrap it with the transform tool and use the Smudge Tool
to fine tune the bends.
Adding more fractals (both white and
black will give you some really cool results).
Step
13
Now for the coloring, add a Color
Balance Adjustment Layer. Place it just below the Outline Glow group.
Step
14
Create a new layer Giant Light,
below your fractals layers. Set the Blending Mode to Screen and Opacity to
about 10%. Set the FG color to a bright blue. Use the Gradient Tool to create a
huge Radial Gradient that extends from the left hand bottom corner way out the
scene (bright blue to transparent).
Step
15
Use this technique with Radial
Gradients and Blending Mode set to Screen to add some more light effects. I
suggest you put each gradient on a separate layer and put them all in one
group.
Step
16
Create a new layer on top of
everything and Stamp Visible (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E). Then select Filter > Distort
> Glass.
Step
17
Set the Blending Mode of the Layer
to Screen. Add a Layer Mask for the and mask out everything except for a wide
stripe to the left of her right cheek.
Step
18
Use the Free Transform Tool (with
Warp) to bend the light so that it gets thinner towards the left edge of the
image. Use the Gradient Tool (black to transparent) to fade the effect.
Step
19
Click the layer icon and pick a soft
brush with the Blending Mode set to Hue. Pick a color from the light coming
from her finger, then draw some light to the wall texture.
Step
20
Download some Bokeh Textures, make a pattern of them and blend/mask as we did in Step
11.
Adding some random shapes on the
right hand side of the image will add some interestingness to it. Go ahead and
add some random stuff. Distort it, blend it – repeat and yeah… you know the
business by now
Finally, add a Hue/Saturation
Adjustment Layer on top of everything to lower the saturation a bit.
Final
Result
For my final image I just made a new
document and composited the image with simple cut and paste. Tell me what you
think about the effect using the Comment-section below!
Click
for Full View