We Bring The Peace – Manipulation Tutorial

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a SF and set the luminosity for the layers to create the perfect light effect,use some brushes, change the color balance and the curves for some nice result.

Resources :

Road: http://lexidh-stock.deviantart.com/art/Road-047-43797467
Dark Clouds: http://smoko-stock.deviantart.com/art/Storm-Clouds-2-100370613
Starfield: http://tbh-1138.deviantart.com/art/Starfield-182046031
Starship #1: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1107409
Starship #2: http://gd08.deviantart.com/art/spaceship-02-png-187795328
Industrial Building: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1376891
Optical Flare: http://www.psdbox.com/stock/high-quality-optical-flares/
Nebula Stocks: http://moonchilde-stock.deviantart.com/gallery/4445978
Planets: http://resurgere.deviantart.com/gallery/?5741
Halo Warrior: http://jagged-eye.deviantart.com/art/CCE-Halo-1a-217339207

Step 1

First we create a New(Ctrl+N) transparent layer (mine was 2000x2000px) where we’ll drag our stocks.The first stock we’ll drag will be the road.Because we don’t need such a big background we’ll crop it with the Crop Tool(C) a little bit after dragging it on our transparent background.So here is how this should look like the process.

Step 2

Now we need to bring our dark clouds over our manipulation.After dragging it over we’ll use a soft eraser to erase the parts of the clouds we don’t need on our work, especially on the lower part.

Step 3

In this step we’ll add some spectacular nebulas and a star-field with different opacity.For the first nebula we’ll set the layer to Soft Light.For the second we set it to Overlay,then for the star-field to Lighten.

Step 4

Now we’ll add some star ships and planets and also another nebula for more color on our work.Drag the planets and using a soft brush,erase the parts we don’t need on our background.Than add the colourful nebula on the background and set it to Soft Light.Also erase the parts that you don’t want the nebula to cover.Drag the second star ship.

Step 5

Here comes the industrial background and our halo warrior.Because of the high quality of the image and it’s on white background it will be easier to cut it.After dragging our warrior with the layer of the road selected we need some shadows below his feet,so with the layer of the road selected using the Burn Tool with the Range set to Mid tones and the Exposure set to 15% we add some soft shadows.Now with the layer with the warrior we also add the lens flare from the nebula. 

Step 6

We need some more color in the picture so we create a Color Balance layer.The results might be different depends on your preferences but here’s are mine.

Step 7

Now let’s add some even more color in the background with a new Curves layer.After some adjustements on the RGB Chanels (7A) we’ll erase some parts with the Eraser Tool to create some nice blueish effect on the planets and the right side of the warrior (7B)

Step 8

We also play in a new Selective Color layer .Here are some nice settings.

Step 9

I added a little warmth using the Photo Filter,but you can play with any filter you think it fits for your manipulation.After this we are almost ready but we need some more sharpness. Flatten Image and using the same settings as i used on my Song For A Raven tutorial we’ll add more crispness on the manipulation.Go to Image >Mode >Lab Color.Go to Channel palette and click on the Lightness channel.Now go to to Filter >Sharpen >sharp Mask.Here are the settings i used for this Amount 65%, Radius 3, Threshold 2

Final

Source: psdbox.com