The Making of an Actress Angle

In this tutorial we will learn how to create a beautiful effect on an actress. The tutorial involves the use of blending modes, pen tools and some lighting techniques.

Final Result

Preparations:

• The bad Actress by Velline

Download the image from the link above and we are ready to go!

Step 1

Firstly we need to cut the actress out of the background but in this tutorial we don’t need to remove the black background. So use the Brush tool with Black foreground color to remove the stars around her.

Next, use the Pen tool to make a pen path around her body

Right click and select “Make Selection”

 

Step 2

Copy the selection area and create a new document about 600px width and paste the actress on it.

Select the Background layer on the new document and fill it with Black so that it blends well with the actress

 

Step 3

Press Ctrl(Command)-J to duplicate “the actress” layer. Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and use the values shown below

Notice that by moving the white slider to the left, we will make the photo brighter. If you try moving the black slider to the right, the photo becomes darker.

 

Step 4

Change the Blending Mode of the current layer to Overlay. This mode helps increase the contrast of the photo.

 

Step 5

Next we will paint some light around her body. Select the Pen tool on the left toolbar and try to make a curve like this

Place the third point on her shoulder. Now we have a nice curve around her body and this will be the path for the light dots.

 

Step 6

Create a new layer, we will paint light dots on this layer but before that we need to adjust some settings of the brush tool. Select the Brush tool and pick up a small soft brush (Master Diameter: 9px,  Hardness: 0%) and click on the “Brushes” icon on the right toolbar (or press F5) to open the Setting Panel, use the values below.

The “Shape Dynamics” settings determine the variance of brush marks in a stroke. Jitter percentages specify the randomness of dynamic elements. At 0%, an element does not change over the course of a stroke; at 100%, an element has the maximum amount of randomness.

Scattering determines the scattering variance of brush marks and we set it to the maximum value.

Now minimize the Setting Panel of the brush, right click on the document and select Stroke Path. A dialog box appears, make sure you tick on the “Simulate Pressure” checkbox.

Click OK and our photo will look like this

Press Delete twice to delete the path line.

 

Step 7

Double click on the current layer to open the Layer Style box and use these settings for the Outer Glow effect

 

Step 8

Press Ctrl-J to duplicate the “light dot” layer. Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal to flip this layer. Move it to the right a bit

 

Step 9

Duplicate the current layer and go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical and move this layer down to create a perfect circle with the first “light dot” layer.

Repeat this step one more time (with Flip Horizontal) to complete the second light circle

 

Step 10

Currently we have 4 light layers. Select all of them and press Ctrl-E to merge them into one layer. Next we will add color to these light dots.

Create a new layer and select the Gradient tool. On the top toolbar select the Transparent Rainbow and Radial Gradient options

Draw a line from the center to any corner of the document to create a rainbow circle like this

 

Step 11

Change the Blending Mode of this layer to Overlay

Reduce the intense light on the actress by reducing the Opacity of the “Woman copy” if you want