Hi there and welcome. In this photo manipulation tutorial I’ll show you how to create this beautiful scene using few free stock images.

The most important part of this tutorial are the blending modes and coloring. The ambient color and ambient light of the final image is based on the backgorund image which is a mountain landscape, so that will be our reference.

Basic knowlege of photoshop, its tools and how to work with layer masks and clipping layer masks are required in order to follow this tutorial.

Resources images needed

Step 1 – Preparing the main scene

Open the balcony image in photoshop, duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J), name it balcony and delete the background layer. Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All or click the Add New Layer Mask icon on the bottom of the Layers Palette. Use the Pen Tool (P), Magic Wand or any other method you prefer to mask the landscape, leave only the stone structure of the building. Reduce the size of the image (Ctrl+Alt+I) to 1700 pixels width and enable Constraint Proportions.

Open the mountain landscape photo in photoshop and reduce its size to 1500×1125 pixels. Paste it under the balcony layer and name it landscape.

Step 2 – Color adjustments

As I said, the lanscape will be our reference for the overall coloring and lightning of our manipulation so we need to adjust the balcony color acording to the background.

Select the balcony layer, hold the Alt key, click and hold the Add New Adjustment Layer icon on the bottom of the Layers Palette, near the folder icon. Select Color Balance from the list, check the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask and click OK. Use this settings for the Color Balance:

Create a new Adjustment Layer exactly  like in the previous step but this time choose Photo Filter. Use the color #b78640 and leave Density to 25%. Reduce the layer Opacity to 50% and set blending mode to Hard Light. That will increase the contrast.

Create yet another Adjustment Layer, select the Curves adjustment layer and use this settings:

Select the balcony layer and all the adjustments layers you created for it and group them (Ctrl+G). Select the landscape layer, press Ctrl+L to open the Levels window and use this settings:

Now we must create the shadows for the balcony rails. Go inside the group and select the balcony layer, with the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) select the railing and go to Edit>Copy (Ctrl+C).

Create a new layer on top of everything on the Layers Palette and paste (Ctrl+V) the part of the rail you copied. Go to Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical. Drag the pasted and flipped rail to the base of the original rail and press Ctrl+T, Right Click and select Perspective. Click and drag the bottom controllers of the selection box and then with the bottom middle controller, shift the image a bit to the left.

Select the rail shadow edges by pressing Ctrl+click on its thumbnail on the Layers Pallete and Fill the selection with black.

Apply an 8 pixels Gaussian Blur to the rail shadow layer and add a Layer Mask by clicking on the Layer Mask icon on the Layers Palette tool bar.

Change the blending mode of the rail shadow layer to Overlay. Select the Gradient Tool (G) and draw a linear white to black gradient on the layer mask you created.

Duplicate the rail shadow layer, set its blending mode to Normal and Opacity to 40%. This is what you should have so far.

Step 3 – Adding the model

It’s time to add our female model to the scene. Open the image in photoshop, extract the woman and the pilar from the background and paste it on top of all the layers on the Layers Palette. Rename this layer to model.

Now we must adjust the exposure and coloring of the model in order to blend her with the enviroment and make her look like she is really part of that scene. To acheive that we will use a series of Adjustment Layers because this method is non destructive, which means we can modify the adjustment setting at any time without damaging the original image.

Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer as clipping mask and set Brightness to +17 and Contrast to -14. Next add a Photo Filter adjustment layer, set Color to #e3d06e, Density to 70%, Blending Mode to Screen and Opacity to 50%.

Create a new layer under the model layer and rename it model shadow. Using a soft edge brush and low opacity and flow (about 20% for both) paint some shadows on the railing of the balcony, under the model.

Step 4 – Adding the details

Now you can select all the layers of the female model, including the model shadow layer and group them (Ctrl+G). I named this group model.

Open the pidgeon image, crop it from the background, paste it on your scene and scale it down. Open the Layer Style window by right clicking on the layer on the layers palette and choose Blending Options. Use this settings.

To add the butterflies you have to download this pack from deviantart. When you have it, simply cut and paste them on your image, change their sizes, flip them and rotate them in different positions. Download some bird brushes and add them if on the sky.

Step 5 – Ambient effects

We are done with the scene, all that’s left to do is to add some ambient effects using more Adjustment Layers.

Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map use the settings in the image below, set the blending mode to Hard Light and Opacity to 15%.

Add a Photo Filter adjustment layer on top of the Gradient Map, set blending mode to Color Dodge, Opacity to 20% and this settings for the color:

Add a new Gradient Map adjustment layer, set its blending mode to Saturation and Opacity to 15%.

Add a a Gradient adjustment layer on top of all the layers of your layers palette, set blending mode to Overlay, Opacity 50% and this colors:

Now add some sun rays using this brush set.

That’s it, this is th end of the tutorial, enjoy. This is the final result.

Download PSD file