Simply For You – Manipulation Tutorial
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Adjustment Layers will be used extensively in this tutorial. You will see how to use Fill layers as well as other adjustment layers to create ambient color and special effects.

Stock used

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Video version

Step 1

Start by opening the background stock image. For a better composition I cropped the background image. See the result on image 1. In order to create the final color effect I used a Photo Filter and a Color Fill adjustment layers.
For the Photo Filter i used the Warming Filter (LBA) I set the Density to 65% and the blend mode to Darken. For the Color Fill (Solid Color) I used the color #e7830d, the Overlay blend mode and Opacity to 30%.

Step 2

Crop the woman from the background and place it on your canvas as shown in the image below. I started adding the first light effects on the woman using Layer Styles. I created some rim lights using Inner Shadow, Inner Glow and Outer Glow. If you’re good at painting you can paint those by hand. On image 2 you can see the styles I applied to the stock image.

This is the result I got after applying the styles above.

Step 3

Use Levels adjustment on the woman layer to bump up the shadows a bit. I also used the Smudge Tool to recreate part of the hair that I cut when I extracted the woman.

Step 4

Paint some shadows under the woman’s feet. Shadows always make things more realistic.

Step 5

I added a couple more adjustment layers: Photo Filter and Solid Color again.

For the Photo Filter I used the color #ec8a00 with Density at 55% and Normal blend mode at 100% layer Opacity. For tyhe Solid Color/Color Fill layer I used the color #2938c3 on Softlight at 100% Opacity. The result can be seen on image 5.

Step 6

I used the Dodge/Burn to enhance the highlights and the woman’s face.

Step 7

I wanted to make the color of the grass and the color of the lamps more vivid so I painted with yellow and green on the areas shown on image 7. I use the Softlight blend mode. Adjust the brightness and saturation of the color to your taste.
Use a brush with about 50% Opacity or less so that you can gradually build up the intensity of the light, it’s easier that way.

Step 8

I added more fill layers. First I used a yellow Color Fill #ccac66 on Overlay at 50% to enhance the yellows even more and on top of it a blue Color Fill #024371 using the Color blend mode at 100% Opacity for the ambient color.
The blue color will “kill” the yellow effect of the yellow color fill so use the layer mask on the blue color fill to mask the areas over the lights and reveal the yellow color. Also remove some of the blue over the woman’s face if it’s too blue. Use a low opacity brush and remove the effect gradually.

Step 9

Use the rain brushes to create some rain. I painted some rain on a layer on Softlight and then I duplicated the layer but you can use another technique if you want.

I wanted to simulate the water falling from the umbrella so I used the brush tool and I painted some water falling. I used the Overlay blend mode and duplicated the layer a few times for a stronger effect. If you’re not too good at painting (I’m pretty bad at it anyway  try looking for a stock image or simply skip this. I thought it would make the image more realistic.

Step 10

I recreated the rain falling on the top part of the umbrella using the brush tool and the brushes shown on image 10. I painted this effect on a separate layer below the woman layer.

Step 11

As a final touch, after creating a stamp with Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E I used the Lighting Effects filter (Filter>Render>Lighting Effects) and the Lens Correction filter to add some vignetting on the corners.

Final result