Create an Epic Battle Field in Photoshop

Create an Epic Battle Field in Photoshop

in Designing, Drawing, Effects, Photo Effects, Tutorials by Razvan on July 19th, 201013 Comments

In this photomanipulation tutorial I will show you how to combine some stock photos to create an epic battle field in Photoshop. Register for a VIP account to get ALL the resources from Grafpedia and 12 months of free updates.

Resources

Below are the resources I used to create the photomanipulation. Please read and respect the rules of every stock item before using it in any kind of project. The artists who created them worked a lot and we have to respect their work.

Final Result Preview

Here is the image that we will create. Click on it to see the full-size version.

Step 1

Open a new document in Photoshop (Ctrl/Cmd + N). My document is 1280px wide and 800px high. Download this image and open it in Photoshop. Move the image into your first document and use Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T) to change the size of this image. Name this layer “bg”.

Step 2

Duplicate the “bg” layer (Ctrl/Cmd + J) and name the new layer “land”. Add a mask to this layer (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All) and use a black brush (B) to erase the top area of the photo (the sky and the castle). See the image below for reference. Then hide the “bg” layer.

If you haven’t worked with Photoshop masks before, let me explain how they work. If you know what Photoshop mask are, you can skip this paragraph. When you create a mask, you can paint with a brush on it (or any other drawing tool) to erase/reveal different areas of the layer linked to that mask. When you paint with black on a mask, that painted area will be erased from the correspondent layer. The white area of the mask represents the visible area of the linked layer and gray represents transparency. Why not use the Eraser Tool instead of masks? Well, with masks you can always go back and modify the visible/invisible area of a layer simply by painting with black or white. The modifications made with Eraser Tool (E) are definitive. That’s one of the biggest advantages of using Photoshop masks.

Step 3

Those trees from the right hand side of the image don’t look good at all and we need to get rid of them. I’ll show you how to do this.

First, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to create a selection like the one you see below. Then make sure that the “land” layer is active and hit Ctrl/Cmd + J. This will create a new layer with the selected area of the “land” layer. Name the new layer “land 2″.

With the “land 2″ layer selected go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Select the Move Tool (V) and move the “land 2″ layer in the right hand side of the document.

Step 4

Now we will use a mask to erase the right hand area of the “land 2″ layer.

Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Then select a black soft brush (B), make sure that the mask is active and paint with your brush over the right hand area to remove that straight line. Select the two land layers and hit Ctrl/Cmd + G to group them. Name the group “land”.

Step 5

Download this image and open it in Photoshop. Then use the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) to select the sky. Hit Ctrl/Cmd + C to copy your selection, then go back to your first document and hit Ctrl/Cmd + V to paste it. Go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T), hold down the Shift key and change the size of this image.

Name this layer “sky”, put it inside a group (Ctrl/Cmd + G) and name the group “sky” as well. Then put the “sky” group underneath the “land” group.

Step 6

Now we will do some color adjustments to the sky. Make sure that the “sky” layer is selected. Then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance, tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and use the settings from the following image.

Step 7

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation, tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and click OK. Then tick the Colorize option and use the settings from the following image.

Step 8

Download some star and planet brushes and install them in Photoshop. Set the foreground color to white, create a new layer, select one of the brushes you downloaded and use it to create some stars. Continue to add more stars and planets on your sky. Use each brush in a new layer. Then group all these layers and name the group “stars”. Set the opacity of each layer to 70-90%.

As you can see in the image below I added a big planet in the middle of the image and lots of stars around it to give the image a surreal look.

Step 9

Download this castle photo and open it in Photoshop. Then use the Pen Tool (P) to extract the castle from the background. Select the Move Tool (V) and move the castle into your first document. Use Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T) to change the size of the castle and place it in the middle of your image, on the top of the hill. Name this layer “castle”, hit Ctrl/Cmd + G to put it inside a group and name the group “castle” as well.

Step 10

Add a mask to the “castle” layer (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All). Then select a black hard brush (B) and use it to erase the bottom area of the castle to make it look like it’s really there. Also, erase the area of the castle that covers the front rocks.

Step 11

Download this girl photo and open it in Photoshop. Then select the Pen Tool (P) and separate the girl from the background. Use the Move Tool (V) to move the girl into your first document. Then go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T), change the size of this layer and flip it horizontally. We’ll try to make the girl look like she’s floating in the air.

Name this layer “girl”, double-click on it and use the settings from the following image for Outer Glow. Put this layer inside a group and name the group “girl” as well.

Step 12

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance, tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and use the settings from the following image.

Step 13

Create a new layer. Then select the Brush Tool (B), select a small white soft brush (B) and use it to draw some random lines like you see in the following image. Name this layer “lights”, right-click on it and select Convert to Smart Object.

Then go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and use the settings from the following image. Set the blend mode of the “lights” layer to Overlay. You can also add a mask and erase some areas of the light if you think it’s necessary.

Step 14

Now we will use the Brushes panel to create a new brush. Select the Brush Tool (B) and select a small soft brush. Then open the Brushes panel (Window > Brushes) and use the settings from the following image. To save your brush, click on the ‘Create new brush’ button from the bottom of this panel.

Step 15

Create a new layer and name it “sparks”. Set the foreground color to white and use the brush you created at the previous step to draw some sparks around the girl. Put this layer inside a group (Ctrl/Cmd + G), set its blend mode to Color Dodge and name it “sparks”.

Step 16

Now we will add some trees around the castle. Download this image and open it in Photoshop. Go to Select > Color Range, click on the white background of the image and then click OK. This will select the white background. However, we need only the tree, so we’ll have to inverse the selection. Go to Select > Inverse. Then copy the tree (Ctrl/Cmd + C), go back to the first document and paste it.

Name this layer “tree” and use Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T) to change its size. Put this layer inside a group and name it “tree” as well. Add a mask to the “tree” layer and use a black soft brush to erase its bottom area.

Step 17

Now we need to do some color adjustments to the tree. First, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance, tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and use the settings from the following image.

Then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation, tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option, then tick the Colorize option and use the settings from the following image.

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast, tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and use the settings from the following image.

Step 18

Continue to add more trees to your image, but use a different size and location for each one. Take a look at the following image for reference.

Step 19

Download these brushes and install them. Set the foreground color to white, create a new layer and use some of those brushes to create a subtle fog. Name this layer “fog”, set its opacity to 10% and put it inside a group. Name the group “fog” as well.

Step 20

Download this photo and open it in Photoshop. Then use the Pen Tool (P) to separate the knight from the background. Move the knight into your first document using the Move Tool (V). Then go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and change the size of this layer.

Name this layer “knight”, add a mask to it and use a black brush (B) to adjust different areas of the layer like the horse’s legs or the top of the knight’s weapon. Put this layer inside a group and name it “knight”.

Step 21

Make sure that the “knight” layer is active, then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance, tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and use the settings from the following image.

Step 22

Now we will add a shadow to the knight. Ctrl/Cmd-click on the thumbnail of the “knight” layer to select it. Then create a new layer and fill the selection with black. Hit Ctrl/Cmd + D to deselect.

Name this layer “shadow”, right-click on it and select Convert to Smart Object. Then go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T), hold down the Ctrl/Cmd key and modify the transformation box as you see in the image below. Add a 2px gaussian blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to this layer and set its opacity to 35%.

Step 23

Download this photo and open it in Photoshop. Use the Pen Tool (P) to separate the horse rider from the background and then move him into your first document using the Move Tool (V). Name this layer “horse rider”. Then go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and change the size of this layer.

Hit Ctrl/Cmd + G to put this layer inside a group and name it “horse rider” as well.

Step 24

Select the Burn Tool and use the settings from the following image to make some areas of the horse rider darker. Then hold down the Alt/Option key to switch to the Dodge Tool and make some area of the horse rider brighter.

Step 25

Add a mask to the “horse rider” layer and use a black soft brush to erase the bottom area of the horse’s legs.

Step 26

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance, tick the “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” option and use the settings from the following image.

Step 27

Add a shadow to the horse rider using the same process that you used for the knight.

Step 28

Now all we need to do is add some color adjustment layers to make the image stand out. You can experiment with these adjustment layers by yourself, or you can use the exact same ones that I used.

You can add the adjustment layers from the menu (Layer > New Adjustment Layer) or by clicking on the ‘Create new fill or adjustment layer’ button from the bottom of the Layers panel (the half-black-half-white circle).

Create a new group (Layer > New > Group) and name it “adjustments”. Then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map and use the settings from the following image. To create the gradient I used the colors #2288ae and #dcb620. Set the blend mode of this layer to Overlay 10%.

Step 29

Add a new Selective Color adjustment layer and se the settings from the following image. Set the opacity of this layer to 60%.

Step 30

Add a new Gradient Map adjustment layer and use the settings from the following image. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light 60%. To create the gradient I used the colors #320958 and #eeb814.

Step 31

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance and use the settings from the following image. Set the opacity of this layer to 60%.

Step 32

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White and use the settings from the following image. Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft Light 30%.

Step 33

Add a new Selective Color adjustment layer and use the settings from the following image.

Step 34

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance and use the settings from the following image. Set the opacity of this layer to 50%.

Step 35

Add a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and increase the Saturation by +15.

Final Result

Below you can see the final result of this tutorial. I hope you you enjoyed reading it. You can download the .psd file by registering for a VIP account. You will also get ALL the resources from Grafpedia and 12 months of free updates.

Feel free to share your comments below and let us know what you think about this tutorial. See you soon with a new one.