Girl on a Swing Photo Composite

This is our next course from Guest Instructor Rikard Rodin—Creative Director and photoshop guru. In this course he takes you through the entire process of creating a photo composite of a woman sitting on a swing, overlooking a city—from cutting out and masking, to rebuilding entire parts of an image using existing elements.

Length: 1 hour, 13 minutes  |  Experience Level: Beginner to Intermediate  |  Required Software: Photoshop CC

Lessons

Lesson 1: Cutting with Paths

Learn to use the pen tool to make accurate curve-based paths which can then be used for masking and selection.

Lesson 2: Refining the Selection

Selecting with color range, the select and mask tool, the refine edge tool and directly painting masks with brushes—it’s all covered here.

Lesson 3: Isolating the Dress

Creating smart objects, combining selections and isolated objects for further compositing are covered in this lesson.

Lesson 4: Designing the Dress

How do you create something that was never in the original photo? In this lesson we recreate the bottom of the dress with the pen tool, lasso tool and transform tools.

Lesson 5: Integrating the Dress

Finally, how do we make it convincing? The clone tool, curves, gradients and feathering are all covered in this lesson.

Lesson 6: Putting Woman into Background

With our main subject cutout, we start combining the two images—matching lighting and extending the ropes using masks, the transform tool and gradients.

Lesson 7: Integrating the Two Images

Learn about modifying selections, using the “soft light” blending mode to cast color and channels to add highlights to hair.

Lesson 8: Color Grading

From gradient ramps, layer blending modes, color balance and curves to vibrance and mask-isolated adjustments, here are tools to make your composite artistic and beautifully colored.

Lesson 9: “One” Last Thing (Final Touches)

These are the final touches that will give your photo composite the professional look it needs to really sell it! Includes adding film grain, blending adjustment layers and using the Camera Raw filter.