Create a fairy tale image in Photoshop

Once upon a time in a place far, far away, we decided that every issue of Practical Photoshop would feature a task to create something special based on the techniques you’ve learnt each month. Our latest Reader Challenge is inspired by fairy tales. Choose your favourite character or story from folklore and illustrate it in any style you wish. In our case, we’ve given our Alice in Wonderland tutorial a new twist. Take a look at the image on the right for an example of what we’re looking for, and read our five top tips to help you get started. Our favourite images will be featured in Issue 16 which goes on sale on 26 July, 2012. The closing date for entries is 4 July, 2012. The overall winner walks away with a copy of the superb Tiffen Dfx 3.0.

01: Use Refine Radius tool

Refine Edge can be used on any type of selection to achieve intricate edge areas, so it’s perfect for cut-outs. Paint around the edges of hair with the Refine Radius tool to catch all the stray bits of background. Learn more about Refine Edge in our tutorial on page 42.

02: Blend layers

You can make your own fairy tale scenes by combining different images using layers and Layer Masks. The trick is to make it look polished and believable. Find out how to blend layers together for realistic results in our Just For Fun head swapping tutorial on page 66.

03: Adjustment Layers

Adjustment Layers play a key role in all kinds of Photoshop projects, but they’re especially useful when building montages like this as you can try out different colour treatments that will affect all the layers below. Learn the basics of how to use Adjustment Layers on page 54.

04: Hand-colour

The hand-colour treatment is great for old family photos, but it can also be used to create a painterly look on any image you like. Here, we’ve coloured our figure’s clothes and skin to go with the book page theme. Find out how to hand-colour photos on page 30.

05: Grunge it up

Texture and colour shifts help to create atmosphere and lend the overall scene more of a feel. Aged photo effects are really in vogue at the moment – you’ll find an array of different retro effects to try in our feature starting on page 34.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2012 at 7:00 am and is filed under Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.