Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the process of creating this Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop. I will show some interesting methods to rendering the electrified orbs by utilizing lightning textures and various Photoshop tools.

We will go through manipulation techniques such as clipping mask, layer mask, layer blending modes and image adjustment layers.

This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be tricky, but why not have a try!

Note: The Photoshop tutorial is done in CS6 – therefore some screenshot may have slighting different layout as in the earlier version. Some brushes are exclusive to Photoshop CS6.

Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

sci fi face manip flatten 532x700 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

OK Let’s get started!

To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Model

Stone Wall

Space Background

Lightning Texture

Step 1

Create a new document sized 860px * 1130px with black background. Create a new layer and use a soft, light-grey brush to paint a spot light from the centre of the canvas:

1 bg light 531x700 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Load the model image into Photoshop, select the head portion and paste into our document, resize and position it to the centre as shown below:

1 paste 550x537 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Step 2

Use a soft erase to remove/fade the edges around the face as shown below:

2 erase 550x625 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Add the following adjustment layers as clipping masks to this model layer:

Black and White

2 bw1 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Levels

2 lvs1 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Layer mask on this levels adjustment layer above:

2 lvs mask Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Curves

2 curves Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

and here is the effect so far:

2 effect2 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Step 3

We can now add some roughness to the face with this stone texture. Let’s use the Lasso tool to draw a selection as shown below:

3 sel1 550x438 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Copy and paste the selection over to our image, put the layer above all previous layers and set it as a clipping mask to the model layer:

3 clipping mask Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Change this layer blending mode to “Vivid Light” for this stone texture layer, with 70% opacity:

3 vivid light 550x433 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Apply the following layer mask on this stone texture layer:

3 mask Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

and here is the effect so far:

3 effect1 550x416 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Step 4

We can add some cloud around the model with the cloud filter, or a cloud brush:

4 cloud 550x665 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

We can also warp the cloud to add some motions into the image:

4 warp 550x437 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

4 more warp 550x316 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

You can check out this video tutorial below (start from 5:15) to find out how to do a cloud warp:

We can now add some space background into our image. Load the space image into Photoshop and select a piece as shown below with a 40px feather Lasso Tool:

4 sel star 550x310 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Copy and paste the selection over to our document, put the new layer below the model layer:

4 star paste 550x313 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Duplicate this space layer once and apply the following Levels adjustment (Ctrl + L):

4 star lvs Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Change the layer blending mode of this duplicated layer to “Screen”:

4 screen 550x427 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Reduce the size of this duplicated space layer with free transform tool, and you will have the following effect:

4 effect1 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

We want repeat the above process and add more space texture around the image, as shown below:

4 attach1 456x700 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Step 5

We will start make the orbs now. Let’s grab a white, solid brush and paint a dot as shown below:

5 paint 550x387 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Then use a soft eraser with a slight larger size, do a few clicks to the part of the circle shown below:

5 erase Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Then, use a soft white brush to paint a dot in the position shown below, and you will have the following effect:

5 dot 550x378 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

That’s it for the orb-making! Repeat this process and add a few more orbs as shown below:

5 dup 550x645 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Step 6

We will add some electrified effect around the orb. Load the lightning image into Photoshop. Use the Lasso Tool with a 30 feather setting to select a portion as shown below:

6 sel 550x313 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Copy and paste the selection over to our image, then apply the following image adjustments to it:

6 bw Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

6 lvs Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Change the layer blending mode to “Vivid Light”:

6 vivid 550x421 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Duplicate this lightning twice and attach them to the orbs, and here is the effect you will have:

6 attach 550x635 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Step 7

We’re almost done! To add some colours to our image, add the following image adjustment layers:

Selective Color

7 reds Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

7 whites Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

7 neutrals Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

7 blacks Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Curves

7 curves Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Optionally, you can use a particle brush to paint some particles around image:

7 dots 550x350 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

I further added some shining lighting effect around the image, and here is the final effect: (click to enlarge)

sci fi face manip flatten 532x700 Create Facial Photo Manipulation Surrounded by Electrified Orbs in Photoshop

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful. Drop me a comment below if you have any question.

Till next time, have a great day!

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