Fairy Tale Background Tutorial

I’ve been toying around with the idea of making my own tutorial for awhile now. I knew I had the skills and time to do so, I just hadn’t really got around to it yet. Well, the wait is finally over. I finally sat down and created this tutorial. I hope you like it. If you do or if you think there is something I can improve on, please leave a comment.

I saw this image several years back and thought it was super romantic. I just knew that I was going to make a desktop background with it for my computer.

The first thing I did was download the image. You can

[ddownload id=”475″ text=”download” style=”button” color=”purple”] it here, or you can do your own Google search. This image is from the movie Angel which came out in 2007.

From there you are going to open up your image in Photoshop. Then copy your background layer. (ctrl+j)

Then on Layer 1 we’re going to add a dry brush filter. (Filter>Artistic>Dry Brush).

Your image should look like this:

Now add a Gaussian Blur. (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur).

Find your Burn tool. It looks like this:

Then select a large, soft brush.

Make sure your Range is Midtones and your Exposure is 100%.

Then, with your burn tool, burn the edges. You’ll have to take several passes at it. (Paint around the edge once, then again, at least 20 or so times). Keep going at it until your image looks like this:

Now change the Opacity on Layer 1 to 63%.

Your image should now look like this:

With your Pen tool, Lasso tool, Marquee tool or a combination of those make an outline of the woman’s dress and flower in her hair. This might take a little bit of time.

Now create a Color Balance Adjustment Mask.

Your image should look like this:

Now we’re going to add those fun swirls. I used some brushes that I’ve had for years and can no longer find, but I found some similar ones that you can use. You can download these brushes or you’re welcome to use any floral or foliage brushes you like. If you download those brushes go make sure that you load them.

Create a new layer.

Then, with a black paint brush paint your foliage on your new layer (Layer 2).

With your Pen tool, Lasso tool, Marquee tool or a combination of those make an outline of the couple. I left part of her dress out of the selection so you could see the vines over it, but that’s entirely up to you.

Then select the inverse. (Select>Inverse).

Now add a layer mask.

In the Layers Palette, change your Blending mode to Soft Light.

Your image should look like this now:

Now all that’s left is to add the text. I found this quote awhile back and totally loved it, but feel free to use any quote you’d like. I used Thirsty Rough, but again, you can use any font you like.