Photo Manipulation in Photoshop: Glowing Brain Composite
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- 0:00 Introduction/MSI Creator Awards 2023
- 1:14 Remove Background of the Brain
- 1:45 Fix the Edges of the Mask
- 3:40 Create A Glow Effect Inside the Brain
- 5:50 Selective Application of Glow Effect Over the Brain
- 8:11 Create Highlights Over the Glow
- 9:07 Blending and Adjusting the Layers
- 10:41 Blending a Layer with Black and Highlights
- 12:25 Building Depth
- 13:22 Add More Graphical Elements
- 14:06 Keeping the Right Layer Order
- 15:50 Adding the Handwriting Layer
- 18:02 Blending the Handwriting Layer
- 19:15 Adding and Blending Music Notes
- 21:07 Adding Math Formulas
- 22:21 Convert Merged Layers into Smart Object
- 22:33 Apply Effects to the Composite
- 23:08 Making Adjustments to the Final Image
- 25:49 Final Result
Your choices stick across every tutorial on this device.
Photo manipulation in Photoshop combines masking, channel-based glows, and blending modes to turn a plain photo into a surreal, glowing composite.
Are you a creative looking for a chance to showcase your talent on a global stage? Look no further. Enter the MSI Creator Awards 2023, a global competition hosted by MSI that welcomes entrants worldwide.
In line with the theme, here’s a Photoshop tutorial featuring a stunning composite showcasing the human creative spark. Check out the official details and enter the competition now!
MSI Creator awards! https://hi.switchy.io/MSI-Creator-Awards-2023
Follow along to create this amazing composite!
Key Takeaways
- A glow effect comes from picking the Channel with the most contrast, inverting it, and loading it as a selection, not from a Glow filter.
- Unchecking Transparency Shapes Layer changes how a blend mode like Color Dodge interacts with the layers underneath it.
- Clipping a layer to the one below it, instead of masking it, keeps a color or light effect contained to that layer’s exact shape.
- Blend If can hide a layer’s darkest or brightest pixels by brightness alone, without painting on a Layer Mask.
- Converting a layer to a Smart Object before using Perspective Warp or Distort keeps those edits editable later.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Photo Manipulation in Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts
- Step 1: Mask out the Brain
- Step 2: Blur the Edges
- Step 3: Create the Illusion of Glowing Inner Parts
- Step 4: Selectively Apply Glowing Effects
- Step 5: Add Highlights
- Step 6: Blend and Adjust the Layers
- Step 7: Add Depth
- Step 8: Add Paint Splatters
- Step 9: Adding and Blending the Handwriting Layer
- Step 10: Adding and Blending Music Notes and Formulas
- Final Touches
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Result
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to mask a subject from its background with the Remove Background quick action and Select and Mask
- How to build a glow effect from any photo using Channels and Curves
- How to blend highlights and light sources with Color Dodge and Screen
- How to add depth to a composite with Gaussian Blur and duplicated layers
- How to warp text and graphics into a scene with Smart Objects and Perspective Warp
- How to finish a composite with the Camera Raw Filter
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop 2023 (version 24.4 or later) or the current version
Practice Files
Download the files used in this tutorial and follow along step by step.
Photo Manipulation in Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Invert | Ctrl I | Command I |
| Free Transform | Ctrl T | Command T |
| Duplicate Layer | Ctrl J | Command J |
| Clip to Layer Below | Ctrl Alt G | Command Option G |
| Group Layers | Ctrl G | Command G |
| Deselect | Ctrl D | Command D |
| Select All | Ctrl A | Command A |
| Copy | Ctrl C | Command C |
| Merge Visible into a New Layer | Ctrl Alt Shift E | Command Option Shift E |
| Fill with Foreground Color | Alt Backspace | Option Delete |
| Fill with Background Color | Ctrl Backspace | Command Delete |
| Lasso Tool | L | L |
| Decrease Brush Size | [ | [ |
| Increase Brush Size | ] | ] |
Step 1: Mask out the Brain
Click the Remove Background button, and Photoshop will use artificial intelligence to analyze the image and remove the background.
Then, fix the edges of the mask by double-clicking on your Layer Mask.
Adjust the edges using the Select and Mask workspace.
For a deeper look at refining tricky edges, see the full Select and Mask workspace tutorial.
To smooth out the edges, drag the smooth slider to the right and increase the contrast to sharpen them.
Step 2: Blur the Edges
Go to the Blur Tool and blur the edges of the mask.
Step 3: Create the Illusion of Glowing Inner Parts
Go into the Channels Panel > RGB.
Click on the red, green, and blue channels to see which one has the most contrast between the inner and outer parts.
Select the red channel, duplicate it by dragging it to the New Channel icon, press CtrlI (Windows) or CommandI (macOS) to invert.
This channel-pull method is the same trick used to apply rim light in Photoshop.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves to make everything else dark.
Load these pixels as a Selection.
Create a new layer and fill it with any color you want.
Clip this layer to the layer below to get a glowing result.
Step 4: Selectively Apply Glowing Effects
Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS), and click to create a black Layer Mask and clip it to the layer below.
This inverted Layer Mask will hide the layer’s contents, and you can selectively paint those in.
Create another glow by repeating the same process.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue and Saturation, and change the glow’s color to orange.
Fill a Layer Mask with black. Then, paint in the orange light on the inner parts of the brain.
Step 5: Add Highlights
Create one more layer, clip it to the layer below, and name this “white highlight”.
Change the foreground color to white and paint with white where you want that highlight to appear.
Change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge and uncheck “Transparency Shapes Layer” to get this result.
Step 6: Blend and Adjust the Layers
Add this image and use the Screen Blending mode to make the highlights appear.
Select the abstract highlights layer and go to Image > Adjustments > Curves and make an “S” curve to hide the black areas and bright areas are revealed.
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and adjust the blur radius until the highlights blend in with the brain.
Step 7: Add Depth
Duplicate the highlights layer. Transform the duplicated layer and scale it up.
Blur the duplicated layer with Gaussian Blur and adjust the opacity until it looks right.
Step 8: Add Paint Splatters
We’ll add a colorful splatter image to create the illusion that the brain is creating paint splatters.
Place the splatter layer below the brain layer and clip it to the brain layer.
Change the blending mode to Multiply to blend the splatters in with the background.
To hide only the darkest or brightest pixels of a layer without touching a mask, see the full Blend If guide.
Step 9: Adding and Blending the Handwriting Layer
Duplicate the red channel, fill the background color with white, and Invert.
Load the text as a Selection.
Convert it into a Smart Object and use perspective, distort, and warp to make the writing appear out of the brain.
Create a layer mask, hide the pixels over the brain, and change the blending mode to either Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, or Vivid Light.
Reduce the Fill opacity for better results.
Duplicate the layer, flip it horizontally, and delete the layer mask to balance the image.
Step 10: Adding and Blending Music Notes and Formulas
This step is the same process as Step 9.
Open the image and adjust the curves to make the music notes more visible, using the Burn Tool to paint shadows.
Duplicate the layer, fill it with white, and position it to create the illusion of musical notes and math formulas coming out of the brain.
Change the blending mode to Vivid Light and adjust the fill opacity.
Duplicate the images and use Perspective Warp to create the illusion of perspective.
Change the blending mode to Color Dodge and adjust the layer mask if necessary.
For the full technique, see how to use Perspective Warp in Photoshop to reshape any object.
Final Touches
Create a merged layer, apply effects using Camera Raw Filter, and make adjustments as needed. This can include reducing the strength of layers, then copying and pasting the adjusted image into the Smart Object.
Frequently Asked Questions
Photo manipulation in Photoshop combines masking, channel-based color effects, and blending modes to turn ordinary photos into one surreal image. This composite uses a brain photo, colored light, paint splatters, handwriting, and math formulas to represent creativity.
Duplicate the color Channel with the most contrast, invert it, and use Curves to push everything but the glowing area to black. Load that result as a selection, then fill a new layer with color and clip it to the layer below.
Transparency Shapes Layer controls whether a layer’s own transparency affects how its blend mode interacts with the layers below it. Unchecking it with Color Dodge lets the full brightness of a highlight layer show through.
Blend If hides a layer’s darkest or brightest pixels based on brightness alone, without painting a Layer Mask. Holding Alt or Option while dragging a black or white point splits it in half for a smoother transition.
A Smart Object keeps a Distort, Perspective, or Warp transform editable so you can adjust it later. It also lets you apply the Camera Raw Filter non-destructively at the end of a composite.
Duplicate a highlight or light layer, scale it up, and blur it with Gaussian Blur so it looks closer to the camera. Layering several blurred copies at different sizes builds a sense of depth in a flat composite.
The Remove Background quick action in the Properties panel uses on-device artificial intelligence to cut a subject from its background in one click. It works well as a starting mask that you can refine in Select and Mask.
Load the text as a selection from an inverted Channel, fill it on a new layer, and convert that layer to a Smart Object. Use Perspective, Distort, and Warp to bend it around the object, then mask and blend it in.
Final Result
Be sure to check out the official link to join the competition. Looking forward to your creations!
This composite proves that photo manipulation in Photoshop is really just a series of small, repeatable techniques: a mask, a channel pull, a blend mode, a warp.
None of it depends on filters or plugins, only Channels, Curves, Layer Masks, and the blending modes already built into Photoshop.
Watch the full video above for every adjustment in real time, and comment on the video if a step needs more detail.
Selections and Masking Mastery
Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.
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Next, learn how to blend composites automatically with the Harmonize tool.
