Wounded Vanity is the first of my ‘shoe photo manipulations’ that I created back in 2012. The second piece is Extravaganza, which I made one year later.
Both Wounded Vanity and Extravaganza are surreal Photoshop collages that were inspired by the master of plant-based shoe art, Michel Tcherevkoff.
→ Learn more about Surrealism in Art
Michel Tcherevkoff creates beautiful shoe designs using merely elements of nature: plant leaves, stems, buds and flowers. Below you can see some of his artworks, called Shoe Fleurs (‘Shoe Flowers’).
‘Shoe Fleurs’ artworks by Michel Tcherevkoff 😍
What you are going to learn in this easy Surreal photoshop tutorial
Creating surreal collage art in Photoshop is really fun, isn’t it? Actually, surreal photo manipulations are my favorite, too.
There’s lots of stuff that you can do in a surreal style: surreal portraits, surreal landscapes, and many more.
You’ve learned how to create a composite image in Photoshop, but something is missing…
This often happens when you just got started with photo manipulations.
Let’s say you’ve just learned the basics of how to create a composite image in Photoshop. But somehow you’re not yet fully happy with the result. Not all the things look the way you want, and not everything falls into place as well as it could.
All in all, your image is still a bit rough around the edges and lacks some finishing touches. I’ve been there many times when I got into making surreal manipulations…
However, with time I found out how to fix those problems, and I’ve noticed that there are a couple of techniques that I come back to using over and over again. They are pretty easy, but of great value!
In this Photoshop tutorial, I’m sharing with you the TOP 7 Editing Hacks that will help you improve your manipulations a bunch. They are like some sure-fire techniques that’ll always work and that you can apply to many of your composite images.
To show you the techniques I’ll be using my photo manipulation Wounded Vanity. Have a look at the Before & After comparison below to see what we’re going to do in today’s Photoshop compositing tutorial:
- Hover with the mouse over the image to see the Before & After.
There were obviously heaps of things to do to get from the original photo of the foot to the final surreal manipulation of the ‘shoe’ – and making use of the following 7 techniques played a huge part in creating this surreal image in Photoshop!
So without further ado, let’s get started!
7 Tricks for how to create a surreal image in Photoshop:
What to do first
Before starting off your Photoshop surreal collage, try to envision the image you’re planning to create as clearly as you can.
Imagine what you want the main subject to look like, think about the perspective, the setting, the background, etc.
I for myself wanted to create a high heel shoe that is mainly made of plants and other natural elements. But I did not only want to have the shoe, I also wanted to have a foot inside it!
The perspective was supposed to be a side-view, and the background to be rather clean and white-looking.
Ok, then let’s kick things off!
If you’re working with (parts of) yourself as the main subject of the image, then things are rather easy. Just get your body or parts of it into the position you need and take a photo!
If you’re using stock images, try to find an image that is as close as possible to your original idea. If you can’t find the exact thing you had in mind, you might have to rethink your concept a little bit.
I, for my part, placed my foot in a high heel-like position on a little table with a white surface and a plain background and took a photo!
You can see that the photo came out quite dark. Indeed, my lighting is often everything but perfect.
However, this doesn’t matter that much when it comes to photo manipulations. In the next steps, I’ll show you how you can fix poor lighting easily!
TRICK #1: How to improve brightness
1. Adding a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
There are two things you can do to improve the brightness of an image.
The first option is to add a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer and select Channel Mixer.
You can also click on the little ‘Create new fill or adjustment layer’ icon at the bottom of your Layers Panel.
In the Channel Mixer properties window, tick Monochrome and set the layer’s blending mode to Soft Light. You can also try the Screen blending mode, which is more intense than Soft Light. Reduce the Opacity until you get a nice brightening effect.
You can play around with the Color Channels and the Constant sliders to see what works best for your photo.
If you’re new to blending modes, check out my rundown of all the Photoshop blending modes and how to use them.
Also, don’t forget to grab your Free Photoshop Blend Mode Cheat Sheet from the Freebie Library, so you can easily keep track of the altogether 27 blending options available.
2. Adding a Color Fill Adjustment Layer
The next thing we’re going to do to brighten a too dark image is add a Color Fill Adjustment Layer.
Go to Layer > New Fill Layer and select Solid Color. Set the layer’s blending mode to Soft Light or Overlay (more intense than Soft Light).
This time, we want to use some color to even out the dark grayish background and the yellowish tone of the foot. In the Color Fill properties window, go to the Color Picker and select a color that is slightly complementary to the colors you want to even out.
As you can see, I chose some light grayish-green for my picture. Reduce the Opacity as needed.
TRICK #2: How to blend in 3D elements
When you create a surreal image in Photoshop, you will happen to use 3D elements a lot of the time – at least I do.
For my picture, I added 3D plant elements to design the shoe. I used the free Brambles Stock provided by TinusDream on DeviantArt. Thank you so much for this amazing stock! 😘
If you have different variations of 3D elements, like those brambles, then first of all sort out those ones that are naturally best suited to your design.
I picked those bramble versions that worked nicely to build up the heel and top of the shoe.
There are three things you can do to make 3D elements blend in seamlessly.
First of all, you can use Photoshop’s scale function to adjust the size. Go to Edit > Transform > Scale. You can also press Command + T (Mac) or CTRL + T (PC) on your keyboard to call up the Scale tool.
Once you’ve resized the elements, you can make further adjustments to change their shape.
Most of the time, I’m using the Distort function. This is how I made the brambles ‘hug’ the heel and the instep nicely.
To call up the Distort tool, go to Edit > Transform > Distort and play around with the distortion pointers until you’re happy with the result.
Following that, I looked for some rather straight brambles that I could use to create the high heel and the sole of the shoe.
I again used the Scale and Distort functions to get everything into place.
If you find that any parts of the 3D elements are out of place, you can add a layer mask to hide them.
With the layer selected, go to Layer > Layer Mask and select Reveal All. Alternatively, you can also click on the ‘Add layer mask’ icon at the bottom of your Layers Panel.
In both cases, Photoshop will add a white layer mask to the selected layer. From there, you can grab the Brush Tool from the Toolbar, set the brush color to black and paint over those areas on the layer mask that you wish to hide or make less visible.
Reduce the Hardness to soften the edges of the brush, and adjust Opacity and Flow depending on the intensity you need.
In some cases, you might want to reduce the opacity of one part of the layer as a whole. Check out my tutorial on → How To Change The Opacity Of Part Of An Image In Photoshop for more.
TRICK #3: How to add a Texture
As soon as you’re done with the basic design, you can use textures to add different effects to your image.
For example, I’m using my own glitter texture that you can download from the Freebie Library. My goal was to add a nice, shimmering effect to some of the brambles – as if the shoe had some glitter laces.
A glitter texture (available in the Freebie Library) gives a nice, shimmering effect to the brambles.
You can add a texture to the entire image or you can apply it to certain elements in your image only.
If you like to add a texture to certain elements only (like some of the brambles in my case), move the texture on top of the layer to which you want to add the effect. Then create a Clipping Mask by right-clicking on the texture layer in your Layers Panel, and choosing Create Clipping Mask from the pop-up menu.
In order for the texture to be visible in certain areas only, add a mask to the texture layer. Go to Layer > Layer Mask and choose Reveal All, or click on the ‘Add layer mask’ icon at the bottom of your Layers Panel.
Choose a black brush and paint over those areas on the mask where you don’t want to the texture to show.
Of course, you can add more elements of your taste and apply different textures to them.
I’ve added lots of pearls, roses, a skull, and some golden ornaments between the brambles.
Just let your creativity flow!
TRICK #4: How to create a realistic gradation of light and shadow
This adjustment may be very subtle, but it usually contributes a lot to the natural look and seamless composition of a digital collage.
Imagine a light source coming from one side in our image.
For my picture, I wanted the light to come from the right side.
That meant my image needed to be brighter on the right and darker on the left side. Ideally with a nice gradation between light and shadow.
to achieve a realistic gradation of light and shadow, we’re going to use a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer.
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Select Linear for Gradient Fill Style and an angle that matches the intended light source in your picture.
Then click on the gradient bar at the top and pick two colors: one darker and one lighter color.
Depending on your image, you want to set the adjustment layer to a blending mode of either the Lighten or the Darken category. I’ve set the Blending Mode to Multiply. Adjust the Opacity of the layer as needed.
Don’t forget to add shadows to the objects in your picture as well! As my image is generally very bright, I’ve just added a tiny bit of shadow below the foot and the heel.
One way to create cast shadows is to add a new empty layer and set its blending mode to Multiply. Then take a soft dark brush, lower Opacity and Flow, and carefully paint in some shadows.
Keep in mind where your light source is coming from. In my case, the shadows below the shoe must be on the left as well.
TRICK #5: How to add highlights
Now it’s time for the fine-tuning!
First of all, we’re going to add some decent highlights here and there to give the picture some nice contrast and more expressiveness.
I added a Black & White Adjustment Layer for that purpose (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White). I chose Maximum White under Preset and set the blending mode to Color Dodge.
You’ll notice that Color Dodge brightens the image dramatically. However, we don’t want the entire image to be that bright, we just want some highlights here and there.
Therefore, we’re going to invert the layer mask of the adjustment layer by going to Image > Adjustments > Invert or pressing Command + I (Mac) or CTRL + I (PC). The layer mask is now black and hides the entire effect.
With that done, we can now take a medium-hard, small white brush (reduce Opacity and Flow a bit) and paint on the mask in those areas where we would like to have some accents.
Reduce the Opacity of the layer if you find the effect too strong.
I only added some decent highlights mainly on the skull and the roses. But you can use this technique more intensely and on larger areas when you create your surreal image in Photoshop.
TRICK #6: How to boost contrast and vibrancy
The second touch-up step is to add a slight S-curve to the image.
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves, or click on the ‘Create new fill or adjustment layer’ icon at the bottom of your Layers Panel and select Curves.
Switch the Blending Mode to Screen and slightly increase the Whites and lower the Blacks. (Notice the two little dots in the Curves Properties window. The more you move the upper dot upwards and the lower dot downwards, the more the curve resembles an ‘S’.)
This increases the contrast and brings out the colors more intensely.
TRICK #7: How to change the overall atmosphere
Last but not least, I’m going to show you how to change the feel of the image by giving it a warmer or cooler tone.
There are many different techniques for how to make a photo warmer in Photoshop. One way is to add a Color Fill Adjustment Layer.
Select a color that gives your image the feel you want it to have (cooler or warmer) and switch the layer’s blending mode to Soft Light or Overlay (more intense than Soft Light). I used the Soft Light blend mode.
Reduce the Opacity, if necessary, until you like the result.
Here we are. These were the best 7 tricks that will hopefully help you a lot as you’re learning how to create a surreal image in Photoshop!
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I hope that this tutorial on how to create a surreal image in Photoshop was helpful. If you found any value in it, please feel free to share it with other artists so they can also learn from it!
If you are using anything of what I’ve showed you in this post, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @ginangiela, or post a link here in the comments. I’d love to see your creations! Make sure to sign up for my email list below so you don’t miss out on new Photoshop tutorials, perks for subscribers and other cool stuff. ♥
