Project #10 - Creating Artistic Montages

This tutorial will show you how you can quickly produce artistic images by combining as little as two images together, and applying a couple of filters, resulting in some spectacular effects.

1. To begin with, make the background layer of the woman a floating layer (double click on the background layer and rename it to Lady). To get the faded look on the Lady layer, go into the Layer menu and select Add Layer Mask... Reveal All.

2. Press the 'D' key to return the foreground and background colours to their default settings, and then click on the Gradient tool in the Toolbox and change the gradients setting to 'Foreground to Transparent'. Now apply the gradient fill from the bottom left hand corner to the top right hand corner. Add a few more gradient fills around the bottom right (not too many and only short gradient fills are needed).

3. Go back into the Layers menu and select Remove Layer Mask. You will be asked if you want to Apply or Discard the mask. If you are happy with the gradient you have created click on Apply. If not, then click on Discard and start from step two again.

4. Once you have got the faded look you want and have applied the layer mask, hold down the CTRL key and click on the image with your left mouse button. From here, drag the layer onto the document which has the lake on it.

5. Flatten the layers together by selecting Flatten from the Layers menu.

6. From the Filter menu, select Sketch and apply a mixture of the Bas Relief and Charcoal filters to create a more artistic effect.

7. (OPTIONAL) If you want to take it one stage further, after you have applied the filters desaturate the image (Image... Adjust... Desaturate) and then add a sepia colour using the Variations option (Image... Adjust... Variations).