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Fine art photo in Photoshop, free masterclass

Colin Smith

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How to turn a photo into fine art in Photoshop

How to edit a photo and give it a fine art, painterly feel in Photoshop.

This “masterclass” walks you through the process of crafting a photo into a fine art piece that can be printed and displayed.This tutorial is about workflow, all the pieces put together. This isn’t the only workflow that i use. There are many ways to do things in Photoshop and these techniques work on this image. The techniques are interchangeable and will work for any photo. What I’m saying it, watch the techniques and workflows, but don’t take them as poured in cement. Be flexible and quick to adapt and change, (I might do some things differently in other tutorials) this way you will produce better art. Watch the video to see each step and the explanations as to why I’m doing certain things. These written steps are to help you see the basic overview, or or more advanced users to see whats happening. If you get stuck, watch the video ;).

I’m starting with a series of aerial photos I shot with a drone. (See my drone photo gallery here). The same workflow applies to any photo, I just happen to enjoy a drone as my camera.

To capture a setting sun, you need multiple exposures to capture the detail in the sun as well as foreground details (AEB Exposure bracketing). You could use HDR, but I’m not in this example.

In Lightroom, Select a light image for the foreground and a dark image for the sunset.

Right click and choose Edit in> Open as Layers in Photoshop

open multiple photos in lightroom

Exposure Blending in Photoshop

This opens the Images as 2 different layers in Photoshop.

exposure blending in photoshop

With the top layer selected,

Hold down Alt/Option

Click the new Layer Mask button

This creates a new mask which is inverted and hides the current layer.

make an inverted layer mask in Photoshop

Choose a white brush and make sure the layer mask is selected (White frame around it).

Paint on the areas that you want to reveal the current layer and allow the darker photo to show through in the brighter areas such as the sky

blending layers in photoshop

If I hide the background, you can see the areas that are showing on the top layer.

We are blending the exposures together.

hiding layers in photoshop, the painted layer

When you are happy with the blending, select both layers in the layers panel

Right click on the layer name and choose Convert to Smart Object

You will see that both layers are merged into a single Smart Object. This step is optional, but I chose to do it so I could process then together in CameraRAW (All that is on the video above).

Shaping the Photo with Dodge and Burn

We will do 2 passes of dodge and burn. This first pass is to shape the overall toning of the image. The second pass will to pop the details.

With the Cmd/Ctrl Key held down, click the create new layer button

make a smart object in photoshop

Because of the alt key, you will see an options box.

Change the blend mode to overlay,

Choose Fill with 50% gray (To me, gray works better than transparent when we are blending the tones )

new layer with options in photoshop

Because of the blending mode, the gray is hidden and the layer doesn’t change the appearance.

Choose a black brush with 10% flow and paint around the edges and areas that you want to darken. Don’t worry if it gets too dark.

crafting a fine art photo

You can see the “big” dodge and burn layer here in the layers panel

dodge and burn in photoshop

When you have mapped out the darker tones, adjust the layer opacity so that our burning isn’t so dark.

painting with light

Crete  new layer for the dodging (lighter tones)

Choose a white brush and paint in some lighter areas, such as the surf and beach.

light the train and the surfliner

Also paint in front of the train with the white, to make a beam from the headlight. (Once again, watch the video to see all this in action).

lighting the headlight in phooshop

Looking at the layers panel, you can see that you can make multiple dodge and burn layers. This makes it easy to adjust the opacity of different parts of the image.

Photoshop toning layers

Here I am dodging the edges of the tress to add a rim light.

If I go over the edges (like I did here, it can easily be fixed by painting with 50% gray).

Add rim light in photoshop

Here are the waves breaking into surf.

the surf on the beach

Paint the tops of the surf to make it pop.

adding pop to the tops of waves

Here is the train

painting on the train

Get those edges of the roof to make the rim light pop

add rim light to the train

As you work on the little pieces at a time, you may not realize the overall impact those adjustments are making until you put it all together.

Fine art Photo masterclass in Photoshop

If you find this interesting and want to take dodging and burning further, I created an in depth course here

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Add a comment and let me know if you learned anything new.

Enjoy browsing the hundreds of free tutorials here at PhotoshopCAFE

Until next time,

I’ll see you at the CAFE

Colin


PS Don’t forget to follow us on Social Media for more tips.. (I've been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop Goodies here photoshop goodies for free

22 thoughts on “Fine art photo in Photoshop, free masterclass

  1. February 24, 2021 at 7:18 am

    Start to finish—great tips along the way. I am NEW to my Wacom, and this tutorial is a powerful start for me for its effectiveness.

  2. Mark Yancey
    February 24, 2021 at 7:42 am

    Thanks for the tutorial. However, the low resolution of the video made it hard to follow. It was difficult to find your cursor at times to see where you were working. Enjoyed the content, but can you improve the resolution? Thanks

    1. Colin Smith
      March 22, 2021 at 4:28 pm

      If its blurry, hit refresh, the video is in High Resolution

  3. Nathan Norman Share
    February 24, 2021 at 8:21 am

    Always enjoy and learn from watching your tutorials, both the “tips” and “workflow” on an image.
    As for the request to hit the “like” button, I always want to do so but cannot find it.

  4. Albert C.
    February 24, 2021 at 9:33 am

    LOVED THE TUTORIAL FROM START TO FINISH!!!!!!!!! GRACIAS COLIN!!!!!

  5. Docbill64
    February 24, 2021 at 1:57 pm

    Loved the extra detailing!! I learned a lot. Thanks!!

  6. Linda L Grigsby
    February 24, 2021 at 2:53 pm

    Great tutorial! Thanks, Colin.

  7. February 24, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    Really enjoyed this one. Learned so much and absolutely would like to see more.

  8. Paul Vlaminck
    February 25, 2021 at 12:44 am

    Wow, what a tutorial. Just excellent and eye opening.
    Where is that like button?

    1. Colin Smith
      March 22, 2021 at 4:27 pm

      Its on youtube

  9. Lori Palmer
    February 25, 2021 at 6:35 am

    Fantastic tutorial! Loved how you painted in the light. Would appreciate more classes like this. You have a great teaching style.

  10. Rosie O
    February 25, 2021 at 7:44 am

    Learnt loads on this one! Thanks.

  11. February 26, 2021 at 2:11 pm

    All of your tutorials are great Colin, but I especially enjoyed this one. It demonstrates that creating an artful photograph requires that the artist first “see” the “look” that he/she is after in the final product. You carried that message beautifully, and then showed us how to make it happen using basic Photoshop tools and editing techniques. Yes, I’d like to see more!

  12. February 27, 2021 at 11:43 am

    Thanks for making this a video and a written tutorial. Great reference and work flow guide. I have enjoyed your tutorials for many years now.

  13. Frank Foley
    February 28, 2021 at 6:10 am

    Because of you I do this. I would most definitely like to see more of this. Great job as always and thank you for all you do.

  14. PATRICIA MARIANO
    March 4, 2021 at 11:56 am

    Loved the tutorial, helped me get a better perspective of integrating tools into a workflow.

  15. Sue P
    March 10, 2021 at 4:27 am

    Very informative, thank you

  16. Arthur
    March 30, 2021 at 3:18 pm

    Loving the start to finish approach.

  17. iss1942
    May 4, 2021 at 11:17 pm

    Great video. Really appreciate your teaching approach and skills. Learned a lot from this video.

  18. De
    June 15, 2021 at 1:33 am

    Would have liked the image to follow along the process.

    1. Colin Smith
      June 23, 2021 at 11:27 pm

      All our premium corses come with practice images.

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