I've enjoyed processing some photos of mycar lately, using various editing and compositing techniques to enhance the flat and boringimages that come out of the camera into vibrant automotive portraits. Today I'll show you the process I went throughto transform this rear end shot of my Mustang in a rather uninspiring location of the localTesco supermarket car park, into this much improved version with a dramatic backdrop,punchy colours and atmospheric lighting effects. I only have an entry level Nikon DSLR thatis still rocking the standard kit lens, so it just goes to show what kind of magic youcan conjure within Photoshop. But first, if you want access to a libraryof resources to help you with your projects, check out Envato Elements, the ultimate creativetoolkit for designers...
So this is the photograph I'll be workingon in this tutorial. The glow of the rear lights and the positioningof the car on the wide road that recedes into the distance provide the foundation of a coolnight time street shot. The ugly surroundings of this original photographdon't really fit into that theme, but it did provide some nice acoustics for some exhaustsound clips. The photograph is just a quick hand-held shotin one of the camera's baby modes, captured in RAW format so some initial adjustmentscan be made to rescue it slightly. The first adjustment was to straighten itout using the Camera Raw straighten tool to set a line between two points, followed bythe Enter key to crop the image. A touch of blue in the Temperature reducesthe warmth slightly, then a touch more Exposure brightens everything up a little. I tend to wiggle each slider and eyeball theresult, but the main adjustments will come later. Even when you're not planning on compositinga new background, a good first step is to clip out the car from the background usingthe Pen tool.
It allows you to make adjustments to the carand backdrop independently. Click and drag each bezier point, or one ofmy preferred methods is to set two points, then place an additional point in the middlewhich is moved into place around a curve. Keeping a thumb on the CMD or CTRL key allowsyou to quickly toggle to the Direct Selection tool. The top edge of my car has a bright halo,so I clipped as much of it out as possible so it doesn't leave a fringe around the cut-out. Follow the outline of the car, roughly includingthe dark shadows underneath until you return back to the start. Right click and choose Make Selection, thencopy and paste the clipping onto its own layer. To fix that highlight on the roof, I madea selection by holding the CMD key while clicking the layer thumbnail, then used the Clone Stamptool to paint out the white portion. A clean area of the roof is sampled by holdingthe ALT key, which is accurately lined up on the stripes and bodylines. Because the selection is active, it won'tpaint outside of the mask. The Mustang layer is converted into a SmartObject in order to work non-destructively, so no filters or adjustments are permanentlyapplied. One of the first filters is a Gaussian Blurof just 1px to help eliminate the hard edge of the clipping. The layer mask is filled with black to makethe blur invisible, then with the Background visibility off, the blur is painted back inaround the edge with a soft white brush, particularly where the original outline is blurry due tothe depth of field. This little step just avoids the clippinglooking too fake. In order to apply any other filters withoutthem being affected by the layer mask, it must be converted into a new smart object. This time a Dust and Scratches filter fromunder the Noise menu is applied. Settings of around 8px Radius blur out thetexturing and highlights from the bodywork's reflections, then the Threshold is adjustedto find the right balance.
The layer mask is filled with black again,using the CMD+Backspace shortcut, which removes the effect, then it's painted back in usinga white brush in the required areas. A low Flow setting on the brush helps youslowly build up the effect to help keep it looking natural. With the original background turned back onit doesn't look like anything has changed, so let's find a new backdrop. I knew I wanted a night time street scene,so I browsed for suitable stock images on Shutterstock. I chose this Night Urban Scene By Sergey Molchenkobecause it's taken at a similar angle with a straight road that recedes into the distance,which will be easy to blend with my original image. The entire image is selected with Select All,then Copied and Pasted into my working document, placed above the Background layer but belowthe Mustang clipping. To get it into the right position it's Transformed,then scaled and stretched so the perspective roughly matches. To compare the direction of the road, thelayer is reduced to 70% opacity so the angle can be matched up with the original image.
To properly blend the image, add a layer mask,then make a rough selection of the area to remove and fill it with black. It can then be fine tuned with the brush tool,changing between hardness levels and using the X key to swap between painting with blackor white to remove or restore the mask. Keeping the original asphault makes thingseasy because the car is realistically placed on the road with the correct shading. It's just a case of masking up to the hardedge of the kerb. Comparing the original background with thenew backdrop image, the depth of field blurs the distant objects in the original, whereasthe new image is crisp and sharp. A Gaussian Blur will help replicate the focaldepth, but it's first converted to a Smart Object so it's applied non-destructively. About 3px worth of blur looks about rightfor this image, but it only needs applying to the distant areas, so the mask is usedto fade it out at the sides where the bridge gets closer. The new background is taken with a much bettercamera so there's less ISO noise too. A Noise filter will help match it to the carand foreground, but because a layer mask is already applied to the Smart Filters, it firstneeds converting into a new smart object. Zooming in shows around a 3% addition of GaussianNoise looks about right. A Color Balance adjustment layer above thenew background helps to bring out the desired blue tones in the bridge. To better blend the car with its new environmentsome adjustments of its own are needed. Curves will help brighten it up, but to applythe adjustment layer to just the car layer, hold the ALT key while clicking between thelayers to form a clipping mask. After brightening up the mustang layer withCurves, its own Color Balance adjustment layer helps match the hues of the car park to themuch bluer environment of the bridge. Targeting the Shadows, Midtones and Highlightsin turn helps you quickly colour match the two objects. The window of the car is still showing thereflections from the car park roof, so a selection of just this area is made using the Pen tool,the copied and pasted onto a new layer.
It's converted into a Smart Object to allowfor non-destructive editing, then the Dust and Scratches filter us used to blur out thedetails. I could have left the window clipping underneaththe Color Balance adjustment layer, but I decided it needed some more colour adjustmentof its own so I moved it to the top of the layer stack, then applied some Color Balanceto it directly from the Image > Adjustments menu. This, along with some Levels adjustments,darkened the window with more of a blue hue. One of the best ways to seamlessly blend acomposite is to pay attention to the details like reflections. Draw a selection of some surrounding scenery,then use the Copy Merged command to take a sample including all adjustment layers. Press CMD+T to Transform, then scale, stretchand position the clipping over the window. Hold the CMD key and click the thumbnail ofthe window layer to load its selection, then apply a layer mask to the reflections layerto trim it to size. Using a blending mode of Lighten or Screen,reducing the opacity right down to around 10-15% gives it a subtle but realistic effectthat makes all the difference. One technique to help match an objects lightingand shading, and to just boost its contrast, is to Dodge and Burn it. In order to dodge and burn non-destructively,there a clever method that uses a grey overlay layer. Create a new layer and go to Edit > Fill,or hit the F5 shortcut. Choose 50% Gray from the dropdown menu, thenchange the blending mode to Overlay. Nothing appears to have changed, but you cannow dodge and burn on this layer without it being applied permanently to the image. Begin with the Burn tool with the optionsset to Shadows with a low Exposure of around 10%. Paint over any dark areas and follow the shadingof the body panels. Repeat the process with the Dodge tool, butfocus on the highlights. This is where you can subtly alter the shadingby brightening up certain portions of the subject. One of the main focal points of the imageis the glowing rear lights. To boost their impact, I made a selectionof the lenses using the Lasso tool, holding the Shift key to add multiple areas to theselection.
The selection was then filled with white ona new layer, then to make the white fill invisible, the Fill amount is set to zero. You can't apply Layer Styles if there's nothingon the layer, but you can reduce the fill so it's not visible, but still have the layerstyle effects showing. An Outer Glow layer style is added using abright red colour sampled from the lens, with a large Size value to give it a soft glow. To add even more ambience, a dab of a brightred colour using a soft brush can then be squashed and placed over the lights. Changing the blending mode to Screen allowsthe colours to interact to give a larger glow. While the floor area is what is realisticallycaptured from real life, I thought a couple of glow spots on the road would help boostthe effect. These spots were set to Hard Light with alow 12% opacity. One of the advantages of Photoshop is youcan add all kinds of special effects that weren't present in the original scene to givethe image more atmosphere. I'll link to the two brush sets I used inthis image down in the description area. Painting in some mist with a smoke brush isan easy way to create a moody scene. The key is to add a layer mask then erasethe mist with the same brush, set to a low flow value to blend it smoothly. The overall impact can then be tuned by reducingthe opacity of the layer. Particle brushes also add some cool specialeffects, but not too much so it doesn't look like it's snowing! I always like to add a final Camera Raw filterto the entire image at the end.
This is where I used to create a merged copy,but I'd always end up wanting to make tweaks and have to delete and re-do the layer everytime. A better way to non-destructively make finishingtouches is to combine all the layers into yet another smart object. You can then double click the Smart Objectto make any tweaks, then any filters will automatically update in the finished image. In the Camera Raw settings, a linear gradientis first applied to darken the top of the image to focus on the subject in the centre. Usually I'd apply a similar effect at thebottom, but the road in this shot was quite dark anyway, so it was brightened up a little. All the other slider values are then wiggledback and forth to perfect the appearance of the image as a whole, giving it the necessarybrightness and contrast adjustments. A healthy dose of Clarity helps make car shotspop nicely, as long as you don't go too far. The HSL Adjustments tab is the best placeto correct and boost the colours of the image. I wanted to boost the red of my Mustang inparticular, and bring down some of the darker blues in the background. The beauty of Smart Objects is you can applymultiple Filters while keeping them separate. I like to add some Split Toning effects inthe Camera Raw filter, but it's always wise to set it separately so you can tweak it individually. With the Highlights and Shadows sliders inturn, boost the saturation to max to help you find the right Hue, then dial back thesaturation to find just the right amount of colour grading. The final result is a completely transformedphotograph with a much more fantastical appearance than the original. The ugly backdrop was replaced with some simplePhotoshop compositing techniques, making sure the two elements matched by correcting thecolour balance. Little details like adding the window reflectionsand boosting the lamp vibrancy are subtle changes that greatly improve the overall result.
Then the whole scene is finished off withspecial effects and colour grading to produce a stunning car portrait worthy of Instagram. If you enjoyed this video or learnt any newtricks, a Like would be greatly appreciated to help spread the word. I'll see you in the next one!
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