BEFORE WE ACTUALLY BEGIN - I just want to state that this tutorial will most likely be image extensive (actually, it'll be extensive, period. I believe in being detailed. :]), so I'm sorry to those that have slow internet (which, I am included in that group of people, so don't complain too much. If I made it with dial-up, then you can read it with dial-up. xD) Also, this was created for a friend, but anyone who wants to use it, feel free. <3 Its designed for even those who are new to photoshop. :]
Okay, so. We will be creating a manip of Boyd Holbrook and Dianna Agron that I made.
First thing's first - get your images and open them up in photoshop (or whatever program you have; I have photoshop, so that's what this tutorial will be in). The images I used are here (its the last image in that post; I uploaded it into photobucket, but it resized it significantly, so I would just suggest saving it from that site) and here.
Before we start with any actual editing, we have to crop and resize the image(s). With the image of Dianna, I actually didn't crop and/or resize any (not at this time, anyhow). However, with Boyd I did both. Now, I can't give you the exact amount of cropping and resizing for all images you might use, as it isn't really an exact science. Obviously, you just want the two people to look about the same size, as its supposed to appear as if they're standing together, you know. For this specific image of Boyd, I cropped him down to about his elbow, maybe a little further down. I also cropped a bit of the left edge off, since it has some weird looking gray bar thing on it. xD
Now we have the little problem of the writing all over the right side of the image. We COULD crop it, but we want that extra space to put Dianna in, so we have to smudge it. So select your smudge tool (pictured here. If it isn't already on the smudge tool, then just click on blur or sharpen - whichever it's already on - and hold down until the little menu pops up, and then click on the smudge tool option.)
Make sure the size of your smudge brush is big (mine is set to about 85), then start smudging the words outward, to the right edge and bottom of the image.
(it should look something like this when you've finished, although larger, since I resized it a bit more than it should be for easy uploading. xD you may have to do extra smudging to make the background blend a bit. just work at it! ^^) Once you're done with that, just resize him! Mine ended up being about 711x563. You can crop him so that there isn't as much background on the left side of his image. I ended up doing that at this point. ^^
Now we switch to the image of Dianna. I cropped her a little, so that there was very little background around her. You can do that, but you don't HAVE to. Anyway. We need to get her into Boyd's image, but we don't want her background, of course. So you take the polygonal lasso tool (pictured here. If it isn't already on the PL tool, then select it the same way you selected the smudge tool. :]) Now outline Dianna. This part is kind of tedious and it may take some time, especially if you want it to be super super perfect, but you actually don't have to outline her EXACTLY. I mean, don't cut parts of her off, but don't worry if you have some jagged edges or anything. We'll fix those later. Once she's all selected, copy and paste her as a new later IN THE SAME IMAGE. That way, you can hide the original layer to see if you missed anything when selecting. If you did, you can always undo and then select/deselect whatever you need to (to add more to the selected area, hold down shift and then select what you need; to take away some from the selected area, hold ALT and then select what you need). Once that's done, it should look a bit like this:
After a bit of trial and error, I got Dianna to look like she was about the same size as Boyd. However, to do this, I had to scale her a bit. Make sure the copied and pasted layer of Dianna is selected, then go to EDIT --> Transform --> Scale. Then select the little square on the left side of the outline and drag it inward a bit. She may look a little distorted and smushed, but it won't look bad in the end product. ^^ Just make sure you don't scale her TOO much!
Now copy the scaled Dianna and paste her into the image with Boyd. Position her the way you think looks good, but obviously do it on the righthand side of the image, since that's where the most space is. :] This is the way I liked it best:
Obviously it looks like a poorly made manip. xD The coloring is all wrong, not to mention Boyd's lack of contrast and the fact that Dianna looks hopelessly under-sharpened.
This leads us to the second part of the tutorial - the actual blending-ness of it. :] At this point you should have two layers: Boyd's layer and Dianna's layer. Make sure Boyd's layer is selected, then go to Image --> Adjustments --> Brightness/Contrast. I set the values as brightness:10 and contrast:60. Its still not perfect, but he matches her a bit better. ^^
Now that he is more contrast-ified, we can get to more smudging! xD I'm sure you've noticed that there are some words written across Dianna's upper chest - I didn't forget it. To get rid of that, once again select your smudge tool, this time make the size significantly smaller - mine is about 6. This is something I can't really tell you how to do exactly. Just smudge it up and down in small strokes until the words are blended out. It should look something like this when you've finished.
I wanted their hair to be a bit smoother looking, so I (yet again!) took the smudge tool (at size 6 still) and just smudge in the direction of the hair. This is, yet again, another time where you just have to do it to really learn how to get it right. Also, I reshaped Dianna's hair a bit to make it look nicer. Once finished, you should have something a bit like this:
It gives it a bit more... idk, "cartoon-y" look, but its a lot smoother. xD That done, you can now smooth their faces some, especially Boyd's, since he looks a bit blotchy, but you don't really have to do it. Now I believe its time to desaturate! Since Boyd's image is so... desaturated in color, and Dianna's is so bright, I decided they would blend a lot better if they were greyscale. So on each layer (you should still just have two) go to Image --> Adjustments --> Desaturate.
Now, as you can see, the lighting is off on the two images. So now we must bust out the dodge and burn tools! :D For those who don't know, the dodge tool lightens and the burn tool darkens. So first we're going to take our dodge tool (size 11) and run it along Dianna's bangs, just to give it a bit more shine. You can do some on Boyd's hair, too, if you so desire. Don't go overboard with it, though. Once that's done, keep using the dodge tool and brush over Dianna's shirt and face, as well as Boyd's face. I can't really explain where exactly, so just refer to the images below. xD
Basically you just want to get both images to look like they have the same light source (in this manip, I decided to utilize the light source from Dianna's image, like the light is coming from the middle). Now for the burn tool! See how Boyd's lips are darker than Dianna's? I thought it looked a little odd, so just take the burn tool, size 6 still, and darken her lips a bit.
Everything from here on out is pretty simple. xD Select Dianna's layer, then go to Filter --> Sharpen --> Sharpen. She'll look a little grainy, but don't worry about it. Take your blur tool (click and hold down the smudge tool and select the blur tool) in a small size and run it along any sharp-looking edges (such as the arm that's behind her body). Resize the image to 500 width by whatever height it automatically gives you (mine was 500x437). Then take this texture (omg, I can't remember where I got it. If you know, tell me!), desaturate it, then copy and paste it on your manip, setting it to "lighten". Move it around until it looks good.
Merge all the layers. Then go to Filter --> Blur --> Smart Blur. My settings are as follows:
And that's it! You should have something like this:
Of course, you'll have to tweak it, depending on the images you use. Sorry that took so long, but I hope you followed it through and I hope you got some use out of it! <3
