1. Open Photoshop. Click File, New. Create a blank document similar to these dimensions:

2. Download this subtle paint texture and drag it into your photoshop file.

3. Double click on the textured paint layer thumbnail to load Blending Options

4. Adjust the layer Opacity and blending to make it subtle.

5. We now need to create several shapes that will define the overall design and contain other graphic elements.

• Select the ellipse tool

• Set the fill and stroke colours to black

• Hold shift and alt to get a perfect circle. Click and drag your curser out, until it says approx 520px

• Choose the Shape layers option on the Options panel. Working with shape layers is very productive and time saving. They are resolution independent and can transform them without losing any quality.

6. Draw a rectangle under the circle, approx W:700px H:107px

7. Select the ‘Direct Selection’ tool

with the direct selection tool selected, edit the corners like so… (Tip: hold shift to keep a straight horizontal line)

8. Select the move tool

Press Ctrl+T, rotate the shape by -45 degrees. You can type this in the top bar for accuracy.

9. Reposition the shape.

10. Duplicate the layer 2 more times and stack the layers like so….

11. Duplicate the rectangle again and rotate 135 degrees to make it vertical.

Move to below the circle so it looks like this…

12. Duplicate the vertical rectangle two more times, and construct this image…

13. Click on your Ellipse layer

Duplicate it.

14. Click Ctrl + T and where it says width and height along the top bar, type 125%. Then press enter. This will make your new circle bigger than your first circle.

15. Now Duplicate the larger Ellipse layer. (this will give you 3 ellipse layers)

Press ctrl +T and resize the new ellipse to 80% of the original size. Then press enter

16. Select the two larger ellipse layers (hold shift to select them both)

With both layers selected, go to ‘Layers’ along the top bar. Go down to ‘Combine Shapes’ and click, ‘Subtract front shapes’

You should have something that looks like this:

17. Select the Polygonal Lasso tool from the left toolbar

Draw a shape around your design like this. Press enter when you want the ends to connect

Now Click the Layer Mask button in the layers panel. This will hide the part of that ring that is not selected. Like this.

18. Duplicate the smallest ellipse layer (the only ellipse you haven’t cut out).

Now drag this new ellipse layer so it is below all the other shapes in the layers panel.

Click Ctrl + T and make it 160% bigger in width and height. Press enter

Now make sure the shape tool is selected in the left toolbar and change the fill and stroke colour to red.

19. Duplicate the red circle.

Click Ctrl +T and make the new circle 80% in width and height

20. Select both red ellipses layers but holding shift.

Then go to Layers – Combine Shapes – and click, ‘Subtract front shapes’

21. Use the polygonal lasso tool to draw around the right corner of the red ellipse. Press enter when you want the ends to connect

Now Click the Layer Mask button in the layers panel. This will hide the part of that ring that is not selected. Like this.

22. Create a new layer above the cut circle.

Select the Pencil Tool

In the top left corner, select 100% hardness with 1px diameter

Zoom right in so you can see each pixel and draw this patter:

Select the Marquee Tool and draw around the pattern to select it.

Choose Edit > Define Pattern.

23. Zoom out. Click select, deselect along the top bar.

And hide the layer that had your pattern drawing by clicking on the eye next to the layer

24. With the red ellipse layer selected, click fx along the bottom of the layers panel

Click Pattern Overlay

Select the pattern you made and press ok

You may need to make the stroke of the elipse transparent

25. Now duplicate that layer.

Right hand click on the layer mask and click delete.

26. Select the direct selection tool

Select the inner circle

Click delete until the whole circle is filled in again.

27. Untick the eye next to the pattern overlay to hide the pattern

On the layers panel, set the fill opacity to zero

Click fx along the bottom of the layers panel

and select ‘stroke’

28. Use the polygonal lasso tool to select the top left corner of the circle outline

Then click layer mask so only that selection is revealed.

29. Download this model stock image and drag into Photoshop.

30. Click ctrl + T to resize and reposition image.

Right Click on the layer and convert to smart object

31. Ctrl and click on the small circle layer so that it selects that shape.

Select. back onto the model layer

Click layer mask – this will start to hide parts of the model image

32. Reveal some more portion of the model… Click ctrl and the vertical rectangle layer.

To add this to the existing mask, click on the the model layer mask (The layer mask is the black and white thumbnail)

Then go to the fill bucket

Set the colour to white

Fill the vertical shape selection in white – this tells Photoshop to reveal more of that mask.

33. Select the lasso tool

We are now going to reveal more of the head…. draw a rough shape around the head

Click on the the model layer mask (The layer mask is the black and white thumbnail)

Then go to the fill bucket

Set the colour to white

Fill the shape selection in white – this tells Photoshop to reveal more of that mask.

34. Apply gradient to the outer ring… Select the ring in the layers panel.

Select fx, then gradient overlay

Click on the gradient and then select the colours using the little square icons.

35. Download this ‘flames’ image and drag into your photoshop file

Click ctrl + T and reposition like so.

Hold ctrl and select the thumbnail for the layer with the gradient colour. This will select that shape.

Then click back on the flame layer and click layer mask

36. Make sure the flame layer is selected. Where it says ‘normal’ at the top of the layers panel. Click the drop down and select ‘screen’

This will make it slightly translucent but makes it blend well into the background.

To make it stand out more, go to Image – Adjustments – Vibrance… and increase the saturation

37. Download the petals image and drag into photoshop

38. Drag the petal layer so it is just above the layer you want to clip it to.

Press Ctrl and click the thumbnail of layer for the diagonal shape. This will select the shape.

Now select the petal layer and click ‘layer mask’ to cut out the petal.

39. Download the water splash image and complete the same process.

40. Download image and clip to vertical rectangle.

41. Add other elements

When adding the swirl, resize to fit over the whole page. In the layers panel, where it says ‘normal’, change the blending option to ‘darken’

You will need 1 portrait photo and 1 landscape photo.​​

Here are some images you can use, or you can find your own:

(It works best with a lighter background… otherwise you end up with something like this, which is fine if you like it like that…)….

1. Open the portrait photo in photoshop: File, Open

2. Drag the landscape photo on top of the portrait image.  (If you click file, open for both images, then they will open in separate documents.)

3. Before you start transforming the photo, change the blending mode (in the layers panel) to ‘screen‘. This makes your landscape slightly translucent.

4. Click ‘Ctrl T’ to activate free transform. Scale and position the landscape where you would like it. Press Enter to apply the transformation.

5. Now let’s work on the portrait layer. Before we do anything, right-click on the portrait layer and select Convert to Smart Object.

Doing this will let us edit the layer.

6. Open the Levels tool by going to Image > Adjustments > Levels.

In the chart, drag the white input slider towards the left until the background is pure white.

You can also drag the black input slider towards the right to increase the contrast, but for our photo it isn’t needed.

Finally, adjust the middle grey input slider to fine-tune the opacity of your silhouette. For our photo, we’ll be dragging it towards the left to increase the silhouette’s visibility.

7. Now let’s adjust the tones. Go to the Adjustments panel (Window > Adjustments) and add a Curves adjustment layer.

In the Layers panel, move this layer to the top if it isn’t already.

In the Properties panel (Window > Properties), you’ll see a graph with a line. Drag the top-right point downwards to drop the whites until it’s slightly grey.

Click in the middle of the line to add a point. Then, click about 1/4 from the left of the line to add another point. Drag this point down to increase the contrast or up to lower the contrast.

8. To finalize the look, select any layer and use the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd+T or Image > Free Transform) to resize/reposition the layers.

For my image, I started by enlarging and centering the silhouette layer.

9. We’re done! Try rotating the texture for different looks.

10. If you start with a darker image…. try the ‘darken’ blending mode to get something like this….

1. Right-hand click and save this image so that you can use it in photoshop.

2. Open Adobe Photoshop 2024

3. Click File, Open and locate the image you just saved

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4. Photoshop toolbar overview:
Your Photoshop tools are located in a bar on the left of the screen.

If you cannot see the toolbar on the left, you can open it by Clicking: window > scroll down and click ‘tools’

How to hide and show toolbar:

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5. How to Zoom in and Out

• Click on the zoom tool icon in your toolbar (it looks like a magnifying glass).
• With the zoom tool selected, click on your photograph to zoom in.
• To Zoom out: Select the zoom tool and hold Alt on your keeyboard (Windows) / Option (Mac) and click on your photo.

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6. How to crop a photo

• Crop: means to remove the unwanted edges of a Photograph.
• With your image open, click the crop icon
• Drag the box around your image to select the are you want to crop
• When you are happy with your selection, click enter

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7. How to Undo

• You can undo an edit you have made by:
• Clicking ‘edit’ along the top bar > then scroll down and click ‘undo’ 
• You can then redo the edit by clicking ‘edit’ along the top bar, scrolling down and clicking ‘redo’
• Another way to undo is to click ‘Ctrl’ and ‘Z’ on your keyboard 

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8. Hidden Tools

• A small arrow in the bottom right corner of a tool icon means that there are more tools hiding behind it in that same spot.
• To view the additional tools, click and hold on the icon. Or right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the icon. A fly-out menu will open listing the other tools that are available.

• For example, if you click and hold on the ‘Rectangular Marquee Tool icon’, the fly-out menu shows that there is also the Elliptical Marquee Tool, the Single Row Marquee Tool and the Single Column Marquee Tool.

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9. Automatic Correction Tools

Automatic correction tools in Photoshop can be found by:

• Click ‘Image’ on the top bar of Photoshop, scroll down to select the ‘Auto’ tools. 
• You can also find ‘Auto’ Options within certain tools. For example: ‘Image’ > ‘Adjustments’ > ‘Brightness and Contrast’ > then select ‘Auto’

Try using: 

• Auto Tone – Corrects the tone
• Auto Contrast – Increases contrast without shifting the color
• Auto Colour – Like Auto Levels it adjusts contrast and color balance but takes a different approach
• Auto brightness and contrast-  can be found by going into image, adjustments, brightness and contrast.
• Hue and Saturation -Adjusts colours and vibrance/greyscale – Can be found by going into image, adjustments, hue and saturation

Before and after:

Video instructions:

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10. Layers

Layers in Photoshop are very helpful. Layers are simply images laid on top of each other.

Imagine taking four sheets of clear plastic. You paint a picture on each sheet of plastic and then layer the sheets on top of each other. The individual pictures merge together to become one.  This is how layers work in Photoshop.

By using layers, you can start with your bottom layer, then add a new layer to edit the image. This means that if you make a mistake, you can easily delete or modify the top layer with your edits, without ruining or altering your original bottom layer.

In order to use layers, you must be able to see the layers panel:

• Click Window along the top bar of Photoshop > then scroll down and make sure that ‘Layers’ is ticked.
• This will open the layers panel.
• At the moment, you should just be able to see one image (one layer) in the layers panel.

Layers Panel:

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11. Creating Layers

• With your image open in Photoshop, click ‘Layer’  > ‘New’ > ‘Layer’

• A pop up window will open where you can give your layer a name. Click ‘OK’

• You will see the new layer in the layers panel

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12. Colour your new layer

• You can now edit the new layer and it will show on top of your original image
• Make sure your new layer is selected in the layers panel.

• Click the ‘paint bucket’ icon from the left toolbar

• Choose the colour you want to use by clicking the colour box at the bottom of the toolbar

• When you have chosen your colour, select anywhere on your image to fill the page with that colour (I chose white).

• You can click the eye next to your layer to show or hide the layer. This will reveal that your original image is still available beneath the coloured layer.

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13. Create a blurred layer mask

• With your new coloured layer on top of your original image, select the Elliptical Marquee tool (remember you might need to hold down the Rectangle Marquee Tool to show the additional tools

• Click and drag to draw a circle. Tip: If you hold down shift at the same time, you will constrain proportions and be able to draw a perfect circle.

• With the circle drawn, click ‘delete’ on your keyboard, this will remove the colour that is within your circle and reveal your image behind.

• To deselect the circle, click anywhere outside of it, or go to “Select’ on the top bar > ‘Deselect’

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14. Create a blurred layer mask continued…

• Now that you have deleted a circle from your top colour layer, we can edit it further.
• Make sure you have completed the last step on the previous slide (deselected the ‘Elliptical Marquee’ circle by clicking “Select’ on the top bar > ‘Deselect’ ) otherwise it wont work
• Make sure your top layer (the one that you have filled with a colour is selected in the layer panel).
• Then click ‘Filter’  > ‘Blur’ > ‘Gaussian Blur’

• A window will pop up. Try moving the toggle left to right and click ‘ok’ when you are happy with the effect.

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15. Duplicating Layers

As well as ‘New Layers’, you can also create ‘Duplicate Layers’.  This allows you to create a duplicate or copy of your original layer. This means you can edit the duplicated layer and preserve the original layer underneath, just in case you need to go back to it.

To duplicate a layer:

• With your image open in Photoshop, click ‘Layer’  > ‘Duplicate Layer’

• A pop up window will open where you can give your layer a name. Click ‘OK’

• You will see the duplicate layer in the layers panel