Advanced' Photo Effects Tutorials

Get some lizard and gator pics to suit your needs.

I just use the polygon tool to cut out the rough images of the lizards, no real skill involved.

Start with a nice spiky source for the back of the head.



Duplicate that layer and rotate it to place it to make the jaw spikes.

A second cut out source is placed for the face.



A third source is added for the jawline and snout.

Cut out some crocodile teeth and add them along the jaw.

Duplicate the TEETH layer and make one layer invisible in the layers pallet for restoring the highlites on the teeth later.

This is a great place to save the file.

Merge everything except the hidden TEETH Layer.

Now for the magic! We have to give him the soul of a faerie...and turn him a nice cotton candy pink colour with pixie yellow highlights.

Duplicate the dragon's face so you can restore it if need be.
With the top merged dragon selected choose Image>Adjustments>Selective Colour from the top menu.




In the pop-up box change the RED box to NEUTRALS and put the cyan slider at about -45 and the yellow slider at about -40.




Change the NEUTRALS Selection to YELLOWS and slide Cyan to -85, Yellow to -100 and Black to +100.


Play with the sliders for all the colours until the dragon is a nice light pink colour with yellowish highlights. Nothing has to be exact.

Select the top layer and choose Image>Adjustments>Variations.


Click on the top left box that says ORIGINAL if the dragon is not what you started with.

Click the coloured boxes to make the dragon red and yellow. My clicks were yellow 7 times, red 5, magenta 2.



In the layers pallet set the blending mode to Multiply.


The dragon should now be an evil red...

Remember the TEETH layer you saved? Turn it back on and make it the top layer. In the Layers Pallet change its blending mode from NORMAL to MULTIPLY and set its opacity to about 50%.



The head of the RED DRAGON is now finished.

The body and wings of the dragon can be made using some artistic ability and these techniques.

So what is fantasy without a little competition of opposites?

Let's make the enemy white.


Take your finished dragon and duplicate it 2 more times.

Use Image>Adjustments>Hue Saturation

and use the HUE slider to make the top layer turquoise, and the second layer a nice yellow.

Set the blending mode of the turquoise layer to Screen, with 50% opacity.
Similarly make the second layer Yellow and set it to Screen 50% opacity.

Merge the 3 layers.
(the small heads are just to show the starting colours)


To tone down the yellow

Use Image>Adjusments>Colour Balance, change the radio button in its popup to "Highlights" and pump up the blue slider.

Let the fight begin!