How to Create a Surreal Giraffe Manipulation in Adobe Photoshop

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How to Create a Surreal Giraffe Manipulation in Adobe Photoshop

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Adobe Photoshop to create a surreal giraffe using a range of photo manipulation techniques.
First, we’ll build the background scene using images of a meadow and a sky. Then we’ll add the giraffe, create a neck from a twisted tree and add some branches. After that, we’ll add a standing bird and some flying birds, then add leaves and grass. We’ll use several adjustment / coloring layers to complete the final effect.

What You’ll Need

The following resources were used to create this effect:

• Meadow
• Sky
• Giraffe
• Tree 1
• Tree 2
• Branches
• Bird 1
• Birds 2
• Leaves
• Grass

1. How to Build the Background

Step 1

Create a new 1500 x 1500 px document in Photoshop with the following settings:

Step 2

Go to Layer > New Layer > Color Fill and choose the color #70dce3.

Step 3

Open the sky image. Drag it into the cyan canvas using the Move Tool (V) 

Click the second icon at the bottom of the Layer panel to add a mask to this layer. Activate the Brush Tool (B) and use a black color (soft black brush) with Opacity at about 30% to reduce the sharpness of the clouds in the sky at the top left.

Step 4

Create a Color Balance adjustment layer above the sky and set it as a Clipping Mask. Change the Midtones settings to blend the color of the sky with the background.

Step 5

Create a Photo Filter adjustment layer and choose the color #cbe36b. On this layer mask, use a soft black brush to erase the effect in the middle of the sky.

Step 6

Add a Curves adjustment layer to brighten the sky. On this layer mask, use a soft black brush to erase some of the light on the left.

Step 7

On the sky layer, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and change the Radius to 4 px. This step will add more depth to the scene.

Step 8

Drag the meadow image into the main canvas and place it in the bottom half. Use the Free Transform Tool (Control-T) to change the angle of the meadow. Convert this layer to a Smart Object.

Add a mask to this layer and use a soft black brush to remove the edges of the meadow and blend it with the horizon of the sky.

Step 9

Apply a Gaussian Blur of 4 px to the meadow layer. On the filter mask, use a soft black brush to blur the background

Step 10

Create a Color Balance adjustment layer to change the color of the meadow. On this layer mask, paint on the edges of the meadow, adding some yellow light here

Step 11

Create a Curves adjustment layer to brighten the field.

Step 12

Add another Curves adjustment layer for the same purpose. The selected area at the front and on the right shows where to paint on the layer mask.

2. How to Edit the Giraffe

Step 1

Cut out the giraffe and place it near the top

Add a mask to this layer, blend the giraffe’s legs with the grassy ground, and erase the neck. We’ll replace it with a tree trunk later.

Step 2

Create a new layer, change the mode to Overlay 100%, and fill with 50% gray.

Activate the Dodge and Burn Tool (O) with Midtones Range and Exposure at about 15-20% to adjust the highlights and shadows of the giraffe. You can see how I did it in Normal mode and the result in Overlay.

Step 3

Create a Curves adjustment layer to make the giraffe brighter. On this layer mask, use a soft black brush to erase the shadow areas and the back of the giraffe.

Step 4

Create a Levels adjustment layer for the same purpose.

Step 5

Add a Color Balance adjustment layer to add yellow to the giraffe. Change the values of Midtones:

Step 6

Create a Photo Filter adjustment layer and choose the color #e89e10 to make the front of the giraffe stronger.

Step 7

To create a shadow for the giraffe, create a new layer below the giraffe layer. Hold Control and click the thumbnail of the giraffe layer to load its selection.

Fill the selection with the color #070101 and flip it vertically (Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical). Use Control-T with Warp to make the shadow match the direction of the light source.

Reduce the Opacity of the shadow to 40% and apply a Gaussian Blur of 6 px to the shadow layer. 

3. How to Create a Tree Neck

Step 1

Open the tree 1 image and extract the tree from the background. Place it on the giraffe’s neck and use Control-T with Warp to bend it like the giraffe’s neck.

Add a mask to this layer and use a medium-soft black brush to blend the tree trunk with the giraffe’s body. Lower the brush opacity if needed to make the blend look better and more natural.

Step 2

Create a new layer, change the mode to Overlay 100%, and fill with 50% gray. Use the Dodge and Burn Tool to adjust the highlights and shadows on this twisted tree.

Step 3

Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to desaturate the tree. On the layer mask, use a soft black brush with Opacity (about 30-35%) to add yellow to the tree.

Step 4

Create a Curves adjustment layer to brighten the tree. Paint on the shadow areas to reduce the brightness.

Step 5

Use a Curves adjustment layer to reduce the contrast of this part of the tree.

Step 6

Open the giraffe image again. Extract the giraffe and drag it onto the current one, making it larger than the current one, and use Control-T to rotate it a little.

Add a mask to this layer and remove most parts of the larger giraffe, leaving some skin texture visible only at the bottom of the tree neck. Change this layer’s mode to Overlay 100%.

Step 7

Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to desaturate the skin texture.

4. How to Add the Branches

Step 1

Cut out the branches from the original image. Use the Lasso Tool (L) to select the two upper branches and place them on top of the neck.

Step 2

On each branch layer, create a new layer, change the mode to Overlay 100%, and fill with 100%gray. Use the Dodge and Burn Tool to enhance the highlights and shadows on the branches.

Step 3

Create a group for the branch layers and add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the group. Increase the Saturation value a little.

Step 4

Create a Curves adjustment layer to add light to the branches. On this layer mask, paint on the shadow areas or on details that are bright enough.

5. How to Add the Birds

Step 1

Cut out the first bird from the original image and place it on top of the branch, between the two branches.

Step 2

Create a new layer below the first bird. Use a soft brush with the color #070101 and Opacity at about 50% to paint the shadow of the bird’s feet on top of the giraffe’s horn.

Step 3

Use a Color Balance adjustment layer to match the bird’s color to the rest of the scene. Change the settings of the Midtones and Highlights.

Step 4

Use the Dodge and Burn Tool on a new layer to paint more light on the bird’s tail, right leg, and right shadow.

Step 5

Create a Curves adjustment layer to reduce the brightness above the bird’s belly.

Step 6

Open the bird 2 image and extract the birds from the background. Add different bird species to the top right of the canvas and apply a Gaussian Blur of 2 px to each bird layer.

Step 7

Use a Color Balance adjustment layer to change the color of the birds a little.

Step 8

Create a Curves adjustment layer to increase the brightness of the birds.

6. How to Add Leaves and Grass

Step 1

Open the leaves image. Use the Lasso Tool to select different leaf areas and add them to the branches.

Step 2

Add leaves around the scene, near the giraffe and the edges of the canvas, scaling them to different sizes. Apply a Gaussian Blur filter 3 px, 4 px, and 6 px to the leaf layers depending on the size, distance and position of the leaves. This helps increase the depth of field.

Step 3

Group all the leaf layers into a new folder and create a Curves  adjustment layer to brighten the leaves.

Step 4

Create another Curves adjustment layer for the same purpose

Step 5

Add the tree 2 image to the top left of the scene and apply a Gaussian Blur of 8 px to this layer.

Step 6

The light of the scene is pretty soft, so use a Curves adjustment layer to reduce the contrast of tree 2.
The light of the scene is pretty soft, so use a Curves adjustment layer to reduce the contrast of tree 2.

Step 7

Use the Dodge Tool on a new layer to reduce the shadow areas of tree 2.

Step 8

Open the grass image. Take different grass patches to add to the foreground of the main scene. You can duplicate, resize and rotate them so they look different. Apply Gaussian Blur 8 px to each grass layer.

Step 9

Create a group for the grass layers and add a Color Balance adjustment layer to change the color of the grass a little.

Step 10

Use a Curves adjustment layer to add light to the top of the grass.

7. Final Adjustments

Step 1

Create a Color Fill layer on top of all the layers and choose the color #02081f. Change the layer to Exclusion 100%.

Step 2

Create a Gradient Map adjustment layer and choose the colors #e10019 and #00601b. Change this layer’s mode to Soft Light 20%.

Step 3

Add a Color Balance adjustment layer to add some vibrance to the whole scene.

Step 4

Create another Gradient Map adjustment layer and choose Copper from Presets. Change this layer’s mode to Hard Light 10%.

Step 5

Create a Curves adjustment layer to reduce the brightness a little.

Step 6

Add a Selective Color adjustment layer and change the Reds values to tone down the giraffe, neck and branches a little.