In this video walkthrough, I will show you all the steps it took to create this neon homage to Synthwave in Photoshop. Synthwave is a genre of music that has striking conceptual imagery to accompany the albums.
In the video, you will not only hear the thoughts running through my head as I edited the image, but also see the piece come together at the same time. The video starts with me showing you all the stock images I used for this image. Sometimes, finding the stock for an image can be the most time-consuming part of a photo manipulation, so be prepared to spend hours scouring sites. One tip is to always know what you want your end-image to look like before you go scouting for stock. I know this probably sounds silly, but some people do just scour stock sites, downloading random stock to use. I find this way a lot more tiresome.
As the video moves along, you will see me take the stock images and start to build up this graphic design-style image, first piecing together the images and then color-matching and tone-matching so they all work together. As with most composite images, the magic starts to happen when you start styling the image. Adding the neon colors and glow really brings this piece alive. And because it is more design than photorealism, we can take some liberties with the composition.
This video walkthrough is great for people of all levels who want to see how a composite like this is pieced together. When I was learning, I found it of great benefit to watch other artists' processes and workflow, taking what I needed and applying it to my own.
