STEP BY STEP BUILD THE IMAGE IN PHOTOSHOP

Piece together your set of images in Photoshop with simple layer and masking skills

01 LOAD INTO LAYERS

After picking the frames we want, we open them up as a layered document in Photoshop. This can be done by selecting the files in Bridge, then going to Tools>photoshop>load into Layers, or in Photoshop by using File>scripts>load Files into Stack.

02 ADD A MASK

Choose a shot to use as a base and drag it to the bottom of the stack, then hide all but the layer above. Toggle this layer on and off to determine the lit area of the car that you want to blend, then hold Alt and click the Add Layer Mask icon to hide the layer behind a full black mask.

03 REVEAL THE LIGHTING

Grab the Brush tool, right-click and set hardness to 0. Hit D to set the colour to white then paint over the car to reveal the area of the image you want. Once done, reveal the next layer up, then add a full mask again and paint more white. Continue building up the light.

04 BUILD THE REFLECTION

Next we can piece together the reflection, by masking and revealing the pieces of the board until they form a complete reflection along the car. The layers will start to mount up, so it may be easier to build the reflection separately then copy it over once complete.

05 LIQUIFY TO FIX

The gravel driveway here is uneven, so the reflection doesn’t match up in places. But this is easy to fix by nudging pixels with Liquify. Go to Filter>liquify, then check ‘Show Backdrop’ in the settings and use the Forward Warp tool to tweak the reflections.

06 TIDY UP

To make the backdrop black select the car (Select >Subject), then invert the selection(cmd/ctrl+shift+i), make a new layer and fill with black. To fix up any messy patches merge a layer (Cmd/ctrl+shift+alt+e), then use the healing tools and clone tool to tidy up.