Gothic Scene on Photoshop.

I loved how enhanced this photograph was from photoshop and I wanted to recreate it using my own photographs because of the fantastical elements in the subject matter which relates to my interests and could lead me in this direction for a final piece.

1. I uploaded my photograph of my model onto photoshop and using the quick selection tool I drew around her, inversed the select and removed the background. I created a new layer and filled it with a dirty cream/white texture, I used a soft brush with an opacity of about 20 to give the edges of it some blackness leaving the middle lighter.
2. I opened a jpg. of the cracked ground and dragged it across the bottom of my document, I right clicked, clicked perspective and pulled it back to create depth and distance.
3. I created a new layer and changing the opacity when it suited me I used a soft black brush of about 100 pixels to gradually blend the ground into the darkness which would get darker as it got closer to the edges.
4. I opened another jpg. of cloth floating, I cropped these using quick selection where approriate and rotating and resizing them until they fitted into place with her body, for more depth I duplicated the layers and added contrast, I changed the opacity where her body was seen by erasing onto it with an opacity of 50 on the cloth layer.
5. I used a tiny black brush with the grass shapes to put on her head for the tree to 'grow' out of, I lowered the opacity gradually as I came away from the centre on her head until the marks disappeared.
6. I placed the tree onto a new layer, I converted it to just black and white block colours.
7. Using the quick selection tool I deleted the white and pasted the tree onto my document, I resized it and put it into place and changed the opacity of it to 80%.

I really enjoyed this tutorial, I feel that because it is based on subject matter I like, I was more determined to get it right and looking good. I am yet to experiment in the darkroom to find possible ideas for a final outcome but I will definitely keep this in mind.