I started with this photo from BigStockPhoto.com (Couple by Dimitrii). It’s a perfect photo, since the couple is in the foreground and there are no distracting objects.

Start by selecting the people in the foreground. This doesn’t have to be an exact selection… but the closer the better. It’s also better to have a little outside of the lines than in. I made my selection by using the Quick Mask [Q] and, using the Brush Tool [B], painting away the red.

With your selection made, create a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer [Layer > New Adjustement Layer > Hue/Saturation]. Drag the Lightness all the way down to -100. (NOTE: You don’t HAVE to go to -100. Leaving it a little higher will allow your objects to show more.)

You should end up with something like this:

Beneath your Hue/Saturation Layer… you’re going to create another Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer [Layer > New Adjustement Layer > Hue/Saturation] with the same setting of Lightness: -100.

Your image will be black. Select the Gradient Tool [G] and press [D] to set your colors to default. Choose the default Black-to-White gradient.

Make sure your layer mask is selected on your new Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer.

Now, drag the gradient from bottom to top. Do this until you get the effect you like.

Below these two layers, create a Solid Color Adjustment layer [Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color]. Set the color to a dark orange color. I used #f78733.

Set the Layer Mode to Color Burn.

If the color is too dark or too light, just open the Solid Color Adjustment Layer and mess with the colors til you get something you like.

Now, to create the glow of the sun. Make a circle selection with the center near the horizon.

Create a new Solid Color Adjustment Layer and select a yellow color. I used #f4bc12.

Run a high Gaussian Blur of around 25-pixels or so. [Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur]. Make it enough of a blur so you can’t see a hard edge in your circle. Set the Layer Mode to Lighten.

Make a trapezoid shaped selection, with the small end being at your horizon.

Create a new Solid Color Adjustment Layer below the orange-color layer. Fill it with the same yellow you used for the sun. Again, I used #f4bc12.

Run a Gaussian Blur [Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur] (or [Ctrl + Alt + F]) of about half the amount you used earlier. I used 15.

Set the Layer Mode to Linear Light and reduce the Layer Opacity to around 50%.

In case you got confused on the Layer order, here’s a shot of my Layers Palette.

So there’s a relatively quick way to turn any photo into a Hallmark sunset photo.

I’ll start off with Quick Mask mode. It’s a little more basic and a little easier to use. To get to Quick Mask mode, press [Q]. Did you press it? Did you see what happened? It’s pretty subtle what happens after you press Q. In your Tool palette, you see your colors go to the default (Black/White) and the little icon below the colors switches. You’ll also see in the title bar of your image it says “Quick Mask.” Good indication that you’re in Quick Mask mode.

So now we are in Quick Mask mode. The first thing you might want to do is select the Brush Tool (B) and choose a brush size appropriate for the job. Press (D) to set your colors to default, black in foreground, white in background. Now start painting. As you paint your image, you see it turns out red. The red area indicates the areas that WON’T be selected.

After painting the area around your object, you can press (Q) again to get out of Quick Mask mode. You are now left in normal mode with the selection dancing ants. And then you can treat it as any other selected objext.

Layer Masks

Layer Masks work under the same general idea. They just work in more of a “real-time” sort of way. We’ll start out by combining two images together. I dragged one image onto another, which created its own Layer. Go to the Layers Palette and click on the “Add Layer Mask” buttom at the bottom of the palette. You now have a Layer Mask on Layer 1. You can see the thumbnail to the right of the image thumbnail.

The Layer Mask works like this: any area that is white, you can see; any area that is black, you can’t see. The benefit to this is that you can have softer edges and ‘grey’ areas. So the first I’m going to do is create my own monster scene. This is actually just two images I happened to have on my computer that could almost fit together. Make sure that you have the Layer Mask selected, not just the layer. You can see this by the black box around the Layer Mask thumbnail. Also, your colors will be the default black/white.

I selected the Brush tool and the appropriate sized brush. I will now start paint the areas I DON’T want to see black. You can see the corresponding Layer Mask with the visible effects.

You can vary brush sizes, and even the color to get a more accurate masking effect. I chose a pretty bad example image, but you get the idea. And that’s all that counts, right?

Maybe in the future I’ll go into more detailed uses. Just remember the basic concept though, black you can’t see, white you can. Greys are in the middle.