Step 11: Open The Photo Of The Dancing Couple

We're ready to add our dancing couple into the stars. Open your photo that contains the couple. Here's the photo I'll be using. The photo will open in a separate document window:

Step 12: Select The Couple

Use the Photoshop selection tool of your choice (Lasso Tool, Magnetic Lasso Tool, Pen Tool, etc) to select just the couple in the photo. When you're done, you should see a selection outline around them:

Step 13: Copy The Selection To A New Layer

Press Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac) to quickly copy the couple to their own layer in the Layers panel:

Step 14: Move The Layer To The Stars Document

With the couple's layer selected in the Layers panel, go up to the Layer menu and choose Duplicate Layer:

We're going to copy this layer over to our stars document. When the Duplicate Layer dialog box appears, name the layer Couple at the top of the dialog box (where it says Duplicate Layer 1 As). Then choose your "Dancing In The Stars" document as the Destination for the layer. Click OK when you're done to close out of the dialog box:

Switch back over to the stars document (you can close out of the photo's document at this point), where we find the couple now dancing in front of the stars (we'll move them into position in a moment):

If we look in the Layers panel, we see that the couple now sits on their own layer named "Couple" above the other two layers:

Step 15: Move And Resize The Couple With Free Transform

Press Ctrl+T (Win) / Command+T (Mac) to quickly bring up the Free Transform box and handles around the couple so we can resize them if needed and move them into position. To resize the couple, hold down your Shift key and drag any of the four corner handles. Keeping the Shift key held down as you drag constrains the aspect ratio of the couple so you don't distort the overall shape of them. To move them into position, click anywhere inside the Free Transform bounding box and drag them around inside the document with your mouse. Move them so it looks like they're standing directly on the center of the "galaxy". Press Enter (Win) / Return (Mac) when you're done to accept the changes and exit out of Free Transform:

Step 16: Add A Layer Mask

Click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a layer mask to the "Couple" layer:

A layer mask thumbnail appears to the right of the main preview thumbnail:

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Step 17: Draw A Linear Gradient On The Layer Mask

We're going to use the layer mask to blend the lower part of the couple into the gradient, as if they're being engulfed by the light from the galaxy. Select the Gradient Tool once again from the Tools panel. Then, up in the Options Bar, click on the Linear gradient icon:

To blend the couple into the gradient, I'll click somewhere just below their knee level to set a starting point for the gradient, and with my mouse button still held down, I'll drag down to just above the groom's feet. Hold your Shift key as you drag, which will limit the direction you can drag in, making it easier to drag straight down:

Since we drew the gradient on the layer mask, not the layer itself, when you release your mouse button, the couple blends nicely into the "galaxy" below them:

Step 18: Colorize The Image With A Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Let's give the galaxy some color. Click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

Select Hue/Saturation from the list of adjustment layers that appears:

If you're using Photoshop CS5 as I am here, the options for Hue/Saturation will appear in the Adjustments Panel, new in CS5. In Photoshop CS4 and earlier, the Hue/Saturation dialog box will pop open. I'm going to give my galaxy a nice blue color. First, select the Colorize option by clicking inside its checkbox. With Colorize selected, if you want to use the same color I'm using, set the Hue value to 240 and increase the Saturation to 50% (if you want to try a different color, simply drag the Hue slider left or right):

If you're using Photoshop CS4 or earlier, click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. There's no need to close out of the Adjustments Panel in CS5. The color will look too intense for the moment, but we'll fix that next:

Step 19: Change The Blend Mode To Color And Lower The Opacity

Change the blend mode of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer from Normal to Color so that only the colors in the image are affected, not the brightness values. Then, to reduce the intensity of the color, lower the Opacity of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to around 60%:

The colorizing effect is now much more subtle. Still one last thing left to do:

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Step 20: Draw A Linear Gradient On The Hue/Saturation Layer Mask

To finish things off, let's make it look more like the light from the galaxy is reflecting off the couple rather than having the entire image colorized in blue (or whichever color you chose). This will bring back the original skin tone in their faces. With the Gradient Tool still selected, I'll click around the bride's waist to set the starting point for my gradient and, with my mouse button still held down, I'll drag up to her shoulder, holding my Shift key down as well to make it easier to drag straight up:

Once again, since we drew the gradient on a layer mask (the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer's mask, which was already selected for us by Photoshop), we don't actually see the gradient in the document. Instead, the color from the galaxy now extends only up to the bride's waist and then begins to quickly fade away to reveal the photo's original colors, completing our "dancing in the stars" effect:

And there we have it!

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