The original photo of Henrik Lundqvist

Since I had the photo to work with, it was time to create the setting that he would be inserted to. I’m keeping the color correction group enabled, but I’ll show you what the final product looks like without the color correcting at the end of this progression.

Here is the basic dark environment with some ice thrown in there:

Just the basic background.

Next I added in the spotlight, which would lead to the focal point of the image. Increased blurring to the parts that would be farther from the spot made for a more natural looking light.

Spotlight is added.

For added depth, to make the volume light make sense, and for general good looks I added in various degrees of fog, from large areas in the back, to parts that would float in front of the goalie that would eventually be put in place.

Fog Added.

As an added touch, I added some individual rays of light. I also added in small particles that could be anything from floating ice spray particles to good old dust. As a small detail, I gave the particles small shadows as if they were blocking the light from the spotlight.

Small light details and particles added

The environment was now set up for the most part, so it was time to put Lundqvist in the image.

Lundqvist put into the image.

With Lundqvist in, yet looking very out of place, it was time to make him blend in with the scene more. The first minor step was to take the shadows from the original photo and use them in the new image for a slightly natural feel.

Original Shadows thrown in.

While the original shadows help put him into place a bit, they still don’t serve well enough to show that he is in a spotlight. I created a new shadow, which had parts closer to the ice less blurry than the parts that were farther from the surface.

Spot Shadow added.

With his place on the ice represented, I moved on to adding shadows to Lundqvist’s front, yet leaving the parts that the spot light would hit alone.

Shadows painted on Lundqvist.

Already looking more in place, but highlights were needed as well, so I added those. I also added some light to parts where light from the spotlight hitting the ice would indirectly illuminate parts angled toward the ice.

Highlights and bounced light added.

I thought that looked pretty good, yet Lundqvist seemed a bit too dark, so I duplicated the original photo layer and used it as an ambient light control layer.

Small light adjustment.

Finally, the last step would be to add the reflection of Lundqvist in the ice.

Reflection Added to complete it.

The only thing left was one more small color correction to bring out the blues a little, and that was that! For reference, here is the finished product without the color correction group I made:

The final image without color correction.

You can grab the completed work at various sizes by checking out the original post.

Thanks for looking, and I hope that this was informative in some fashion!