YUDIbt

Part 1: How to Give the Hue a Blue Color

The first thing that we need to do is tweak the original photo a bit.  We need to create more dramatic shadows, and give the entire photo a blue hue.

First off, we're going to give the blue hue to the photo.  In my findings, the best way to do this is by altering the red channel in the photo.  A photo is made up of 4 channels, Red, Blue, Green, and Alpha.  Editing an individual channel will only modify that specific hue in the photo.  This time, we want to completely remove the red from this photo, (which will give the photo the blue hue that we seek, without sacrificing the green hues.)

To do this, switch to the channels tab in your layers, channels, paths window.  Next, Click on the green, blue and alpha channels so that they are deselected.

Select>>>all (control+A)

Using the bucket tool (shift+B) and making sure that the affected area is set to "entire selection," and not "fill similar colors," fill the entire selection with black.  Your photo should end up looking like this:

Removing the red from the photo keeps some of the yellow tones in her hair, giving a very cool-icy feel.

The curves tool makes it easier to pinpoint exactly what part of a histogram you wish to darken or lighten.

I ended up with this:

The curves adjustment really helps exaggerate the shadows.

Create a layer mask in the layer eyecolor.  Set it to black.  This will make the layer completely transparent.

Using a soft brush, take the brush tool (shift+B) and making sure that you're brushing the layer mask, brush each iris with white. If you make a mistake, you can "erase the blue" by brushing black.

We want these eyes to look ice cold, but still pop out.  Now that we have the ice cold color, it's time to make them pop.

Since we already masked the iris properly, there is no need to do it again.  We will duplicate the eycolor layer, and modify it so that we can re-use the mask that is associated with it.

Duplicate the eyecolor layer, rename it "eyelighten"

Set the eyelighten layer to overlay, and fill the entire layer with white.  My photo looks something like this:

Now that the eyes are lighter, it's time to add depth to them by creating some highlights in the center.

Duplicate the eyelighten layer, name it "eyehighlight."

Using a soft brush, take the brush tool (shift+B) and making sure that you're brushing the layer mask, carefully brush the edges of the iris black, keeping the center of the iris brighter, and darkening the inside and outside edges of the iris.

By duplicating the eyehighlight layer again, we make it easy to remove what we do not want to be extra bright.

Adjust the eyehighlight to something you're happy with.  I set my opacity to 55, and ended up with this.

The eyes look much more dramatic, although the left eye appears to be slightly darker than her right eye.  Let's fix that.

Duplicate the Eyehighlight layer, name it eyeEQ.

Take the brush tool (shift+B) making sure that you're brushing the layer mask, brush her right eye with black, so that only her left eye is being highlighted further.

Adjust the opacity of the eyeEQ layer until both eyes appear equally bright (mine is at 43).  I ended up with this:

The difference is very slight, but critical to maintaining the balance in the photo.

In the brush tool options, make your brush a soft brush, and the opacity of your brush to a low value (I set mine to 15).  Giving the brush opacity gives you control of how dark certain areas of the eye are. 

Take the brush tool (shift+B) making sure that you're brushing the layer mask, brush the area around her eyes with white. Switching to white to darken, and black to lighten, work on the area around the eyes until they are darker and fade into the skin in a semi-natural way.

Take your time darkening the eyes, using both white to add color, and black to remove.  Use the shadows in the photo to give you an idea on how to make it look correct.

Part 3: How To Make The Final Photo-Editing Touches

In the final steps of making this photo, we're going to add the snow, the stripes, and darken the photo one last time.

First off, we're going to create the snow, using a selection of random white pixels from another photo.

Download, and open the snow file found here:  http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/?qh=&section=&q=snow#/d1xps68

Filter>>>blur>>>motion blur, Set an angle between 45-60 degrees at a long distance.  Your girl should end up looking something like this:

The snow is cool, but it is way too visible.  It takes away from the rest of the photo.  Let's work to fix that.

Give the snow layer a layer mask, filled with white.

Using the free select tool, (shortcut key F) roughly select the girl's face, like so:

Don't try to be too accurate with this selection, we're going to blur it afterward anyway.

Adjust the snow's opacity to something that you're happy with. (mine is 65) I ended up with this:

The layer mask really helps keep the snow off of the main subject - her face, without sacrificing the effect, or looking bad.

Next, we're going to add the icy stripes that give the photo a little extra texture.

Click Colors>>>threshold, and adjust the wood to an amount that works for you.  Keep in mind, the Black values are the only parts that will be visible when we put this into the final photo of the girl.

The black values will turn into the blue stripes, and the white values will disappear.

Click Select>>>all (or press CTRL+A) to select the entire wood grain.

using the scale tool (shortcut key SHIFT+T) stretch the white and black photo to fit in the photo, like so:

You may want to stretch it a little bit wider than the original photo, so that you can move it to the left or right without cutting the stripes off of the photo.  This will give you some control on where the stripes will go.

Adjust the opacity to something you're happy with (mine is 20) I ended up with this:

Although the stripes and snow aren't necessary, I think they're cool.  What do you think?  Does this photo look better without them, or with them?

The overlay really makes the photo a lot darker.  Of course, we don't want the eyes to be dark, so let's work to keep those lighter.