On Friday I shared a peek at the shoot and final product for the THRIVE Christmas cover shoot. It occurred to me however that you might be curious how I actually took the original photo and used my photoshop magic to give it some extra life! With my composite work, I often go in with an idea in mind and then the real work comes into play after the fact.

For this particular piece, I started with an adorable base image of the Golden family. I simply dropped in a night sky behind them to give that Christmas night feel I was hoping for. To create the magical light effect on the tree, I used a photoshop action that created these lights and simply went in and painted the action effects onto the areas where I wanted it. I want there to be a star on top so for that I used a sunburst overlay and added a sparkler swirl over the top of the tree. I added layer and used a moon photoshop brush for the nice big full moon in the sky and then dropped in a Santa and sleigh silhouette over the top.

I know the best way to get the full effect is just to watch. So here ya go! Enjoy the timelapse!