I need to learn.

[Esprit]

TEACH ME.

O mighty Rene.

[Gospel]

Yay!
Alright, your first lesson is this:

Use -this- picture.

Open it in Photoshop, duplicate the layer, and delete everything from the bottom level. Then paint bucket the entire thing some bright color. You shouldn't be able to see the bright color on the picture, because it should be BEHIND the horse layer.

Then get the eraser and change the hardness of the brush to around 75%, make sure the brush is around 8px. Zoom in, and cut out the horse as close to the lines as you can, just a single line of the bright color should show. After you have done most of the horse, choose a smaller brush and go in the thinner lines. Ignore the mane and tail's raggedy-lookingness. We will change this later.

After the entire horse has the line of bright color showing through it, select the polygonal lasso tool and click somewhere in the bright line. Do this until you have a certain amount of lasso in the red, then finish lassoing the background and delete, the horse should be removed from it's background.

Next, we are going to smudge. Get the smudge tool and put it's strength to 15% and go over the horse gently, following the line of it's muscles. Try not to go over one place more than once, but if you think it is nedded than do so. Don't overdo it, however. When you reach the eye, click a couple times on the eye and move the smudge tool very slightly. We don't want to smudge the eye too much. Same with the hooves, be gentle with them.
Save this and upload it, and show me.
NOTE: DON'T even TOUCH the mane and tail yet. We will do that as the next lesson.

Make sure to save this as a Photoshop Document too, so we can continue with this picture and it still has the layers, alrighty?

[Esprit]

i74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/Amobience/renelessonone.jpg

Done. Sorry I cut off part of the leg, didn't even realize it until I was finished... -cough-

[Gospel]

That is good, but you overdid it a tad too much. Be gentler on the muzzle so his nostrils don't get blended in, and the ears are a bit too blurred. In future pictures, blur a little less, and don't cut off the leg. xD Also, go around the eye a bit more. You blurred the actual eye perefctly, around it is a bit touchy, is all.
Might I recommend using a soft brush of 20-25px for the blurring, too. -nods-

Good for a first try, though. ^^
Now cut out -this one-, and try to improve a bit. Practice makes perfect, and you will become a perfect Photoshopper. I tried to find a picture that sorta looked like Esprit. If you can find one for her you woul like better feel free to use it, but post the original as well.

[Esprit]

i74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/Amobience/poop.jpg

I'm gonna guess I did it wrong again...

[Gavilan]

No, you did really good on it. 'A'
Ok, now for your next lesson you are going to continue working on this horse. be in the photoshop document with the two layers, and smudge the bottom of the stomache a bit more. Here is a little thing I whipped up:
img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/SolarWarrior/Photoshop%20Teacher%20Stuffs/AmoLes2Help.jpg

Smudge a bit more where I circled the tummy and back leg.And erase as much of the green as you can.
---------------------------------------------
Ok, after you do that, get a 2-3px hard brush for the mane and tail. Start with the tail, it's easier. Make the strength of the smugde 70-85(whatever feels easiest for you) and use long, flowing movements for the tassels. Repair the places where you erased, but be careful not to overdo it! (Which I usually do accicdentally) xD It's SUPER easy to overdo it, so be careful. -nods- The main doesn't need much fixing, just a little bit at the very end, above the horses shoulder blade. -nods- And don't make the main spiky, that is easy to do too and not natural-looking at all.

[Esprit]

i74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/Amobience/poop-1.jpg

I killed the lumps in the mane. They bothered me. D;

Annddd I just noticed there's a bunch of crap excess around the top of the neck+tips of the tail, I'll fix it.

[Gavilan]

Very good. Another 'A'.
Although you shouldn't have killed the lumps, they gave the impression the horse was running and the mane was flying. -shrug- It's pretty how it is, though, so it is good. -nods- Alright. Now save that hosre onto your computer, make sure its a photoshop document though so that the two layers remain layers. Now for the next part.
---------------
We will be using this background:
img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/SolarWarrior/Photoshop%20Teacher%20Stuffs/BackgroundBeach.jpg

Open it up.
The first thing we are going to do is remove the weird human on the left side.
Select the clone stamp tool and set it to a soft brush of about 15px. Then, you are going you hold down the Option button and click off to the side of the human's head, in the blue water. Your cursor will change into a little cross-like thingy while option is held down, thats because it's where you are taking the sample from. Then, click on the man, wherever you clicked should look like sea now! Do the same thing with sampling the sand, until you can barely tell the human was ever there. You can remove the boat too, if you want, but I wouldn't.

Next we are going to retouch our background. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and change the input levels (first little box) to 43. The image will darken. Click ok. That is about it, since we are going to be simple with this image.

[Esprit]

i74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/Amobience/BackgroundBeach.jpg

Only took off the boat 'cause the result pleased me. ;D

[Gavilan]

Wow. VERY nice. 'A+'

Ok, now we are going to drag our horse onto our background. We are going to position the horse in the water, in the right corner.Leave quite a bit of space from the bottom of the picture and the side of it, as we don't want any parts of our horse cut off.

Now, our horse doesn't really match the background too well. Fix up anything you need to fix on the horse concerning mane, tail, hooves, ect. until it looks good to you. Then we will retouch even further. Change your horses levels so the input level is around 10, then hit ok. Not much different, but it's cool enough. xD

Next, this is the most fun part. Get an eraser about 70px, SOFT. Put the opacity on 50, and erase part of the horses hooves, JUST THE BACK TWO. Erase so it sorta looks like the horses legs are in the water. And make sure she is not too deep! xD. It will look a bit odd, but that will be covered up with splashes in our next activity.

Now get the smudge tool, a 13px brush that is soft. Change the strength to 50, and gently mess with the horses legs JUST A SLIGHT BIT so it looks like the legs are even more in water. Don't mess with anything above the in-water back legs, though. If you don't like the under-water legs to look ripply, don't do it. Choice step. xD Now, the background is showing through the legs. You can leave it, or go to the background layer and mess with it. I usually leave it. -shrugs-

[Esprit]

i74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/Amobience/Beach.jpg

[Gavilan]

Wow. That's better than I can do with looking like the hooves are in water.
The only thing is that it's not quite deep enough, and the legs are a little too transparent. The water is too clear for them to be that transparent. But it's very good. A+

Ok, now smugde the horse around the edges ONLY a little more. Then, I want you to duplicate the horse layer and go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and make sure angle is at 0 and the distance is about 50. Then the top horse layer will be all blurred. Now, erase the horse part so the horse beneath shows through clear, but the motion blur is still on the edges of it.

Next, I want you to follow this tutorial to do the splashes and reflection. Except on your own picture, not with theirs. Continue working on your current pic, following this tutorial. ^^
z14.invisionfree.com/apostrophe/index.php?showtopic=111

[Esprit]

i74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/Amobience/Beach-1.jpg

[Gavilan]

AWESOME job, Amo! -clap clap- And the horsey looks like it's deeper now. Yayy. A+

Okay, now I want you to flatten the WHOLE IMAGE. There should be only one layer now. DUplicate that layer, and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Put the Radius to 2.0 pixels, and hit ok. Your image will be very blurred now, but we will change that. While on the blurred layer, change that layer's opacity to 45 or 50, whatever you like the best. Hit ok. Now your picture will look all dreamy.

Create a new, blank layer, and do the command 'Control A'. The entire image should now be outlined in a selecting lasso. Then go to Edit > Stroke. Choose black as the color, and click the box with 'Inside' as the option. Then choose the stroke to be 1 pixel. Show me, then we will continue. ^^

[Esprit]

i74.photobucket.com/albums/i243/Amobience/Beach-2.jpg