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STEP ONE:

First, open the castle background photo. Remember, this is already sized to our final image, so we’ll make this our home base, so to speak. All of the other images we add will get moved into this one. We don’t need all of the layers anymore, so choose Layer>Flatten Image. Then, open the selected samurai photo and, using the Move tool (V), drag him onto the background, so both images are in the same document.

STEP TWO:

Go to Edit>Free Transform to resize the samurai, so he fits in the background. You probably won’t be able to see the transform handles, so press Command-0 (zero; PC: Ctrl-0) to automatically zoom out so you can. Then, press-and-hold the Shift key and click-and-drag one of the corner transform handles inward. Keep an eye on the width and height in the top Options Bar, until you reduce the size to around 80%. Press Return (PC: Enter) when you’re done. I know it looks like I’ve placed him fairly high in the layout, but remember, we’ve got the title and credits that need to go at the bottom, so I’m just leaving some space for them.

STEP THREE:

The samurai looks too bright and too cool (he has a bluish tint) for the background we’ve placed him on, but since it’s a Smart Object layer, it’s easy to fix. Just double-click on the layer’s image thumbnail to reopen the samurai in Camera Raw. Set the Exposure setting to –2.00, the Recovery to 25 to tone down some of those bright highlights, and the Temperature setting to 5400 to warm it up a little.

STEP FOUR:

Even though we’ve reduced the Exposure to darken him, I still think his clothes are too bright, so click on the Adjustment Brush tool (K) in the top toolbar, and then set the Exposure to –0.50 and the Brightness to –10. Now, use a medium-sized brush and paint over his torso, arms, and hand at the top. Don’t worry about being precise. We’ve already made a selection of him, so none of the spillover will affect our final image. Click OK when you’re done to go back to Photoshop.

STEP FIVE:

Things are looking good, but there’s one more key ingredient to making the samurai look like he was there. Sometimes, images need a common color theme to bring them all together and I think that’s the case here. So, I want to show you a neat trick to let the people in the photo pick up some of the overall background and environment color. First, press Command-Option-Shift E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E) to merge all of the layers together into one new layer at the top of the layer stack.

STEP SIX:

Go to Filter>Blur>Average. This filter doesn’t have any settings, so you won’t see a dialog—it’ll just run automatically when you choose it. It simply picks the average color of the photo and blurs the entire photo so much that it turns into just one color (the average). So, now we can see what the overall color of our environment here is.

STEP SEVEN:

Go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask, which forces the blurred layer we just created to only affect the layer right below it (the samurai). Change the layer’s blend mode to Color, to only affect the underlying color of the samurai, and set the Opacity to 20% to soften the effect. It’s always hard to pinpoint what this trick does, but I’m tellin’ ya, it’s a great way to tie everything together if you have trouble making your subjects fit into the composite, because the color looks just a little off.

STEP EIGHT:

Next, open the photo of the two guys fighting, and using the Move tool, drag it near the bottom in the composite. Then, choose Layer>Release Clipping Mask.

STEP NINE:

For starters, the colorful sunset in the photo doesn’t fit too well with the muted warm image we’re working on here. So, that’s our first task. Click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and select Hue/Saturation. Then, in the Adjustments panel, turn on the Colorize checkbox, set the Hue setting to 34, the Saturation to 36, and Lightness to –75 to make it really dark. This gives the photo the same desaturated, yet warm, feeling the rest of the image has.