For this tutorial, we’ll be turning this into this. This tutorial will teach you how to put colors on a dark, dull image and at the same time, making a wallpaper out of it.

First of all, make your blend. You can use the blend I provided, but I highly recommend to use another image so you can play with the settings. The images I used are from Sweet And Talented.

Now, get this texture from Impressive-Instant(all gray textures I used were from her, BTW) and set it to Lighten. Erase the parts ot the texture that is covering the face. Here’s mine.

Paste this texture I cropped and put it at the bottom-right portion of your wallpaper. Set it to Darken. Get this texture and set it to Screen. Erase parts that are covering the face. Here’s mine so far.

Get this flower PNG that I extracted and place it where you think is suitable for the graphic. Add a new layer, fill it with #0a0a44 and set it to exclusion. Here’s mine. Still looks pretty dull, huh? :P Here’s the fun part.

Create a new fill or adjustment layer in the Layers Palette and choose Curves. Follow these settings:
For RGB, 1st placement: Output: 137, Input: 101 and for second placement: Output: 179, Input: 132
For Red, 1st placement: Output: 127, Input: 119 and for second placement: Output: 167, Input: 149
For Green, 1st placement: Output: 135, Input: 122 and for second placement: Output: 174, Input: 152
For Blue, 1st placement: Output: 143, Input: 143 and for second placement: Output: 172, Input: 163
Your curve settings would look somewhat similar to this.

Now, create a new fill or adjustment layer in the Layers Palette and choose Color Balance. Follow these settings:
Midtones: Cyan/Red: -22, Magenta/Green: +21, Yellow/Blue: +57
Shadows: Cyan/Red: +29, Magenta/Green: +15, Yellow/Blue: -28
Highlights: Cyan/Red: -24, Magenta/Green: -21, Yellow/Blue: +17
Be sure to check Preserve Luminousity.

Create a new Color Balance Layer and follow the settings:
Midtones: Cyan/Red: +42, Magenta/Green: +16, Yellow/Blue: +11
Shadows: Cyan/Red: -37, Magenta/Green: +19, Yellow/Blue: -8
Highlights: Cyan/Red: -14, Magenta/Green: +9, Yellow/Blue: -4
Preserve Luminousity should also be checked.

Create another Curve Layer with these settings:
For RGB, 1st placement: Output: 127, Input: 88 and for second placement: Output: 158, Input: 127
For Red, 1st placement: Output: 134, Input: 101 and for second placement: Output: 182, Input: 150
For Green, 1st placement: Output: 142, Input: 145
For Blue, 1st placement: Output: 151, Input: 135

Create a New Color Balance Layer once again with these settings:
Midtones: Cyan/Red: +28, Magenta/Green: -22, Yellow/Blue: +22
Shadows: Cyan/Red: -34, Magenta/Green: +13, Yellow/Blue: -14
Highlights: Cyan/Red: +23, Magenta/Green: +8, Yellow/Blue: +12
Preserve Luminousity should be checked.

Your wallpaper and layer palette would look like this.

Add this texture(I actually forgot who made this. If you recognize whose work is this, kindly tell me so I can give proper credit ) and set it to Soft Light.

I don’t want the rose to stand out the most, so I placed a texture that I made myself and set it to Screen. If you want, you can duplicate the texture/layer.

And that’s it! You’re done. Here’s my final result. Thanks for reading!