So you want to make your girlfriend/boyfriend happy on Valentine’s Day and present something personal and handmade by you? Then follow these quick Valentine’s Day Photoshop tutorials. In 10 minutes you’ll learn how to write secret message on photo with Photoshop, how to make realistic looking Skywriting, create one big poster from hundred of photos, make fake child photo where you are together, make romantic silhouette in Victorian style and romantic pixelated photo. Let’s get started!

1. ‘I love you’ Skywriting

So you would like to be extra romantic on Valentine’s Day and let everyone know about your love; you’re going to make Skywriting. Of course it’s too expensive for you to hire a plane right now. To start fake but realistic looking Skywriting with Photoshop you will need at least your photo from the back with a single-color background to quickly remove it or better natural photo with you and big blue sky. Open photo in Photoshop, get rid of background if you need it, put a sky, and then create Skywriting brush; click Window->Brushes, set Hardness to 0 and reasonable size. Set spacing at about 60%. Create a new Layer and write your message on it as though it was written by flying plane. Then choose Smudge tool and push the text around until it will look more realistic. You’re done!

2. Turn your photo into a heart

This is another perfect Photoshop tutorial for Valentine’s Day. After you open your photo in Photoshop select the Custom Shape Tool, then size and shape the heart. Now select the heart layer and left-click it while holding Ctrl key. Then press Ctrl+Shift+I to inverse the selection and then press Del key to remove background. Finally select the original heart shaped layer, and then apply Layer-> Layer Style->’Blending Options and check Drop Shadow and Bevel and Emboss, play with settings.

3. Together for a lifetime

Trying to assure your friends on Valentine’s Day that you knew your beloved one from the childhood? Then follow these steps and make romantic photo of loving couple. Start by looking for two pictures where you are approximately of the same age, pose in the frame and size. Hint: look for portraits made in studio or group photos in which you could replace other person by image of your boyfriend/girlfriend. Cut unwanted person from the photo or clear the background, then drag necessary image into it. Use Transform commands to adjust the size. To match color and contrast use Image->Adjustments->Match Color.

4. Love story in one big poster

For this Photoshop tutorial you need to choose photos with the best moments spent with your love and you’re going to make one big poster of it. You’ll need to pick your favorite 98 horizontal photos and copy them into one folder. In Photoshop go to File->Automate->Automate Sheet II, set the dimensions to 20 inches wide by 30 inches tall. Choose folder where your favorite romantic pictures are, check auto spacing and set 7 columns and 14 rows. Uncheck Use File Name as caption and click Ok. After a while you could save your big poster file and print it or just send it to your lover.

5. Romantic pixelated photo

Open image of you two together in Photoshop. Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer. Change the blending mode to Overlay. Apply Filter->Pixelate->Mosaic and in the Mosaic Photoshop filter settings, set the pixels to the size that you want the squares to be. Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the top layer and change the blending mode from Overlay to Multiply. Now go to Filter->Stylize->Find Edges. Press Ctrl+Shift+U to desaturate the outline. Go to Filter-> Blur->Gaussian Blur and add a little Gaussian Blur to the outline which will add nice frosty effect.

6. Your romantic silhouette

If you would like to create old fashioned Valentine then use this Photoshop tutorial to create profile silhouettes of both of you. All you need to start is 2 profile photos, better of the same size. Use Pen tool in Photoshop to trace a path around the head. Next enter Quick Mask mode by pressing Q and use hard brush to paint out everything except the head, click Q again to see the selection. Then apply Select->Inverse and Edit->Fill, choose Contents: Black. Do the same process with another photo. Then you should combine photos into single image and get Victorian style silhouette.

7. Secret Message on the photo

Choose a photo of your girlfriend/boyfriend you like. Open it in Photoshop (you could also GIMP), zoom in to 1200%, choose Dodge tool with 100% exposure and using a tiny brush write your message in the corner of the photo. It will be visible only to the person who knows where to look for it. You could also make a framed print and hand it on Valentine’s Day.