I'm trying to put together a photo for a girl who has done a ton for me over the last couple of years. This was all planned out in a couple minutes, and I've never done anything like this before, so I thought I'd ask for a little help. Even if these are a total loss, I've learned a lot for the future, and there's nothing to say that we couldn't go out there and hit it again soon.

Here's what I have so far. You can see that my editing skills are very weak. Any suggested tutorials are welcome.
composite4
composite sample1

I have the source files uploading now, and I'll post them when they're done. I have very slow internet, unfortunately.

The light painting part looks good, but you didn't say what your end goal or purpose of the photos were.  That'll help a lot in terms of figuring out stuff that's good and bad to work on IMO.

Personally I'd take three photos and composite them together.  Mark the ground where she'll stand and get her there.  Set focus, flash, etc take your portrait as usual.  Turn the lens to manual and have her move out of the frame.  Expose for the night sky.  Final shot is with the light painting.

Blend together in photoshop.

That said, I don't really do composite stuff well, so a big grain of salt is needed on my post.  I'm just starting to play around with it myself.

Thanks for the reply. I've been trying to get the three files I've put together uploaded, to no avail. I'll try to make some smaller files and upload those.

The end result you see in the OP there is essentially what I'm going for. I didn't set out to take the shot with the stars in it, so that was less than ideal. I didn't have my remote trigger with me, so I had to hold down the button while on the tripod.

OK. I had to lower the quality to get them to upload, but after many attempts, here are the .jpgs of the files I used to generate the two images in the OP. I'll add these to the OP for everyone's convenience. That's totally not necessary with just a few replies.

a-4438

a-2

a-4421

a-4423

Try stacking them with darkest on the lowest layer, to brightest.  Set each layer to 'lighten,' and use a layer mask to brush in/out what you don't want in the photo.

Only idea I've really got at least.  I'll try to poke at it here in a bit.

Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't worked too much with layers, so this is new to me.

Layers are insanely powerful with the stuff you can do.  I mean you can completely change a photo with a layer and 2-3 clicks but are still reversible because they don't damage the main image so long as you are working on a dedicated layer or a duplicate of the photo as a layer.  Lots and lots of stuff can be done there.  That said, I only know about 1% of the stuff you can do.  Still gotta figure out gradient layers for toning, etc.  HSL layers are an amazing thing for brightening/darkening certain colors and tones without affecting any other colors though.

Phlearn, SpoonGraphics, Tutvid, and PixImperfect on Youtube do awesome videos about it.  Considering my memory is garbage, I've just started adding stuff I like/use to my 'watch later' or favorites lists as needed.