Photoshop Tutorials

Description

Before we proceed to the next step, let’s group the layers that we’ve created. To create a group, select all the layers that we’ve just made and press Ctrl/Cmd + G. Notice that by doing this all the layers will be hidden, you may unhide it by clicking on the “Play” button located to the left of the “Folder” icon of the new group. You may now rename the group, I recommend renaming it the “Water room” but you can use any name you wish. You may also press the Create New Group button located on the bottom of the Layer window, which is in between the Create New Fill layer/Adjustment layer button and the Create New Layer button.

STEP 3 - Insert the Lady in the Water

What we’re going to do on this step is that we would be inserting a lady who is swimming in the water room. Now let’s open the Fairy S – 15 stock image. Let’s activate the Magnetic Lasso tool (L); we will be using this tool to cut the fairy from the rest of the image and move it to our canvas.

After drawing a selection area around the lady, you can now move it to our canvas. Drag it to our canvas using the Move tool (V) and then rename the layer to “lady in the water”.

Now that the “lady in the water” is in place, let’s change her color tone to make her blend in. With the “lady in the water” layer selected, press Ctrl/Cmd + B to activate the Color Balance adjustment tool and input all the values below on their respective fields:

• 1. Color Balance: -90, 0, +26
• 1. Tone Balance: Midtones
• 1. Preserve Luminosity: Checked
• 2. Color Balance: -60, 0, 0
• 2. Tone Balance: Shadows
• 2. Preserve Luminosity: Checked
• 3. Color Balance: -10, 0, +15
• 3. Tone Balance: Highlights
• 3. Preserve Luminosity: Checked

Now after you’ve done that, let’s change the Brightness/Contrast of the lady’s layer. To change adjust the Brightness/Contrast, go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast located on the Menu bar. Input the following settings when the B/C box opens:

• Brightness: +12
• Contrast: -10

Due to the increased brightness, we can hardly see the lady’s face, so a good thing to do is to Burn her face! Yes, we will use the Burn tool (O) to darken the light on her face. Activate the Burn tool (O) and use the following settings:

• Brush size: 500 px
• Hardness: 0%
• Range: Midtones
• Exposure: 15%

Note: To be accurate in Burning, change the zoom level to 50% or more in the Navigator window.

Finally, reduce her Opacity to 70%. The image should be now similar to this:

Step 4 - Create the bubbles

In this step we would be adding the water bubbles to add a realistic water texture and atmosphere to our image. Let’s open the Aquarium Bubbles stock and drag it to our canvas using the Move tool (V) and then rename the layer to “water texture 1”.. Upon moving it to our canvas we would need to transform it appropriately for composition purposes. Activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and resize the image. See image below:

Now we would need to remove some bubbles that would potentially ruin our composition. To do that, activate the Healing Brush tool (J). Once again, remember to left-click and hold to bring up the menu in case the Healing Brush isn’t the default button on the toolbar. Using the Healing Brush tool (J) is similar to the Clone Stamp tool (S) but in this case, it doesn’t exactly clone a part of the image, but instead it chooses a source point and then it heals the region and therefore replaces and mixes the pixels which you Alt/Opt clicked on earlier. So activate the Healing Brush and follow the image below:

After that, we would need to erase a distracting part of our “water texture 1” layer. Activate your Eraser tool (E) and use the settings below:

• Brush size: 500 px
• Hardness: 0%
• Opacity: 100%
• Flow: 100%

Now that that’s done, let’s change the layer’s Blending mode to Soft Light, and its Opacity to 60%. If you’d notice, that texture alone isn’t enough so we would need more than one texture to get the right feel for this image. Click on our “water texture 1” layer and press Ctrl/Cmd + J to duplicate it. Once duplicated, rename the layer to “water texture 2” and change its Blending mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 20%. The result should be similar to the image below:

Step 5 - Retouch the whole image

Now on this step, we would be doing all the necessary adjustments to improve the look and feel of the whole image.

First, let’s adjust the Hue/Saturation of our image, to smoothen the impact of our image to our viewer’s eye. Click on the Create new Fill layer/Adjustment layer button which is located beside the Create New Group button on the Layer window. When the menu opens, click on Hue/Saturation. A box will open and when it does, use the following settings:

• Edit: Master
• Hue/Saturation
• Hue: 0
• Saturation: -20
• Lightness: 0

Next, let’s create a Solid Color adjustment layer from the Create new Fill layer/Adjustment layer button. When it opens, input the following:

• #: 000223

Then change its Blending mode to Exclusion and set its Opacity to 40%.

After that, let’s create a Levels adjustment layer. Input the following settings when it opens:

• Channel: Red
• Input levels: 15, 1.00, 255
• Output levels: 0, 255
• Channel: Blue
• Input levels: 15, 1.00, 255
• Output levels: 0, 255

Now let’s create another color adjustment through the use of a Photo Filter adjustment layer. Use the following settings:

• Filter: Sepia
• Density: 25%
• Preserve Luminosity: Checked

Next, we’ll make use of a Curves adjustment layer. Input the following values on their respective fields:

• Input: 132
• Output: 121

Next, let’s utilize another Solid Color adjustment layer. Input the following value on the “#” box:

• #: a3e2ff

Then change its Blending mode to Color Burn and its Opacity to 60%.

Finally, let’s add a Gradient Map filter still through the Create new Fill layer/Adjustment layer button. Let’s utilize the default gradients; pick the Black and white gradient.

Now that we’re almost done, go to File > Save as… and save the image as a PSD file so you may access the whole image with its layers, in the future if you deem to make some changes.

Step 6 - Give the image a dreamy atmosphere

In this step, we would be making the image look soft and dreamy, therefore, making it look magical.

To be able to do that, we would need to flatten the layers. To flatten, right click on any layer and pick Flatten Image from the contextual menu.

Now we’re ready to do this step. While the image is selected, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and input the following value:

• Radius: 16.0 px

The image is blurry, now is this the dreamy atmosphere that we want to achieve? No. To make it dreamy, change its Blending mode to Lighten and its Opacity to 60%.

Final Results