How to Add a Mermaid to a Dark Bleak Landscape

On the following image you can see how your photo manipulation and layer order should look like so far.

Step 7 – Creating More Depth

Right now your photo manipulation looks bit flat, isn’t it? In this step you’ll create more depth by creating more interesting lights and shadows. To do that add new empty layer on the top of all layers and name it LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. Grab the Paint Bucket Tool (G), pick mid grey color (#808080) and fill this new layer with it. To blend it properly with the rest of the image change its Blending Mode from Normal to Overlay.

Grab the Brush Tool (B). Select some soft round brush, set its Size on 100px and Opacity on 15%.

Pick black color and start painting over the areas you want to make darker – parts of the rocks which are in the shadows and sky. You can get idea where you should paint with black color on the following image. I highlighted these areas with red color.

After you’re done pick white color and paint over the areas you want to make lighter. You can get the idea where you should paint on the image below again.

On the pictures below you can compare how the photo manipulation looks before and after this step.

Step 8 – Desaturating

In this step you’ll desaturate your photo manipulation little bit to get stronger atmosphere.  Add new adjustment layer Hue/Saturation on the top of all layers and set Saturation on -25. This time you want to adjust the whole image so do not create clipping mask from it.

To desaturate colors even bit more add new adjustment layer Vibrance and set the value Vibrance on -20. Change its Blending Mode from Normal to Color to affect only colors and not brightness of the image.

Step 9 – Adding Woman

Download photo of woman listed in the beginning of the tutorial and drag it into your photo manipulation. Place it on the top of all layers and name it WOMAN. Go to Edit > Free Transform (or press Ctrl + T on your keyboard) and resize it on proper size. Don’t forget to press Shift while doing it to preserve same proportions.  Cut out the background to blend it properly with the rest of the image. You can use whatever process you’re comfortable with. I prefer adding layer mask and hiding the unwanted parts. You don’t have to concentrate too much on hair, you’ll blend them properly in next step.  After this step your photo manipulation should be similar to the one shown below.

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