How to Create Vivid Arabian Night Composite in Photoshop

Step 34

Now shift-click City Outlines group, Smoke layer, Window Lights layer, Extra detail layer, Palm Trees layer and group them together. Name this new group City. Make sure this group is below the Terrain group.

Step 35

This is a desert so it probably should have a snake. Open file Snake and make a selection of the snake. Copy and paste it into our document. Right click the layer and choose Convert To Smart Object. Free Transform to position and resize as shown below.

Step 36

Let’s add some lights and shadows to our snake. Create a Curves Adjustment layer and clip it to the Snake layer. Drag the curve up to lighten. In the layer mask paint with black the bottom parts of the snake to lighten only the upper parts.

Step 37

Create a new Curves Adjustment layer and clip it to the Curves Adjustment layer below. Drag the curve down to darken. In the layer mask paint with black mostly the upper parts of the snake to prevent the darkening effect from happening here (the light comes from left up side so the superior part of the snake should be light and the lower part should be dark).

Step 38

In order to make our snake stand out let’s create some strong shiny highlights on his back. Create a new layer and name it Highlights. Clip this layer to the two Curve Adjustment layers below. Change the blending mode to Overlay and with a round white soft brush at 20% Opacity paint on some of the top area of the snake (go for the head, a little in the middle and a little near the tail).

Step 39

The snake looks like it’s floating above the desert. That’s because he lacks a shadow. Create a new layer, name it Shadow and change it’s blending mode to Multiply. Place this layer below the snake layer and with a soft round black brush at 50% Opacity paint some shadow under the snake. Group all the snake related layers and name the group (obviously)Snake.

Step 40

Open file Crane and make a selection of the crane. Copy and paste into our document. Ctrl-click the layer, press D to set default colors and Alt + Backspace to fill the selection with black. Use Free Transform to resize and position the layer as shown below. Usually we convert the imported layers into Smart Objects, however because in this case I thought it to be an overkill I didn’t convert it.

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