How to Manipulate a Beautiful Sunset Matte Painting in Photoshop

Step 8

Add a Exposure adjustment layer to the bay layer. Set the setting as shown in the image below.

On the layer mask of exposure adjustment layer hide the effect partially (see the image below) and keep some parts of bay layer darker because we are creating a sunset landscape so the far most part of bay layer should be darker. You can see the image below for instructions.

Here are the results on layer mask.

Step 9

Now add a Color Balance adjustment layer to entire scene (don’t clip it). Set the setting as shown in the image below.

Here are the results.

Step 10

Add Brightness/Contrast and Gradient Map adjustment layer to the entire scene. Set the setting as shown in the image below. Also, change the blend mode of Gradient Map adjustment layer to Color Dodge and reduce the opacity to 33%.

Here are the results.

Step 11

Add a Color Balance adjustment layer and set the setting as shown in the image below.

Here are the results.

Step 12

Time to create light effect using some basic lighting techniques. Create a new layer by pressing (CTRL + SHIFT + N) on keyboard then name it ‘Light’. Activate the brush tool by pressing (B) on the keyboard and change your foreground color to #4e2106. Paint a big stroke on the scene as shown in the image below.

Change the blend mode of light layer to color dodge and here are the results.

Step 13

Paint some more light on bay water portions by creating new layer and using the same color in previous step.

This time change the blend mode to Linear Dodge and reduce the opacity to 38%. Here the results.

Step 14

Add waterfall to the main document as shown in the image below.

Step 15

Using your favourite selection tool extract the selected part of the waterfall as shown in the image below.

Here are the results.

Step 16

Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the waterfall.

On the layer mask of Hue/Saturation adjustment layer hide the effect in selected part as shown in the image below because I don’t want to darker those areas of waterfall which is reflected by the light source.

Step 17

Add a Photo Filter adjustment layer to the waterfall.

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