image015

Grab the Brush Tool (B), select some soft round brush and lower its Opacity on 15%. Pick white color and start painting over the areas which should be lighter:

  • clouds around meteors,
  • clouds from the side where the sun shines,
  • parts of building which are facing to sun.

After you’re done pick black color and darken bottom part of the image and top left corner to make the image more balanced looking.  If you’re not sure where to paint look at the picture below for inspiration.

image016

Step 6 – Adding Vignette

In this and some of the following steps you’ll focus on color adjustments. Let’s start with adding gentle vignette. I really like adding vignette to my pictures because it’s a great way how you can lead viewer’s eye in the center of the image. Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool (M) and select center of the image.

image017

Now you want to make the selection smoother. To do that you need to feather it. Go to Select > Modify > Feather… (path may differ in different versions of Photoshop, this one is for CS6) or press Shift+F6 to activate the Feather Selection window. As Feather Radius set about 40pixels and press OK.

image018

Go to Selection > Inverse or press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection you created. With the mask active add new adjustment layer Curves on the top of all layers and set it as on the following picture.

image019

Because of the active mask the adjustment layer makes only the edges of the picture darker and the center remains same as before.

Step 7 – Creating Stronger Atmosphere

When I was creating this photo manipulation I had some big, polluted city from the future in my mind. For me this mood can be captured by adding red tones to do the image and by darkening it. You’ll do both in this step. First add new adjustment layer Curves on the top of all layers and set them as on the following image. This way you add red tones to shadows of your image and cyan tones to highlights.

image020

Change the Blending Mode of this layer from Normal to Color for better effect.

image021

Now you make the image bit darker. Add another adjustment layer Curves on the top of the layers and set it as on the following picture.

image022

On the following image you can see the adjustments you’ve made in this step.

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33 responses to “How to Create an Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Photo Manipulation in Photoshop”

  1. hamadah elgaml Avatar
    hamadah elgaml

    Love it

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    it sux no images

  3. ok cuh Avatar
    ok cuh

    hi bro

  4. satyajit N Avatar
    satyajit N

    thank you , I am teaclother you have explained the tutorial thanks a lot.

  5. satyajit N Avatar
    satyajit N

    thank you , I am teaclother you have explained the tutorial thanks a

  6. Rj raju Avatar
    Rj raju

    It is very helpful tutorial and great idea for this tutorial….thanks a lot

  7. Elie Brisaert Avatar
    Elie Brisaert

    Interesting tutos and very well explained ! Congratulations!
    But how can I get your stock (resources) pictures in Pelleron-Art?

  8. praveen parihar Avatar
    praveen parihar

    Very Nice

  9. Anne Wipf Avatar
    Anne Wipf

    I did your tutorial in the past, here: http://annewipf.deviantart.com/art/TMM-A3P2-Apocalyptic-Sci-Fi-Photomanipulation-408652475
    But it seem we cannot see the tutorials published on photoshop-tutorials anymore. :(
    I tried to contact photoshop-tutorial, but it doesn’t work. :(
    Could you tell me if there is something to pay now, or what we can do? Thank you.

  10. Ayaan Avatar
    Ayaan

    Please re uploaded PSD file because when i click on download showing 404 error, this is best work for me i want check how did you do this

  11. clippingpatharea Avatar
    clippingpatharea

    Absolutely beautiful works.. This is what called “Creativity”.

  12. Maidul Islam Avatar
    Maidul Islam

    Great, thanks for all the helpful info!

  13. Marcy Avatar
    Marcy

    It’s an okay tutorial… Except I couldn’t follow it after Step 2. (including Step 2).
    The instructions are so vague, and major steps are being skipped. I just can’t follow it.
    You should really try to improve on that. I’d rather have too many details and too proper grammar than too little.

    1. christmas background Avatar
      christmas background

      Maybe you should try to find some specific youtube-workshops about this themes

  14. USUCK Avatar
    USUCK

    WOW this tutorial suck , couldn’t understand a thing

  15. adibkarim Avatar
    adibkarim

    Fantastic website. Lots of helpful information here.
    I’m sending it to some buddies ans also sharing in delicious. And certainly, thank you for your sweat!

  16. Tutorial-Trial Avatar
    Tutorial-Trial

    This tutorial is okay, but it’s obviously lacking a LOT of information that’s required to even get close to the desired look that the author is showing.

    The tutorial is best at showing some ideas of what you can do and how to do it, but it’s not showing an obvious step-by-step method to get the exact look (if you’re trying for that) of the picture the author created.

  17. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Thoughtful tutorial. Hats off

  18. malissimo43 Avatar
    malissimo43

    Excelente

  19. john Avatar
    john

    thanks for the tutorial!!

  20. Wonho Avatar
    Wonho

    Thank you very much, it’s really helpful!

  21. relax Avatar
    relax

    holy shit ! you are so great !

  22. LANdroid7 Avatar
    LANdroid7

    Extremely Awesome Tutorial \m/ I love it

  23. Nicolas Gautier Avatar
    Nicolas Gautier

    Humm… We can see a reflection on the city..

  24. adityajain Avatar
    adityajain

    its totally amazin!!!!!
    i have learnt a lot of effects through this and its awesome…… u have got a lot of ability and please teach me some…..

  25.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you for the great tutorial,keep it up

  26. panos_m Avatar
    panos_m

    hay.. in the begginig you say to create a new document.. can you please tell me the exact dimentions of the document coz i face difficulties with the begginig.. thnx a lot!

    1. Photoshop Tutorials Editor Avatar
      Photoshop Tutorials Editor

      I believe the author used an image dimension of 600×900 pixels.

  27. Stevo Avatar
    Stevo

    very nice!!!!

  28. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Great tutorial!

  29. David Arocha Avatar
    David Arocha

    Thanks !!!!

  30. Elphie Avatar
    Elphie

    Thank you very much for the tutorial, very well explained :) I have not had any problems in understanding it, Thanks

  31. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Good but I would change the meteors up so they aren’t the same copy.

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