Third – make sure to click on the layer mask thumbnail (which is to the right of the layer thumbnail in the layer palette) before painting with black or white. Otherwise, you’ll end up painting over the actual layer which is not something that you may want.

So in this step create a layer mask (you already know how, right?). Fill it with black and select the Brush Tool (B). Select the standard round soft brush and set the opacity to 50%. Paint in the layer mask over the center section of the cathedral to partially reveal it. As you go further from the center lower the opacity to 20-30% to fade it into the background.

Step 5

Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N) and with the standard round soft brush at 5% Opacity and 500px size paint over the upper section of our scene to darken it.

Step 6

We will use Adjustment Layers a lot in this tutorial so let’s get you familiar with them.

They are a non-destructive way of applying various adjustments and effects to a document. By non-destructive I mean that you can edit the effects at any time (this includes deleting the effect, changing the opacity of the effect and the blending mode).

All Adjustment layers can be found under Layer > New Adjustment Layer > …..

Let’s see one in action. Create a Color Balance Adjustment Layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance – remember?) and use the settings shown below to boost the colors. Change the blending mode to Soft Light and you’ll see that our scene just got darker and more intense.

Step 7

Now that the background is done let’s start placing some characters that will give life to our scene and tell a story.

Open the file “Dragon” (thankfully it’s already cut into a transparent png so we don’t have to do any selections) and select all with Ctrl + A. Copy with Ctrl + C and paste it into our scene with Ctrl + V. Don’t forget to convert it into a smart object (step 2 tells you how). Convert all imported layers into smart objects – especially if you’re going to resize them.

Use the Free Transform to position the dragon on the bottom of the cathedral as shown below.