Create a Surreal Moon on Island Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

Islands are havens and breeding grounds for the unique and anomalous. They are natural laboratories of extravagant evolutionary experimentation. In this Photoshop tutorial, we learned a little more advanced techniques such as creating a realistic reflection in the water, and other techniques like shadows and light.

Preview of Final Image

Tutorial Resources

• Island
• Mountains
• Moon
• Package_cosmos2
• Sky

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop with the following settings:

Step 2

Go to File > Place. Select the Island stock and place it into your document.

Step 3

In this step we nedd to remove a palms and sculpure on insland. For this we will use Clone Stamp Tool(S) Select Layer Island and duplicate it (Ctrl + J) A few tips on how to use this tool: With the Clone Stamp tool selected, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (MacOS) an area of detail to set the sample point. A preview inside the Clone Stamp pointer shows the detail you will use for the retouching. The preview is useful for aligning sampled detail with other parts of the image. Brush over the area where you want to add the sampled detail to cover an object.  As you work, a crosshair indicates where the detail is copied from. See the result in image below.

Step 4

Add Adjustment Layer “Selective Color”

Step 5

Now add another Adjustment Layer “Photo Filter” Opacity set to 40%.

Step 6

Next, select background layer Island and go to File > Open and select Mountains photo stock. Use Rectangular Marquee Tool(M). With the Rectangular Marquee tool, drag over the area you want to select. Hold down Shift as you drag to constrain the marquee to(release the mouse button before you release Shift to keep the selection shape constrained).

Step 7

After the selection area has been created, simply copy (Ctrl / Cmd + C) and Paste (Ctrl / Cmd + V) it to our work canvas. Then position the image with the transform tool (Ctrl / Cmd + T). Hold Alt + Shift and resterize like image below. In Photoshop CC only hold Alt to resterize al sides together.

Step 8

Create a layer mask and use Pen Tool(P) to remove the sky. When you finish selection Right click > Make Selection. Feather Radius set to 0.5, check Anti-aliased then ok. Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + I to invert selection and use Brush Tool(B) with foreground color black, now paint selected area to remove the sky.

Step 9

Next, place a Sky below mountains. Go to File > Place select Sky and place it.

Step 10

Add Adjustment Layer “Levels”

Step 11

Add Adjustment Layer “Gradient Map” Blend mode change to Soft Light with opacity 35%.

Step 12

Now, Go to File > Place and open package_cosmos2 folder in this folder select cosmos2_0001. Place it as shown in the picture below, you can use the Transform Tool(T) to resterize image.

Then create a layer mask to delete a background of planets. Use Brush Tool(B) Soft Round with Foreground color black and start painting the background of planets. When you finish blend mode change to Lighten.

Step 14

Add Adjustment Layer “Levels”

Step 15

Next, select layer Background Copy and go to open Moon file. Use Elliptical Marquee Tool(M) and select the Moon. After the selection area has been created, simply copy (Ctrl / Cmd + C) and Paste (Ctrl / Cmd + V) it to our work canvas. Then position the image with the transform tool (Ctrl / Cmd + T).

Step 16

We’ll make three layers, First will be shadow, second light and third color. Go to adding shadow, use Brush Tool(B) Round Brush with foreground color black and size over 400px. Paint on the moon like this and create a Clipping maks (Right click, Create Clipping Mask) opacity set to 86%.