Blissful Landscape Photo Manipulation

Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Flow: 100%
Airbrush Capabilities: Disabled

Then, open the brush settings by right clicking anywhere in the document window. Adjust the master diameter and sardness settings.

Master Diameter: This is the size of your brush. If you change this setting by over 10 pixels, you’ll need to readjust the hardness setting.
Hardness: This is how hard the edges will be. Adjust this setting so that the edge hardness of your brush matches the edge hardness of the seagull. If the hardness is too high, the edges you retouch will be too sharp. If it is not hard enough, the edges will appear too feathered.

Edit only the front seagull that is in focus. Zoom in to about 500% then use the brush tool to fill in any gaps. If you have any protruding edges, you can use the eraser tool with the same settings as the brush.

Step 7 – Blend the blurry edges

Now we’ll work on refining the edges of the out of focus seagulls in the distance. You’ll learn how to easily mask the edges of out of focus objects. Begin by selecting the Eraser tool from the toolbar. In the option bar, the settings should be as follows:

Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Flow: 100%
Airbrush Capabilities: Disabled

Zoom in about 300% to the edge of a seagull in the background. Right click anywhere in the document window to bring up the brush settings.

Master Diameter: Adjust so that the radius of the brush is equal to the edge thickness of the seagull.
Hardness: 0%

With the proper brush size all set up, begin erasing the edge of the seagull.

Repeat this step for the rest of the seagulls. Because you already have the brush hardness set to 0%, you can conveniently change the brush size of the eraser by pressing the [ or ] keys on your keyboard. Press the [ key to reduce the brush size or ] to increase. Here’s what my image looks like afterwards.

Step 8 – Brighten the seagulls

We’re finally done the mask and we can move on to the fun stuff just after we fix the exposure of the seagulls. Right now, the seagulls are underexposed making them look gray.

Photoshop CS3 or newer: Add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast). If you’re using Photoshop CS3, click OK to exit out of the brightness/contrast settings. If you are using Photoshop CS4, the Brightness/Contrast setting is in the adjustments panel (Window > Adjustments).
Photoshop CS2 or older: Add a levels adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. Click OK to exit out of the Levels settings.

Position the adjustment layer as the top layer.

With the adjustment layer selected, choose Layer > Create Clipping Mask. Your layer is now using the layer mask from the layer below and should look like the image below:

Depending if you added a Brightness/Contrast or Levels adjustment layer, you will see an

icon in the layers palette. Double click on that icon to bring up the settings.

Photoshop CS3 or newer: Increase the brightness until the seagulls are white.
Photoshop CS2 or older: Move the white input slider towards the left to brighten the seagull.

Step 9 – Create a simple sun burst

We will now create a sun burst using a gradient fill layer. Before you add the gradient fill layer, make sure that you have the top layer selected so that when you add the gradient fill layer, it will be positioned as the top layer. Choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient.