How to Create a Photo-Realistic Metal Apple in Photoshop

Step 26

Repeat steps 21 to 25 for the left reflection.

Step 27

It looks pretty good now so let’s start adding the details. Notice that a city is reflected in the metallic apple but the apples are placed in a white background. That’s not too good. Let’s add some city background. Open file “City” and press Ctrl + A to select all and Ctrl + C to copy. Paste it in our document (Ctrl +V).

Step 28

Press Ctrl + T to Free Transform and make this layer bigger by holding Shift and dragging from the corners so only the left bottom half of the image will be visible.

Step 29

Apply a 25px Gaussian Blur to the city layer (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) so it won’t distract us from the main element – the metal apple.

Step 30

Turn off the visibility of the city layer and using the pen tool carefully make a selection like the one shown below. After that feather the selection by choosing Select > Modify > Feather and entering 2px in the dialog box.

Step 31

Turn the visibility of the city layer back on and add a layer mask by choosing Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Press D to set default colors and press Ctrl + Backspace to fill with black, Ctrl + D to deselect and Ctrl + I to invert. You should have the city placed nicely behind the apples and in the process we also made something that resembles a corner (in the right of the image).

Step 32

To add some realism to our scene let’s add an apple worm to the metallic apple. First let’s make the hole. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and Hold shift while dragging to make a perfect circle. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N) and fill this selection with any color you want (press Alt + Backspace).

Step 33

Double-click this layer you just created and drag the Fill slider all the way to the left. Add some Inner Shadow, Inner Glow and Color Overlay.

Step 34

Open file “Worm” and using the Quick Selection tool make a selection of the worm. Press Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste it in our document. Use Free Transform (Ctrl + T) to resize and place the worm like shown below (just over the hole).

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