How to Create a Surreal Scene Full of Life in Photoshop

How to Create a Surreal Scene Full of Life in Photoshop
How to Create a Surreal Scene Full of Life in Photoshop
step-018q

Step 19: Add the ladder shadow

Adding the shadow to the horse made me realize we forgot (well, I forgot) to add the shadow to the ladder, so open the Ladder group again.

Add a new layer, call it Shadow and place it behind the ladder layer. After that paint the shadow following the image below.

step-019a

Then add a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) with a radius of 3px to our shadow layer.

step-019b
step-019c

Now your image should be similar the one below and we're ready to move on with our manipulation.

step-019d

Step 20: Add the buildings behind the elephant

Open the skyline stock and select the buildings with the Quick Selection Tool (W). Don't worry too much about the lower part because it won't be seen in our scene.

step-020a

Copy and paste the skyline in our scene, resize it with the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl/Command+T) and place it on the top of the elephant.

step-020b

Create a new group for this layer, name it Skyline and place it behind the elephant group.

step-020c

Your scene should look like this now:

step-020d

Step 21: Add the mountain above the elephant

Open the mountain stock and select the mountain using the Quick Selection Tool (W). Don't worry too much about the lower edges, we will erase them later.

step-021a

Copy and paste the mountain into our project and resize it using the Free Transform Tool. After that, place the mountain on the top of the elephant like this:

step-021b

Now let's work the edges of the mountain. Create a new layer mask to this layer and start painting using the image below as reference:

step-021c
step-021d

Your mountain should look something like this now:

step-021e

And your scene should look like this:

step-021f

The mountains are too blue, so we're going to change that by adding (non-destructively) a Color Balance Adjustment Layer. Check the image below for the input values and remember to clip it to the mountain layer.

step-021g
step-021h

Now create a new group for the mountain and the adjustment layer. Name the new group Mountain.

step-021i

Step 22: Add the helicopter patrolling the elephant

Open the helicopter stock. We're going to use a different technique to select it, so, first of all, make a random selection of the sky using the Quick Selection Tool, like this:

step-022a

Now go to Select > Similar and Photoshop will select everything he thinks its similar to the selection you've made.

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32 comments on “How to Create a Surreal Scene Full of Life in Photoshop”

  1. You've made a very nice and comprehensive collection of WordPress Themes. I appreciate it. Really great art work with typography. Thanks for sharing this nice post.

  2. Outstanding tutorial!Clear instructions and awesome picture instructions. Very nice, thank you a bunch.

  3. I can not thank you enough, the amount of things I've learnt in two hours is incredible, would usually take me a week of watching and reading tutorials, but nope, you've used many techniques that made my life easier! Thank you is not enough!

    1. just do what i did , 
      download the attached PSD from up there and take the mountain photo from there :D

    2. @SalahKabbani OK! Got it!I decided to replace the mountain photo with a desert one ^_^Thanks anyway :)

  4. Thank you so much for this tutorial really great photo and great explanation love it. 
    but i have a problem with the mountain photo , the link of this photo doesn't work , can you please upload it again or give me another photo that could be good for the tutorial ?
    thanks

  5. Hi Guilherme, From the start of your tutorial you say to go to lens correction and distort the image to + 25,00, it distorts the image considerably !, is that right, ?, by the way it is a great tutorial,
    regards and respect johnny

    1. Its ok, all i did was after the lens correction was used the free transform tool and adjusted the image to cover my canvas again lol, My bad..

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