How to Create a Surreal Traveling House Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

Create a fantasy photo manipulation of a floating house. This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to combine photos seamlessly with little effort to create this out-of-the-world image. You’ll also learn how to give your house an uprooted look and enhance the lighting of the image for a grungy mystical look. Click to learn how!

Preview of Final Results

Travelling House Photo Manipulation Photoshop Tutorial

Tutorial Resources

Sand Road 03 - SuperStarStock
~~premade20 - nightfatestock~~ (Alternative)
~~Old desert farmhouse - royalstock~~ (Alternative)
Little Island - mindCollision stock
Winter snow flake brushes PS7 - Keepwaiting

Step 1: Create a New Image File

Let’s start by creating a new image file, go to the Menu bar and click File > New, and then input the following values on their respective fields:

Presets: International Paper
Size: A4
Width: 3508 pixels
Height: 2480 pixels
Resolution: 300pixels/inch
Color Mode: RGB Color; 8 bit
Background Contents: Transparent

Step 2: Create the Background

In this Step, we will be creating the land and the sky of our background. To start, let’s open the stock image: “Sand Road 03” by SuperStarStock. Next, activate the Move tool by pressing V on your keyboard; left-click the image while the Move tool (V) is activated and then drag that image to our canvas. Move and position it in this manner:

Next, activate the Transform tool by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + T and then you will see a box with small boxes around our image. Transform the photo by following the instructions shown below:

The result of that should be similar to this:

Now that we’re done with the field, let’s now add the sky. Open the stock image: “premade20” by nightfatestock. Once open, activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and create a selection area around the sky. See images below:

The result of that should be similar to this:

Activate the Move tool (V) and drag the selected area to our canvas. Position this cut layer over the field layer we put earlier so that it would appear over the clouds of the field layer. On the layer window, it should look like this:

On the canvas, it should look like this:

Next, we will have to resize the sky to make it blend seamlessly with our field. To do that, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and then resize the sky as shown on the image below:

The result of that should be similar to this:

Step 3: Enhance the light of the Background

Now, we will be creating layers that we would be brushing in some light and shadow to enhance the look and feel of the background. To start, let’s create a new layer on top of the field and sky layer by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N while the sky layer is selected (this way the new layer will be created on top of the sky layer, thus on top of all the layers). Once its box comes up, input “Lighten” on the name field. Activate the Brush tool (B) but before we start, make sure that the active Brushes are the default brushes. The default Photoshop brushes are shown on the image below, if that’s not what you see, then follow the instructions below:

Right-click the canvas while a layer is selected and while the Brush tool (B) is activated and then click on the button highlighted below:

Then click on “Reset Brushes” from the contextual menu.

Now, that that is done input the following settings for our Brush tool (B):

Brush size: 800px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 15%
Flow: 100%
#: fff7bf

Note: The “#” means the color of the brush. #: fff7bf is somewhat yellowish. To change the brush’s color, do the following:

5 comments on “How to Create a Surreal Traveling House Photo Manipulation in Photoshop”

Su Hall says:

May 14, 2020 at 9:07 am

Cool concept! Thanks for the tut!

Anonymous says:

May 14, 2020 at 6:00 am

Cool! It gave me a good idea what to do next! Want more of this!!!! :-)

Jose says:

February 2, 2015 at 9:44 am

did you see the man's face in the field

bephot says:

March 1, 2013 at 10:05 am

genius..what else can i say

Michael Erickson says:

February 5, 2013 at 3:08 am

I really like the flying house good job.