This tutorial will show you how to compose an image using 3D and painted elements. These techniques include setting the global light of your manipulation and adding shadow and color adjustments.

Preview of Final Results

Apocalyptic Photo Manipulation Photoshop Tutorial

Resource

To complete the tutorial you can use my own resources which are exactly the same as in the preview manipulation but in lower resolution, or find similar stock over the internet. The link for the low resolution images is here.

Step 1 - Preparing the Background

Create a new document in Photoshop. The size depends on the resources you want to use. If you use the resources provided above, use 900 px x 540 px. Otherwise any size that fits your stock images will work. Select the Gradient Tool (G), then select Linear Gradient (see picture below).

Select the Gradient Tool (G), then select Linear Gradient (see picture below).

Fill the background layer with this gradient. You should get something like this:

Step 2 - Adding the Sky

Open the picture of sky and drag it into your manipulation. Name the layer SKY and place it above the BACKGROUND. Add a vector mask to this layer. The Add Vector mask button can be found on the bottom part of your palette layers (if you don’t see this palette just press F7).

Side Note: Using a vector mask instead of erasing parts of the image is much better because you can always change what you’ve done. When you erase parts with the Eraser Tool (E) they are erased for good, but with the vector mask you just hide the unwanted parts of the image and make them appear again whenever you want.

Add a vector mask to the SKY, by selecting the Brush Tool (B) in black and start to paint over the areas which will make them disappear. You can change the diameter of the brush and opacity to get a more natural result. Do this until the sky is nicely blended. If you want to reverse some steps, choose a white color and paint over the areas you want to re-appear.

Step 3 - Adding the Ground

Create the ground of the picture. Add new layer on the top of your layers and name it GROUND TEXTURE. Download these brushes and add them to Photoshop. If you don’t know how to install brushes you can refer to this tutorial.