Learn how to create a breathtaking scene in simple steps. This Photoshop tutorial will teach you how to blend elements together using nondestructive techniques, paint with vibrant colors, and blur/smudge to create a dramatic scene.

Preview of Final Results

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Tutorial Resources

• Clouds – aussiegal7
• Bridge – montvalentstock
• Castle – pixellyperfectstock
• Waterfall – bleu-claire-stock
• Ruins – pixellyperfectstock
• Ruins – nixie04
• Ruins – sacmaluk
• Ruins – whynotastock
• River – cat-in-the-stock
• Mountains – castock
• City – knightfall-stock
• Model – liam-stock

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Step 1 – Size

Open the background stock. The size of the stock is width: 2250px and Height: 1500px.

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Step 2 – Smart Object

Transform the background into a smart object. Pressing right click in the layer thumbnail and selecting the option Convert to smart object.

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Step 3 – Smart Object

Press double click in the smart object thumbnail.

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Step 4 – Edit

Now a new window will pop up. This allow you to edit the smart object. So press ok.

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Step 5 – Duplicate

Now press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer in case you need to go back to the original image.In this layer you will use the patch tool to hide undesired parts of the image.

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Step 6 – Duplicate and Change color

Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer and then press Ctrl+U and in the option saturation put -70. The image will have this color.

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Step 7 – Save

The the changes you made to the smart object  press ctrl + S and close the window.

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Step 8 – River

Now go to folder you have the stocks and grab the image of the river. You will see that the image is an smart object itself, you can change the size clicking in the corners.

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Step 9 – Layer Mask

Create a layer mask to erase the undesired parts of the image. Pick a soft round brush to paint over the parts you want to remove. You will have something like this:

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Step 10 – Hue and Saturation

Go to Create a new fill or adjustment layer and click in the option Hue/Saturation.

Reduce the Saturation to -60.

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Step 11 – Apply to one object

To Apply the changes only in the layer of the river you have to press right click over the Hue and Saturation layer and select the option Create Clipping Mask.

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Step 12 – Duplicate

Now go back to the Background image and duplicate the layer pressing Ctrl+J and then change the layer mode to soft light.

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Step 13 – City

Grab the image of the city, and repeat the process of creating a new layer mask to blend the layer to the background

Layer mask:

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Step 14 – Blur

Now go to filters – blur – Gaussian blur and add 2 radius pixels to get this result:

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Step 15

Now pick a castle and resize it to fit the mountain like this:

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Step 16 – Layer Mask

Create a layer mask and like you did before hide with the brush tool the parts you don’t want to use of the image.

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Step 17 – Layer mode

Change layer mode to overlay.

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Step 18 – Waterfall

Add a image of the waterfall and resize it to fit the mountain.

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Step 19 – Layer mask

Use the layer mask technique once again to blend the waterfall.

Change layer mode to soft light

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Step 20 – More Elements

Now add more elements to the image, can be mountains, castles, ruins, all of this to give to the image a better look. Use the layer mask technique you learned in the steps before in each of the elements and remember to change layer mode to soft light or overlay.