Final Image

Resources

• Beach
• Wood Texture

Step 1

Open the image “Beach”. Let’s create the layer upon which we will place our puzzle. Create a new layer by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N and fill this layer with a light gray color (#a2a2a2). Name this layer “background”.

Step 2

Select the Brush Tool (B) and choose black as foreground color. Lower the opacity of the brush to 10% and dab around the edges of our newly created layer a few times in order to add some variation.

Step 3

Double-click the Background Layer and press Ok on the New Layer window that appears in order to convert it to a regular layer. (Background layers are special layers that Photoshop creates every time you open a new image. They are locked by default and have certain limitations – like the inability to position them above other layers)

Move this layer above the “background” layer by pressing Ctrl + ] (bracket key) or by simply dragging the layer with the mouse.

Step 4

Now we need to apply the jigsaw texture to our image. Since Photoshop CS6 Adobe doesn’t supply certain presets so we have to download them manually. Go to this link and download the plugins folder. Open the archive (it’s archived, so you should have Winrar or Winzip in order to be able to open it) and open the Presets folder. Inside that folder will be a Textures folder – open it. Inside this folder you should see a file named “Puzzle.psd”. Drag this file somewhere on your computer – on the Desktop for instance – and remember where you put it.

Step 5

Go back to our image in Photoshop and with the beach picture selected choose Filter > Filter Gallery to open the filter gallery window. In here go to Texture > Texturizer and click the little icon with the arrow pointing down to load a custom texture. Select the “Jigsaw.psd” file you located in the previous step.

Choose the following settings and press Ok. You should have something similar to my results below.

Step 6

Let’s start to make our puzzle look real by hiding certain pieces. First let’s hide all the pieces in the upper row and the left row. In order to hide parts of our layer we will need to create a selection first. Regular selection tools (Quick Selection Tool, Lasso Tool) will be quite ineffective because the puzzle pieces have blurry edges so we have to use a more advanced selection method.

This advanced selection method involves the Pen Tool (If you don’t know how to use the Pen Tool follow this tutorial here). Select the Pen Tool (P) and create a Path like shown below:

Step 7

Press Ctrl + Enter to transform the Path into a selection.

Click the Beach layer in the Layer Palette to make it active and add a layer mask to it by choosing Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.

Step 8

Press D to reset colors to their default and click once on the layer mask to make it active. Now press Ctrl + Backspace to fill the selection with black and notice how the left part of the layer disappears (for a tutorial on layers and layer masks go here).

Step 9

Create a path in the upper part of the image and use steps 7 to 8 as reference to mask the selected region in the layer mask. You should be confortable by now with the process of creating a selection from a path and masking so I won’t repeat the instructions on how to do it in the following steps.

Step 10

Let’s hide some pieces of the puzzle from the picture to make it look more realistic. Use the Pen tool to create selections and fill those selection in the layer mask of our layer (refer to steps 7 to 8) in order to hide certain pieces of the puzzle like in the image shown below.

Step 11

Looks pretty good already! But let’s improve it a bit more. Let’s take a piece of the puzzle and place it on top our puzzle picture. First select the Pen Tool and make a selection of a piece of the puzzle.

Step 12

Transform the Path into a selection by pressing Ctrl + Enter.

Step 13

Click on the beach layer in the layer palette in order to make it active and press Ctrl + J to make a new layer from selection. This command will create new layer with our selected piece of the puzzle on it. Name this layer “puzzle 1”.

Step 14

We have the piece of the puzzle on a new layer but we have to hide it on our beach layer otherwise we won’t be able to achieve the desired effect. Click on the “beach” layer to select it and click on the layer mask to make it active. Now click Ctrl + Backspace to fill the mask with the background color (it should be black, but if it’s not press D to reset colors to their defaults).

Nothing seems to happen because although we hidden the piece of the puzzle on our beach layer the “puzzle1” layer it’s still visible. If you turn off the visibility of the “puzzle1” layer (by clicking on the little eyeball icon to the left of the layer icon) you will see that our masking worked. Turn on the visibility of the “puzzle1” layer.

Step 15

Create 3 more pieces of the puzzle (using steps 12 to 14 as reference) and give them appropriate names (puzzle2, puzzle3, puzzle4). Don’t’ forget to hide the pieces of the puzzle in the layer mask of the “beach” layer (by pressing Ctrl + Backspace in the layer mask with black as foreground color). Here’s how your layer palette should look like in shown in the image below.

Step 15

Let’s spread the pieces we created over the puzzle. Click on “puzzle1” layer to make it active and press Ctrl + T to enter Free Transform. Rotate and position this layer like shown in the image below.

Repeat the step with the other 3 pieces of the puzzle. Place them like I did in the image below.

Step 16

We’re almost done. The puzzle looks good but it misses an important thing: shadow. Let’s add some shadow to our puzzle. First Ctrl-click on the layer mask of the “beach” layer to make a selection of the mask.

Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N) and press Ctrl + Backspace to fill the selection with the foreground color (it doesn’t matter what the foreground color – mine is black). Name this layer “shadow”.

Double-click the “shadow” layer to enter advanced blending mode and add a Drop Shadow effect. Lower the fill to 0% in order to hide the actual pixels but leave the effect visible.

Step 17

Add the same effect to each of the 4 pieces of puzzle. You can do that by either double-clicking each layer and entering the effect over and over again or you can simply hold Ctrl and drag/drop the effect from the “shadow” layer to each of the pieces of the puzzle layers . Holding Ctrl and dragging an effect will copy that effect while dropping (releasing the mouse) will assign that effect to the layer we’re over with our mouse.

And We’re Done!

We are done with the puzzle. If you want, you can replace the gray layer with a wood texture, resembling the surface of a table. Simply delete (or hide the visibility) the gray background layer and open a wooden texture you like (I have provided a link to a nice texture in the resources category). Select all (Ctrl + A) and copy (Ctrl + C). Go back to our puzzle picture and paste (Ctrl + V). Now drag this layer below all the other layers. And we’re done.

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Resources

• Paper Texture

Step 1

Open Photoshop and hit Control + N to create a new document. Enter all the data shown in the following image and click OK.

Enable the Grid (View > Show > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap To > Grid). For starters you will need a grid every 5px. Simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices and focus on the Grid section. Enter 5 in the Gridline Every box and 1 in the Subdivision box. Also, set the color of the grid to #a7a7a7. Once you have set all these properties click OK. Don’t get discouraged by all that grid. It will ease your work later. You should also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes.

Step 2

Set the foreground color to #ddf1ff and pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Focus on the top bar, set the radius to 10px then create a 240 by 150px vector shape. The Snap to Grid should ease your work. Move to the Layers panel and name this blue rounded rectangle "main".

Step 3

Next, you need to create a simple pattern. Hit Control + N to open the new document window. Enter 10 in the width box and 20 in the height box then click OK. Set the foreground color at black, pick the Rectangle Tool, create a 10px square and place it as shown in the first image. Make sure that this new vector shape stays selected, focus on its right side and switch to the Direct Selection Tool. Select both anchor points and simply drag them 5px up. In the end things should look like in the second image. Make sure that your black vector shape is not selected anymore and go to Edit > Define Pattern. Enter "envelopePattern" for the name and click OK. Close this document and return to the main one.

Step 4

Duplicate "main" (Control + J). Select this copy and pick the Rectangle Tool. Focus on the top bar, check the Intersect button and draw a 10 by 150px vector shape as shown in the first image.

Move to the Layers panel and double click on this new vector shape to open the Layer Style window. Activate the Drop Shadow and the Pattern Overlay then enter the properties shown in the following images. For the Pattern Overlay section use the "envelopePattern" made in the previous step.

Once you have applied all those attributes return to the Layers panel. Right click on your patterned vector shape and simply go to Copy Layer Style.

Step 5

Duplicate "main" (Control + J). Select this copy and pick the Rectangle Tool. Focus on the top bar, make sure that the Intersect button is still active and draw a 10 by 150px vector shape as shown in the first image.

Move to the Layers panel, right click on this new vector shape and go to Paste Layer Style. Open the Layer Style window for this same shape, focus on the Drop Shadow and simply inverse the angle.

Step 6

Duplicate "main" (Control + J), select the copy and bring it to the front (Shift + Control + ] ).

Move to the Layers panel, focus on this copy, double click on the color thumbnail and replace the blue with #ed4505.

Step 7

Make sure that your orange rounded rectangle stays selected and pick the Rectangle Tool. Check the Intersect button from the top bar and draw a 260 by 100px vector shape as shown in the first image.

Focus on the top side of this new rectangle and grab the Delete Anchor Point. Simply click on the right anchor point to remove it then switch to the Direct Selection Tool. Select the remaining top anchor point and drag it 130px to the right. In the end things should look like in the second image.

Step 8

Focus on the Layers panel, open the Layer Style window for your orange vector shape and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 9

Duplicate your orange vector shape (Control + J). Focus on the Layers panel, right click on this copy and go to Clear Layer Style. Make sure that the copy stays selected, lower its Fill to 0% then open the Layer Style window and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 10

Duplicate "main" (Control + J), select the copy and bring it to the front (Shift + Control + ] ).

Move to the Layers panel, focus on this copy and replace the blue with #b40007.

Step 11

Make sure that your burgundy rounded rectangle is selected and pick the Rectangle Tool. Check the Intersect button from the top bar and draw a 260 by 95px vector shape as shown in the first image.

Focus on the bottom side of this new rectangle and grab the Delete Anchor Point. Simply click on the right anchor point to remove it then switch to the Direct Selection Tool. Select the remaining, bottom anchor point and drag it 130px to the right. In the end things should look like in the second image.

Step 12

For this step you will need a grid every 1px. Simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices and enter 1 in the Gridline Every box.

Make sure that your burgundy vector shape stays selected, focus on its bottom side and pick the Rectangle Tool. Check the Subtract button from the top bar and draw an 8 by 3px vector shape as shown in the first image.

Keep focusing on the bottom side and switch to the Ellipse Tool. Check the Add button from the top bar and simply draw a 14px circle as shown in the second image.

Step 13

Focus on the Layers panel, open the Layer Style window for the burgundy vector shape and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 14

Duplicate the burgundy vector shape (Control + J). Select this copy, clear the current Layer Style attributes, lower its Fill to 0% then open the Layer Style window and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 15

For the following steps you will need a grid every 5px, so go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices and enter 5 in the Gridline Every box.

Set the foreground color to black, pick the Rectangle Tool, create a 210 by 80px vector shape and place it as shown in the first image.

Focus on the bottom side of this new rectangle and grab the Delete Anchor Point. Remove the right anchor point then switch to the Direct Selection Tool. Select the remaining, bottom anchor point and drag it 105px to the right. In the end things should look like in the second image.

Step 16

Focus on the Layers panel, select that black vector shape and drag it below the burgundy vector shapes.

Keep focusing on the Layers panel, right click on this black vector shape and simply go to Convert to Smart Object. Make sure that this new smart object is selected, change its blending mode to Soft Light and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Drag the slider to 4px and click OK.

Step 17

Next, you need to create a simple paper pattern. Open this paper image in Photoshop, go to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate then go to Edit > Define Pattern. Enter "paper" for the name then click OK. Close this document and go back to your envelope.

Step 18

Duplicate "main" (Control + J), select the copy and bring it to the front (Shift + Control + ] ). Lower its Fill to 0% and open the Layer Style window. Activate the Pattern Overlay and enter the properties shown in the following image. Obviously, you need to use that "paper" pattern made in the previous step.

Step 19

Create a new layer (Shift + Control + Alt + N), drag it in the top of the Layers panel and make sure that it stays selected. Set the foreground color to black, pick the Brush Tool and right click inside your document to open the Brush Preset picker. Pick a Soft Round brush, set the size to 50px and the Hardness to 0% then draw a random path along the bottom side of your envelope as shown in the following image.

Step 20

Focus on the Layers panel, hold Control and click on "main". This should load a simple selection around your shape. Make sure that it stays active, select the layer made in the previous step, focus on the bottom side of the Layers panel and simply click on the "Add layer mask" button. In the end things should look like in the second image.

Get rid of that selection (Control + D), make sure that the masked layer is still selected, lower its opacity to 30% and change the blending mode to Soft Light.

Step 21

Create a new layer (Shift + Control + Alt + N), drag it to the top of the Layers panel and make sure that it stays selected. Set the foreground color to white, pick the Brush Tool and draw a random path along the top side of your envelope as shown in the following image.

Step 22

Load a new selection around your "main" vector shape and use it to mask the layer made in the previous step.

Get rid of that selection (Control + D), make sure that this newly masked layer is still selected, lower its opacity to 70% and change the blending mode to Soft Light.

Step 23

Focus on the Layers panel, open the Layer Style window for "main" and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 24

Duplicate "main" (Control + J). Open the Layer Style window for this copy and edit the attributes used for the Drop Shadow as shown in the following image.

And We’re Done!

Here is how your final result should look.

8 Floral Brush Pack

43 Hi-Res Floral Photoshop Brushes

Free Floral Brushes

Free Floral Brush Pack

Shiny Flowers

Floral Brushes 5

Floral Butterfly & Flowers

Hand Drawn Floral 2

Flowers Brushes

Swirls and Flowers

Floral Swirl PS Brushes

Floral Corners

Floral Deco

Floral Mix

Floral Ornaments

Edge Florals Brushes

Floral Collage Brushes

Floral Leaf Brushes

Heart Collage Brushes

Japanese Floral Brushes

Paint Collage Brushes

Textured Florals Brushes

Doodle Garden

Vector Flowers

Conclusion

Hopefully you will have downloaded some of these brush sets and they will help enhance any future projects you have in mind.

Please share any comments with us in the section below.

This Photoshop tutorial uses some fairly advanced techniques but the detailed explanations at each step should make it easy for beginners to catch on.

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Resources

• Castle

Step 1

Open the Castle image. This image is quite big so let’s reduce the size a bit. Press Ctrl + Alt + I to open the Image Size window and use the settings shown below:

Step 2

Select the Crop Tool and drag the upper and lower handles in order to remove the author’s trademark as well as the extra pixels at the top, left and right margins.(Don’t worry, it’s perfectly legal. You can honor the author by linking to his website or this particular image).

Step 3

Duplicate the background layer by pressing Ctrl + J. Name this layer “Reflection”.

Step 4

Now let’s increase the canvas size (we have to put our reflection somewhere). Press Ctrl + Alt + C to open the Canvas Size window and choose the settings shown below.

Click on the “Reflection” layer in order to make it active and press Ctrl + T to enter Free Transform. Right click on the image and choose “Flip Vertical”. Press Enter after you’re done.

Step 5

Select the Move Tool (V) and with the “Reflection” layer still selected click and drag down while holding Shift in order to move the layer downwards as shown in the image below.

This could already be considered a reflection but it looks quite unrealistic because the water is way to calm and there are no ripples. We will address these issues in the following steps.

Step 6

Now we need to create some ripples. In order to do that we will need a special texture resembling ripples which we can then apply on the reflection layer. Let’s start working on our texture by creating a new document (Ctrl + N), 4000 x 4000.

Let’s add some Noise. Choose Filter > Noise > Add Noise and use the settings shown below.

We need a coarser grain in order to achieve ripples. We will use a trick which consists of blurring the noise layer and afterwards increasing the contrast. Apply a 5px gaussian blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur).

Now choose Image > Adjustments > Curves and drag the sliders on the left and right towards the spike.

Choose Filter > Filter Gallery and from the Sketch folder select the Bass Relief filter. Use a value of 2 for Detail and 2 for Smoothness. We can see now how this texture starts to look like ripples. But wait, we are not done yet.

Apply a 35px Motion Blur (Filter > Blur > Motion Blur) in order to achieve smoother, more elongated waves.

Step 7

We want to match the ripples texture to our reflection layer. In order to achieve that we will have to temporarily move the texture over to our original document (the castle document). While in the texture document select all by pressing Ctrl + A and copy by pressing Ctrl + C. Select our original document and press Ctrl + V to paste.

New let’s transform this ripples texture in order to achieve the same perspective as in our document. Press Ctrl + T to enter Free transform.

Reduce the height of the texture to fit the bottom half of the image.

Right-click within the transformation boundary and select Perspective. Drag the top handles in and the bottom handles out in order to achieve a transformation like mine below.

Make sure the upper bounds of the texture layer don’t exceed the upper bounds of the “Reflection” layer. For an easier alignment make sure you have Snap active (View > Snap). Press Enter after you’re done.

Step 8

In the Layers palette click on the texture layer we just transformed on the previous step to make sure it’s active. Now Ctrl-click on the “Reflection” layer to create a selection of its pixels. Press Ctrl + J to duplicate the selection (while on the texture layer). Name this new layer “Texture” and delete the previous layer (Layer1).

In order to make sure that you followed my steps correctly Ctrl-click on the “Reflection” layer and after that Ctrl-click on the Texture layer. The selected area should remain the same. If it’s bigger then you’ve made a mistake and should redo the steps.

Right-click on the “Texture” layer in the layer palette and from the drop down menu choose Duplicate Layer, set the destination as a New document. Give it an appropriate name and press Ok.

Step 9

You notice that there is a transparent area in the upper part of our texture. We need to get rid of that and in order to do so we will choose Image > Trim . Select Transparent Pixels and press OK. Save the texture (Ctrl + S) somewhere on your computer (remember where).

Step 10

Close the texture document (Ctrl + W) and go back to our original document. Turn off the visibility of the “Texture” layer by clicking on the little eyeball icon on the left of its thumbnail.

Step 11

Right-click on the “Reflection” layer in the layers palette and from the drop down menu choose Convert to Smart Object.

With the “Reflection” layer selected choose Filter > Filter Gallery. Select the Glass filter (in the Distort folder). Notice that next to the name of the texture there is a little icon. Click on that icon and press “Load Texture”. Select the texture you saved previously (the texture from step 9).

Choose a greater Distort value if you want a more pronounced effect. For subtlety select a lower value (6-7). The good thing about Smart Objects is that you can change the settings of your filters at any time. As you can see we already have achieved a nice effect. However, we could still add a few improvements.

Step 12

Water has a certain reflective quality and our reflection lacks this quality. Remember the “Texture” layer we turned off on step 17? Turn its visibility on again by clicking on the eye icon (more exactly where the eye icon used to be).

Change its blending mode to Soft Light and lower the Opacity to 18% and notice how the “Reflection” layer has gained that reflective quality.

Step 13

Usually the water has the color/tint of the sky. Let’s do this in our image. Select the Brush Tool (B) and Alt-click somewhere on the blue of the sky in order to sample a color (sampling a color means that whatever color lies under the sampler’s tip becomes the foreground color).

Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N) and fill the layer with the foreground color (Alt + Backspace). Name this layer “Color”.

Move the “Color” layer just below the “Texture” layer (by clicking and dragging). After that clip the “Color” layer to the “Reflection” layer by holding Alt key and clicking right in between the two layers in the layers palette.

Clipping a layer to another means that the upper layer will be visible only through the pixels of the lower layer.

Press D to reset to default colors and X to switch between them.

Add a layer mask to the “Color” layer by choosing Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All. Select the Gradient Tool (G) and from the upper option bar select Foreground to Background option.

Step 14

Click on the layer mask and with the Gradient Tool still selected hold the Shift key and drag downwards as indicated in the image below. This step will ensure that color will not be visible in the upper part of the image and will gradually become more visible in the lower parts.

Lower the Opacity of the “Color” layer to 12%.

Step 15

Almost done! Let’s do something to improve the appearance of the overall image. A bit of color correction would be just what this image needs. Create a new Curves Adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves).

Step 16

In order to boost the contrast add a Black & White Adjustment layer by choosing Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White. Change the Blending mode of this layer to Soft Light and lower the opacity to 46%.

Step 17

We are almost there. The image looks too symmetrical because we have flipped vertically the original layer. Also, there are some ugly pixel artifacts in the lower part of the image (we created those when we applied the Glass filter to the Reflection layer). In order to address both of these issues let’s crop our image and get rid of some of the lower part.

Step 18

Finally, let’s add a Vignette effect. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N) and fill it with white (with white as foreground color press Alt + Backspace). Choose Filter > Lens Correction and in the Custom tab drag the Vignette Amount slider towards the left. Press OK and change the blending mode of the layer to Multiply.

Notice how the “Color” layer is a bit too intense? Let’s lower its Opacity from 12% to 7%.

And We’re Done!

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Resources

• A tree on the horizon

Step 1

Open file “Sky”. This will be our base image on top of which we will create a realistic rainbow. First let’s create a new layer by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N. Now select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and create a selection as shown in the image below.

Step 2

Select the Gradient Tool (G) and click on the icon shown below to edit the gradient.

The following window (called the Gradient Editor) will appear. The little arrowhead icons underneath are the colors that form the gradient. Click just below the gradient representation to add new colors. You can also click on the colors and move them around after you have created them. Double click the arrowhead icons to change the color.

Add the colors shown below to your Gradient Editor window and click OK. They are in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, cyan.

Make sure you still have the Gradient Tool selected. Click and drag in the selection while holding shift to create a gradient with the colors you chose previously. Press Ctrl + D to deselect the layer.

Step 3

Make a duplicate layer (Ctrl + J) of the gradient layer just to have a backup in case something goes wrong. Turn off the visibility of the original gradient layer by clicking on the eye icon at the left of the layer in the layers palette.

Select the Eraser Tool (E), select a soft round brush and erase the left and right edges of the gradient as shown in the image below.

You could also use a Layer Mask to hide the unwanted parts of the gradient, but the Eraser Tool is simpler to use.

Step 4

Now let’s add some blur in order to disperse the colors. Choose Blur > Gaussian Blur and enter a value of 20px. Make sure the layer is deselected (press Ctrl + D just to be sure) otherwise you’ll get unwanted effects.

Step 5

We are almost ready with our rainbow. Let’s add some curvature to our rainbow. While on the gradient layer press Ctrl + T to enter Free Transform. Right click on the gradient and from the drop down menu choose Warp.

In order to bend it in a nice fashion choose from warp options (in the upper Options Bar) Arc and play a little with the Bend value until you obtain a nice curved rainbow. Press Enter after you’re done.

Step 6

Let’s increase the size of our rainbow and position it a bit better. Press Ctrl + T to enter Free Transform and modify the size and position to make it look like mine in the image below. To symmetrically resize hold the Shift key while dragging on the corners.

Step 7

It looks very nice now but the effect is still a bit strong. Change the blending mode to Color and lower the Opacity of our rainbow layer to 51% for a softer effect.

Step 8

It looks nice enough as it is but I think that a bit of glow will make it look better. Duplicate the rainbow layer by pressing Ctrl + J. Double-click the layer to enter Advanced Blending options. Use the following settings:

And We’re Done!

Here’s how the final image should look. If you want a more artistic effect and not a realistic one then consider increasing the opacity of the rainbow layer and/or give the rainbow a bigger arc effect (Step 5).

Final Image

As always, this is the final image that we’ll be creating:

Step 1

Open Photoshop and hit Control + N to create a new document. Enter all the data shown in the following image and click OK.

Enable the Grid (View > Show > Grid) and the Snap to Grid (View > Snap To > Grid). For starters you will need a grid every 5px. Go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices and focus on the Grid section. Enter 5 in the Gridline Every box and 1 in the Subdivision box. Also, set the color of the grid at #a7a7a7. Once you set all these properties click OK. Don’t get discouraged by all that grid. It will ease your work later.

You should also open the Info panel (Window > Info) for a live preview with the size and position of your shapes.

Step 2

Set the foreground color at #e8d8a7, pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool and focus on the top bar. Set the radius at 30px, create a 190 by 60px vector shape and make sure that it stays selected.

Continue with the Rounded Rectangle Tool, focus on the top bar and check the Add button. Add a 20 by 10px vector shape and place it as shown in the second image. The Snap to Grid should ease your work.

Make sure that your vector shape is still selected, continue with the Rounded Rectangle Tool, add a second 20 by 10px vector shape and place it as shown in the third image.

Step 3

Focus on the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and double click on the vector shape made in the previous step to open the Layer Style window. Activate the Drop Shadow, the Inner Shadow, the Outer Glow, the Bevel and Emboss and the Gradient Overlay then enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 4

Set the foreground color at #a29261 and pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Create a 180 by 50px vector shape, place it as shown in the first image and make sure that it stays selected. Continue with the Rounded Rectangle Tool, focus on the top bar and check the Subtract button.

Create a 170 by 40px vector shape and place it as shown in the second image. Open the Layers Style window for this new vector shape and enter the properties shown in the following image.

Step 5

Set the foreground color at #d4c493 and pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Create a 170 by 40px vector shape and place it as shown in the first image. Open the Layers Style window for this new vector shape and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Return to the Layers panel, double click on this rounded rectangle and simply name it "interior".

Step 6

For the following step you will need a grid every 1px. Simply go to Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid & Slices and enter 1 in the Gridline Every box. Set the foreground color at #ac9c6b, pick the Ellipse Tool, create a 4px circle and place it as shown in the first image.

Open the Layers Style window for this new vector shape and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 7

Duplicate the vector shape made in the previous step (CTRL + J). Select this copy, drag it to the right and place it as shown in the second image. Again, the Snap to Grid should ease your work.

Step 8

Set the foreground color at #a29261 and pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Create a 100 by 44px vector shape and place it as shown in the first image.

Open the Layers Style window for this new vector shape and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 9

Duplicate the vector shape made in the previous step (CTRL + J). Focus on the Layers panel, right click on this copy and go to Clear Layer Style.

Select this copy, lower its Fill to 0% then open the Layer Style window and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 10

Duplicate the vector shape made in the previous step (CTRL + J). Focus on the Layers panel, select this copy and clear the current Layer Style attributes. Keep focusing on the Layers panel, hold CTRL and simply click on "interior". This should load a simple selection around that vector shape. Make sure that it stays active, select the copy made in the beginning of the step and hit the "Add layer mask" button.

In the end your masked vector shape should look like in the third image. Hit Control + D to get rid of that selection.

Step 11

Reselect the masked vector shape made in the previous step, lower its Fill to 0% then open the Layer Style window. Check the "Layer Mask Hides Effects" box then activate the Drop Shadow and enter the properties shown in the following image.

Step 12

Set the foreground color at #85bc46, pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool, create a 5 by 14px vector shape and make sure that its stays selected. Continue with the Rounded Rectangle Tool, check the Add button from the top bar then add two, 5 by 14px rounded rectangles as shown in the second image.

Step 13

Select the vector shape made in the previous step and place it as shown below. Open the Layer Style window for this green path and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 14

Pick the Type Tool (T) and add a simple "ON" as shown in the first image. You can use the Latha font, set the style at Bold, the size at 15pt and the color at #b6a675. Open the Layers Style window for this little piece of text and enter the properties shown in the following images.

Step 15

Focus on the Layers panel, select that piece of text along with all the vector shapes created so far, right click on one of these pieces and go to Duplicate Layers. Select all the copies and drag them a few pixels down as shown in the first image. Return to the Layers panel and focus on the copies.

Select the four vector shapes that make up the rounded button, hold Shift and drag them 74px to the right. In the end things should look like in the second image.

Step 16

Select that piece of text, replace the "ON" with "OFF" and place it as shown in the first image. Select the masked vector shape, go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal then open the Layer Style window and simply inverse the angle used for the Drop Shadow.

Step 17

Finally, focus on the green vector shape and replace the existing Layer Style attributes with the ones shown in the following images.

And We’re Done!

Here is how your final result should look.

Final Image

Resources

• fairy32 – faestock
• Texture – angeltouch1
• Abstract – angeltouch1
• 15 Grunge PS Brushes – sarytah

Step 1

Create a new file with a width of 1200 px and a height of 1500 px at 72 dpi (Dots per Inch). Background Contents should be White.

Step 2

First off, let’s activate the Gradient tool (G).

Then open the Gradient editor box and input the following:

Now drag the mouse in the direction of the red arrow.

The result should be similar to this:

Step 3

Now activate the Single Row Marquee Tool.

Let’s make a new layer and name it “Line”. Now click on the canvas you can see that you have a selected part so fill it with #409cf9.

Repeat the same process and you will get something like this :

Step 4

Now add a layer mask to our lines layer .

Now activate the Brush tool (B) using these settings :

Brush size: 400px

Hardness: 0%

Opacity: 40%

Flow: 100%

Color: #000000

Now paint over the highlighted area.

Reduce the layer opacity to 25% :

The result should be similar to this:

Now create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer from the icon at the bottom of the layers palette .

When the Hue/Saturation box opens, input the following:

Press Alt+left click in between 2 layer’s (lines layer and Hue/Saturation) to make a clipping mask.

The result should be similar to this:

Step 5

Now activate the Elliptical marquee tool, hold down the Shift key to restrain proportions and drag out a circle as shown below, use the Paint Bucket Tool to fill it with black .

Now add a Layer style by clicking on the fxicon at the bottom of layers palette .

When the Layer style box opens, input the following Gradient Overlay settings:

The result should be similar to this:

Step 6

Now activate the Brush tool (B) using these settings :

Brush size: 3px

Hardness: 100%

Opacity: 100%

Flow: 100%

Color: #000000

Then activate the Pen tool (P) and draw a line then right click on the line and choose Stroke Path.

When the Stroke path box opens, input the following:

Now again make a right click and this time choose Delete Path .

The result should be similar to this:

Now add a Layer style by clicking the fxicon at the bottom of layers palette.

When the Layer style box opens, input the following Gradient Overlay settings:

The result should be similar to this:

Add more lines:

Step 7

First off, let’s open fairy32 stock in Photoshop. We will be using the Girl from this stock image so we will need to transfer it to our main canvas.

Now go to Select > Color range :

When the Color Range box opens, input the following and click on the highlighted area :

Press V to activate the Move Tool. Left-click the image and drag the image to the main canvas and change layer name to “Girl”.

Next, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd +T), then while the “Girl” layer is selected, resize it as shown below:

The result should be similar to this:

Step 8

Now, activate the Brush tool (B) and open the brush set “15 grunge ps brushes” by Sarytah. To load them, simply, right click on your canvas through any layer and then click on the drop-down button as shown below:

This will prompt the contextual menu to pop up and once you see that, just click on Load Brushes.

You will now be prompted to this directory: Adobe Photoshop > Presets > Brushes so make sure that you have put the brushes within this folder, or navigate to the folder that contains the brushes. Now locate the brush set and click OK. Right click on the canvas again using your Brush tool (B) and now you’ll notice that you have 15 grunge ps brushes.

Now create a vector mask by clicking on the Add Layer Maskicon at the bottom of layers palette.

Now this time choose any grunge ps brushes and use these settings:

Brush size: 400px

Hardness: 0%

Opacity: 40%

Flow: 100%

Foreground Color: #000000

Background Color: #000000

Now paint over the highlighted area.

The result should be similar to this:

Step 9

Now,let’s open “abstract” file in Photoshop. We will be using the sky from this stock image so we will need to transfer it to our main canvas.

Click the “abstract” and press V to activate the Move Tool. Left-click the image and drag the image to the main canvas and change layer name to “Abstract 1″.

Next, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd +T), then while the “Abstract” layer is selected, resize it as shown below:

The result should be similar to this:

Now create a new Color Balance adjustment layer by clicking the icon at the bottom of layers palett . Press Alt+left click in between 2 layer’s (Abstract 1 layer and Color Balance) to make a clipping mask.

When the Color Balance box opens, input the following:

The result should be similar to this:

Make a duplicate of abstract 1 layer (Ctrl+j):

Step 10

Now,let’s open the High Resolution Bokeh Texture in Photoshop. We will be using the Texture from this stock image so we will need to transfer it to our main canvas.

Click the High Resolution Bokeh Texture and press V to activate the Move Tool. Left-click the image and drag the image to the main canvas and change layer name to “Light”.

Change it’s layer mode to “Screen”.

The result should be similar to this:

Step 11

Now create a Color Balance adjustment layer which can be found by pressing on the Create New Fill/Adjustment layer button shown on the layer window:

When the Color Balance box opens, input the following:

The result should be similar to this:

Create a Gradient map adjustment layer which can be found by pressing on the Create New Fill/Adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette.

When the Gradient map box opens, input the following:

Change it’s layer mode to “Luminosity”.

The result should be similar to this:

Create a Gradient map adjustment layer which can be found by pressing on the Create New Fill/Adjustment layer button shown on the layer window.

When the Gradient map box opens, input the following:

Change it’s layer mode to “Overlay”.

And We’re Done!

Final Image

Resources

• Lake Brienz
• Whale
• Glitter + Sparkles Brushes
• Lightning Photoshop Brushes
• Water splash – 4
• Splash Pack

Step 1

Let’s start our tutorial by opening the image “Landscape” and making a duplicate (Ctrl + J).

Apply a 5 px Gaussian Blur to the duplicated layer.

Add a layer mask to the duplicated layer by choosing Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All.

In the layer mask paint with black over the surface of the water to mask the blurring effect and put more focus on the foreground.

Here’s how my mask looks:

Step 2

We will be using a lot of adjustment layers in this tutorial. To create an adjustment layer simply click Layer > New Adjustment Layer and choose the appropriate one.

In this case I am going to use a Hue/Saturation so go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. If we were to use a Curves Adjustment layer you would simply go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves. Got it?

Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer to change the color of the overall scene.

Here’s how the image should look now:

Step 3

It looks a bit too saturated for me so let’s add another Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer and drag the slider to the left to lower the saturation.

The image should look like this now:

Step 4

Now let’s darken the mood a little bit. Add a Curves Adjustment Layer and drag the curve downwards like so:

The image should look darker:

Step 5

Open file “Whale”. Ctrl-click on the Whale layer to select it and press Ctrl + C to copy it.

Go back to our tutorial file and press Ctrl + V to paste it.

Choose the Move tool (V) and position the whale as shown below:

Step 6

Now let’s create the reflection on the water.

Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and using a Chalk brush at 10% Opacity paint a reflection underneath the whale and on the surface of the water.

Here’s how my painted reflection looks:

Step 7

The whale emerges from the water so we should have some splashing water illustrating this.

Open the file “Water1”. Before we start doing anything we have to change some settings.

Choose the Eyedropper Tool (I) and in the Option bar (in the upper area) set the Sample Size to 5 by 5 Average.

What we want to do now is to extract the water and the some of the rippling effect from this photo. The tool that will allow us to do that in an easy way is Color Range.

Choose Select > Color Range and with the eyedropper click in the region shown below:

The Color Range window should look like this:

Click OK to finish the selection.

Step 8

Now that we have a selection press Ctrl + J to create a new layer from selection.

Ctrl-click on the newly created layer to select it and Ctrl + C to copy it.

Go to our tutorial window and press Ctrl + V to paste it.

Step 9

Use the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl + T) to resize and position the water as in the image below:

Step 10

Add a layer mask to the water layer by choosing Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal all. Choose a soft round brush and paint with black to remove the obvious edges and to integrate the water with the environment.

Here’s how my layer mask looks:

And here’s how the image looks:

The water looks a bit grayish so let’s make a bit brighter and whiter. In order to do this simply duplicate the water layer by pressing Ctrl + J.

Step 11

Let’s add some additional water drops around the whale to make it look more realistic.

Open the file “Water2”.

Use Select > Color Range selection window to select the water as we did on the previous water image and press OK.
Your Color Range window should look like this:

Step 12

Duplicate the selection by pressing Ctrl + J.

Ctrl-click the newly created layer to select it and press Ctrl + C to copy it.

Go to our tutorial window and press Ctrl + V to paste. Use the Free Transform tool (T) to resize and position the pasted layer as shown below:

Step 13

Add a layer mask to this layer by choosing Layer > Adjustment Layer > Reveal All. Use a soft round brush to paint with black and mask the obvious edges and unwanted areas. You basically want to leave some water drops below the whale’s belly so paint with black everything but the area you want to be visible.

Here’s how it should look:

Step 14

In order to add more drops of water around the whale simply duplicate the water layer you just masked and use the Free Transform Tool to position it where you want more water drops. Then in the layer mask paint with black or white to hide or reveal water. In my case it took 7 more duplicates of the water layer, each of them positioned at different locations around the whale and masked as I saw fit.

And here’s how my image looks like:

Step 15

Group all those water layers you created in the previous step by selecting them (Ctrl-click each or click the first one and Shift-click the last one) and press Ctrl + G.

Add a layer mask to the group by choosing Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal all and paint with black to hide unwanted water.

And here’s how my image looks:

This technique of using layer masks on groups is a very useful one when you want additional control and you work with lots of layers.

Step 16

Let’s add some additional glitter and some lightning.

Import the sparkles brush using the Preset Manager (Edit > Presets > Preset manager) or simply double click the .abr file (it might not work on older versions of Photoshop).

Select a sparkle and set the foreground color to white. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and place some sparkles on the whale.

Step 17

Import the lightning brush and create a new layer. Click once on the layer with a lightning brush of your choosing and use the Free Transform tool to position and resize the lightning layer as in the image below.

Step 18

Now let’s add some volume and highlights to the whale.

Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and with a round soft brush at 20-30% Opacity paint with white and black. White areas will look closer to the eye than the black ones and that’s how we will create a certain volumetric effect and add some white highlights in the process.

You should have something like in the image below:

Step 19

We are almost done. Now it’s time to add some post-processing effects that will make the image look nicer.

Make a new layer from all visible layers by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E. Apply a 5px Gaussian Blur to the newly created layer.

Change the blending mode of this layer to Soft Light and lower the opacity to 30%.

Step 20

In order to improve the contrast and lighten the image a bit add a Curves Adjustment Layer. Modify the curve like this:

Step 21

In order to unify all the elements in our scene let’s add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer and change the hue to a nice blue color. Lower the opacity of this layer to 22%.

Step 22

Finally we are going to bump up the contrast, so add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and increase the contrast setting to around 82.

Conclusion

And that’s the end of our tutorial. Hope you like final result.