Create a Beautiful Sunrise Landscape Photo Manipulation

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to create a beautiful sunrise landscape photo manipulation in Photoshop. You’ll learn how to combine different stocks to make a cohesive scene, blend and adjust color, work with lighting effects and more.


Final Image

mist


Tutorial Details

  • Program: Photoshop CS5 +
  • Estimated Completion Time: 90 minutes
  • Difficulty: Intermediate

Resources


Step 1

Create a new document with size of 1791×1188 px and fill it with white. Open landscape stock. Use Move Tool (V) to drag the landscape into our white canvas:

mist


Step 2

In this step we’ll remove some details of the landscape at foreground and lower areas. On this layer, use Lasso Tool to make a selection for one of indicated areas as shown below:

mist

mist
Go to Edit > Fill > Content-Aware:

mist

mist


Step 3

Continue to make selections for other areas and apply this tool. The tip for it is to use small selection (don’t choose a large area, you might get a result of unwanted details). Here is my result:

mist


Step 4

To change the contrast and color of the landscape, I used Gradient Overlay effect. Double click landscape layer, choose Gradient Overlay:

mist

mist

mist


Step 5

I used an adjustment layer to add some red to the scene. On landscape layer, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance:

mist
Active Brush Tool (B). On Color Balance layer mask use soft black brush with very low opacity (10-15%) to erase lower part and small part at the left of the scene. You can see how I did it on layer mask and result on picture:

mist

mist


Step 6

Open sky stock. Use Retangular Marquee Tool to choose sky part then place it at the top of our main picture. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal:

mist

mist


Step 7

Click the second button at the bottom of Layer Pallete to add mask to this layer. Use soft black brush to remove rough edges of the sky and blend it with the scene:

mist


Step 8

I used an adjustment layer with Clipping Mask to brighten the sky. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves:

mist

mist


Step 9

Extract waterfall from original stock and position it at the top of the right mountain:

mist

Change the mode to Screen 100%:

mist


Step 10

I used a Curves layer (Clipping Mask) to darken the waterfall:

mist

On Curves layer mask use soft black brush to erase the top left of the waterfall to match the lightness with the scene:

mist


Step 11

Cut out the branches 1 and place it at the bottom left of the pic:

mist


Step 12

To add light to the branches, I used Inner Shadow effect. Double click this layer, choose Blending Options:

mist

mist


Step 13

Go to Filter > Blur > Gassian Blur and pick radius as 4 px:

mist

This step is too add depth to the scene.


Step 14

I used a Color Balance layer (Clipping Mask) to change color of the branches:

mist


Step 15

Add a Hue/Saturation layer to this one:

mist


Step 16

I made a Curves layer to darken the branches:

mist


Step 17

Isolate branches 2 and place it at the bottom right of the pic:

mist


Step 18

I used Hue/Saturation to reduce the saturation of the branches:

mist


Step 19

Add a Curves layer to darken the branches:

mist

On Curves layer mask use brush to reduce the dark on some leaves:

mist


Step 20

Use Inner Shadow effect to add yellow light to the branches:

mist

Here is result:

mist


Step 21

Apply Gassian Blur with 4 px for this layer:

mist


Step 22

Add branches 3 to the top right of the pic:

mist


Step 23

I used Color Balance for these branches:

mist


Step 24

Apply Inner Shadow effect for branches 3 layer:

mist

mist


Step 25

Apply Gassian Blur with 4 px for these branches:

mist


Step 26

Take the tower and place it at the center section of the pic:

mist

Go to Edit > Puppet Warp to edit the tower a little:

mist

Add layer mask to this layer and use brush to blend the bottom of the tower with the ground:

mist


Step 27

To add mist effect to the tower (we’ve placed it at a misty background), go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color:

mist

Lower opacity of this fill layer to 60%:

mist


Step 28

Use Curves to add some contrast to this tower:

mist

On Curves layer mask erase the left of the tower:

mist


Step 29

I used Hue/Saturation to change color of the tower. On Hue/Saturation layer mask erase the lower part of it:

mist


Step 30

Make a new layer, change the mode to Overlay 100% and fill with 50% gray:

mist

Take Dodge and Burn Tool with Midtones Range, Exposure about 10-15% to retouch light and shadow of the tower. You can see how I did it on layer mask and result on picture:

mist


Step 31

Make a Channel Mixer layer on the top:

mist

Use brush to erase the parts shown on layer mask below:

mist

mist


Step 32

Add a Gradient Map layer to the top of layers:

mist

Lower opacity of this Gradient Map layer to 20%:

mist


Step 33

Make a Photo Filter layer to add some green to the scene:

mist

Apply brush masking on Photo Filter layer mask:

mist

mist


Step 34

Create a new layer with same settings in step 30 but uncheck Clipping Mask option. Use Dodge Tool to make some stronger light for the grass ground and the mountain:

mist

mist


Step 35

I created a new layer on the top, use brush with color #3d1004 to paint on the top of the pic. Then I changed the mode to Linear Dodge mode 100% and used layer mask to remove this effect on the top leaves and ground:

mist

mist


Step 36

Make a new layer and I used brush with color #ef8f3a to paint on the top left of the pic (sun part). Set the mode to Linear Dodge 100%:

mist


Step 37

Add a Vibrance layer to enhance the colors and brightness of the pic:

mist

mist


Step 38

Final step: Make a new layer under the tower one. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click the tower thumbnail layer to load its selection:

mist

Fill this selection with black (Edit >Fill or Shift+F5). Flip this shadow vertically (Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical) and place it under the tower bottom. Use Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform this shadow as shown below:

mist

Lower opacity to 30% and apply Gassian Blur with 4 px for it:

mist

Add layer mask to this layer and erase the top and bottom of this shadow:

mist


And We’re Done!

I hope that you enjoyed the tutorial.

mist