Do you like fishing? I do but I would not want to be the fisherman in the scene we will create in this tutorial! Get ready for some quick introductions to some of the most important topics in Photoshop (Layer Masks, clipping layers, smart objects, etc)! I will also guide you step by step through this tutorial and hoppefully you will achieve  Photoshop enlightment by the end of this tutorial!

What you’ll be creating

In this tutorial we will create a fantasy underwater scene in Photoshop. You will need Photoshop CS3 or newer in order to follow this tutorial.

final-result

Tutorial Resources

Step 1

Create a new file 1500 x 1895 pixels.

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Step 2

In this step we will open another image file and we will do a copy paste to our document. In order to copy you either make a selection with a selection tool (Marquee tool, Pen Tool, etc. ) or you copy all (Ctrl + A). Pasting is done by pressing Ctrl + V. Once you have pasted the selection into our document you should convert it to a Smart Object  (right-click the layer you want to convert and choose “Convert To Smart Object”) so you won’t lose any pixel data when you do resizes or apply filters. Next you will probably need to resize and move the pasted layer. You can do that by pressing Ctrl + T to enter Free Transform and holding shift while resizing. You should follow these guidelines for every copy paste you will do in this tutorial (and for your own projects too because it is good practice).

Alright, now open the image “Underwater”, copy all, paste in our document and resize as shown below (and don’t forget to convert this  layer and all future pasted layers to a Smart Object).

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Step 3

Open the image “Nebula”, select all and copy/paste into our document. Resize like shown below and change the blending mode to Overlay.

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Step 4

A quick word about layer masks because we will be using them extensively in this tutorial. If you paint with black in a layer mask you will hide that portion of the layer. If you paint with white you will reveal it. You can also use gradients in a layer mask. In order to add a layer mask to a layer you can either click on the Layer Mask button (a square with a circle in the middle, third one from the left)on the bottom of the Layer panel (press F7 to open the layer panel) or you can do this from the menu (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All). So from now on when I’ll say to hide something in the layer mask this means that you should first create a layer mask if it’s not there already and then with paint with black over the indicated area. If you paint with 50% Opacity you will partially hide/reveal  the layer (it will show through). Give it a spin and get accustomed to the layer mask because you will need them for this tutorial and your personal projects.

Hide the lower part of the nebula in the layer mask so that only that stars are visible (you can use the Gradient Tool – G key).

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Step 5

You can import brushes by either double clicking on them in the Explorer or go to Edit > Preset Manager and press the Load Button.

Import the Birds brush. Create a new layer (Ctrl + Alt + N) and create some black birds. Lower the opacity of the layer to 46%.

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Step 6

Open the image “Moon”. Using the Elliptical Marquee Tool create a selection of the moon. Copy/paste into our document and resize as shown below. Lower the opacity to 22% and in the layer mask hide the bottom part of the moon until it looks like the moon is rising from the water.

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Step 7

Open the image “Underwater2” and copy all. Paste into our document place it as shown below.

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Step 8

In the layer mask hide the upper part (hide everything where it overlaps the sky) of the underwater layer you just pasted (with a brush or a gradient).

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Step 9

Create a new layer and change the blending mode to Overlay. Paint a white line between the surface water and the underwater. Lower the opacity to 33%.

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Step 10

Open the image “Fish1”. Select all and copy/paste in our document. Resize the fish and place him underwater. Lower the Opacity to 49%.

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Step 11

Now let’s create the island the squid. Open the image “Squid”. Select all and copy/paste in our document. Place the squid as indicated below.

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Step 12

In the layer mask partially hide the squid portions that are underwater (in the layer mask use a black brush at 40-50% Opacity).

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Step 13

A quick word about clipping layers because we will use them a bit in our tutorial. You can Alt-click between two layers in order to clip the upper layer to the lower. Clipping a layer to another means that the upper layer will be visible only through the pixels of the lower layer.  If you want to clip multiple layers simply keep Alt-clicking between all the upper layers you want clipped and they will all show through the lower layer. Clipping layers is especially useful for adjustment layers because we can limit the adjustment to a certain layer without affecting the rest of the document.

Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer (fourth button from the right on the bottom of the layer panel or Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation  – or any other adjustment layer). Change the hue and the saturation as shown below and clip the adjustment layer to the squid.

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Step 14

Create another Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer and drag the saturation slider to 25. Clip it to the squid layer and fill the layer mask with black (press D to set default colors, click on the layer mask and press Ctrl + Backspace) and paint with a soft white brush at 80% opacity to gradually reveal the saturation effect on the underwater part of the squid.

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