Author: James Qu

James is a seasoned Photoshop expert with over 25 years of experience based in Australia. As the driving force behind PSD Vault, he authors the majority of its in-depth tutorials and insightful articles.

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to design this cool-looking, urban city photo-montage in Photoshop. You will learn how to combine several stock images together to achieve surreal photo effect.

This tutorial involves techniques such as layer blending options, image adjustments, tranformation techniques, filter effects and lighting effect rendering. The tutorial itself is quite simple but the end result looks good in my opinion, have a go!

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Welcome to the second volume of “Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group”, which is a showcase I run fortnightly on psdvault.com featuring some fantanstic, highly-creative design works in the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

Hope you enjoy those works as much as I did and find them inspirational! Meanwhile, if you have some cool designs and would like to share them here, you can simply join the PSD Vault Flickr group.

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In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to transform a daylight city image into a epic warzone scene in Photoshop. The inspiration of this tutorial came from a random war image I came across while reading a magazine.

Together, we will explore a variety of Photoshop techniques such as image adjustment option, a number of filter effect and some basic selection skills. This is an intermediate tutorial and some steps could be a bit tricky, but why not just have a go? ;)

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In this tutorial, I will demonstrate the processes I used to design this snowy rock text effect in Photoshop. The inspiration of this design came from a snowy mountain photo I saw the other day, and I thought I could create a similar text effect which might look interesting!

Along the way, we will use various layer blending options and selection techniques, plus filter effects and brush dynamics. It’s a simple tutorial suitable for Photoshop beginners. Have a try :)

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Welcome to Creativity Fine-Tuning: Best of PSD Vault Flickr Group Vol. 1! As I mentioned previously in my previous post, this showcase will be a ongoing series which I will run once every Fortnightly here on PSD Vault. For each post in this series, I will hand-pick some wonderful designs from the PSD Vault Flickr Group.

I hope they will help fine-tuning your creativity and inspire you along the way. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did :)

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In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to transform an average daylight photo into a realistic lightning storm scene in photoshop.

Along the way, we will take about interesting ways of darken your image and reduce noise non-destructively, and also a simple way of rendering rain effect andmaking. water splashes. It’s a simple tutorial however the effect looks good. Have a try :)

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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create a realistic nebula scene from scratch in Photoshop. We will be using techniques such as the Pen Tool, various filters for texture rendering, layer blending and some dynamic brushes.

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy new year and all the best for 2009! Thanks very much for visiting my blog and hope to see you again next year!

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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to transform an ordinary mountain image into a realistic volcano eruption scene with lava effect in Photoshop.

The technique I used in this tutorial includes various image adjustment tools, a number of filters, layer blending options and some basic selection skills. This is a very simple tutorial with just 4 steps, however you will be amazed with the end result. Have a try :)

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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really cool, abstract style shattered text effect with Broken Glass Texture in Photoshop.

Together, we will explore various layer blending options, image adjustment and some basic selection techniques. I also included a nice link containing a list of “Clean Font” which you might find useful for your design project. It’s an easy tutorial, have a go :)

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In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to transform an avarage day photo into a really nice golden sunset scene in Photoshop. This tutorial is inspired by this magnificant work from the Ubisoft game Fry Cry 2.

Together we will explore techniques such as layer blending, image adjustments, non-destructive photo editing, use of pen tool and various image filters. It’s an easy tutorial, have a go!

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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to create this really cool, abstract-style fragmented text effect by applying scrap texture in Photoshop. Sometimes, those scrappy wastes do have their uses :)

Along the way, we will be using some basic selection techniques, image adjustments, layer blending options, and dynamic lighting rendering. It’s a very simple tutorial however the result is good. Have a try!

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In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I took to draw a realistic planet by applying waterstream texture in Photoshop. I’m sure you have seen heaps of planet drawing tutorials around, but you can still use this tutorial as a supplement to others :)

Along the way, we will be going through the use gradient tool, clipping mask, image adjustment tools, various filters and some selection techniques.

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In this tutorial, I will show you how you can apply dynamic colour and lighting effect to highlight your images and give them a shining and metallic effect in Photoshop.

By following this tutorial, you will gain further understanding into image adjustment tools, layer blending modes and various filters. Have a go, it’s simple :)

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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to transform a cloud image into an explosion scene in Photoshop. I was having a play with some cloud photos I took the other day and discovered this effect by accident :)

This effect is easily achieve through some simple layer blendings and image adjustments. Other techniques include selection tool, various filters and free transformation tools.

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In this tutorial, I will show the processes involved in making this shining and refreshing transparent text effect with sky and cloud textures. We had some really interesting clouds on the sky yesterday and that’s where I’ve got the inspiration from :)

The techniques included in this tutorial are layer styles, gradient fills, clone stamp tools, blur filters and various image adjustment and transformation tools. It’s a simple tutorial so have a go!

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In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to make a grassy and flowery soft drink can in Photoshop. I know it sounds weird but I actually found the inspiration from seeing a soft drink can lying on the lawn in my backyard!

Together we will be exploring various layer blending methods, image adjustment tools and methods of adding colour depth. Have a go!

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