Create Surreal Girl in Water Scene in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, I will show you the process of creating this Surreal Girl in Water Scene in Photoshop. A number of photo manipulation techniques such as layer blending, image adjustments, shape transform and filter effects.

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Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Ocean Stock

Model by Anikathropoloustock

Grunge Stock

Mountain Stock

Moon Stock

Step 1

Create a new document size 1600px * 1200px with black background. Use the Gradient Fill tool to fill the background layer with the following colours:

Copy and paste the ocean texture from the ocean stock image onto our document, re-size it to fit our canvas. Make sure you use a soft eraser to fade the top edge of the ocean stock:

Step 2

Apply the following adjustment layers as clipping masks for this ocean layer:

Black and White

Layer mask for this black and white adjustment layer:

Levels

Layer mask on this levels adjustment layer:

Curves

Layer mask for this curves adjustment layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 3

We will work on the model in this step. Load the model stock image into Photoshop and cut out the lady, re-size and paste it to the position shown below:

Apply the following adjustment layers as clipping masks to this model layer:

Black and White

Layer mask on this above black and white adjustment layer:

Levels

Layer mask on this above levels adjustment layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

We will add some rock texture on top of our canvas. Load the rock texture into Photoshop and select a piece from the stock:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document and rotate 180 degree:

Apply the following adjustment layers as clipping mask for this rock layer:

Black and White

Levels

Curves

Make sure you fade the bottom edge of the rock texture using a soft eraser:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 5

We can apply some grunge texture on top of all previous layers as overlay. Load the grunge stock image into Photoshop and select a portion of it:

Set the new layer’s blend mode to “Overlay”:

Use a cloud brush and particle brush to paint some particle effect behind the model:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 6

Load the Moon stock image into Photoshop and select the full moon, copy and paste it onto the position shown below:

Change the blending mode of this moon layer to “Hard Light”:

Apply the following Levels adjustment to this moon layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 7

We can further add some flying particles around the canvas. We can paint some particles using a particle brush:

Then apply the following Motion blur setting for this layer:

To add particle varieties, you can duplicate this layers a few times and use the free transform tool on each layer – adjust their angle and size.

Here is the effect so far:

Step 8

We’re almost done! To fine-tune the final effect, apply the following adjustment layers on top:

Selective Color

Vibrance

and here is my final effect: (click to enlarge)

That’s it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. Till next time, have a great day!