Photoshop Lake Scene

For the background of my collage I found a photo of a cloudless sky of an emerald colour. Using the crop tool I cut out the bottom half and then doubled the size of my canvas. I duplicated the layer and reflected it symmetrically. I then adjusted the "colour balance" of the sky layer to make it purple and blue. After merging the layers down, I increased the contrast. To improve the quality of the sky and blur the reflection off the water, I duplicated a layer off the background and applied a "gaussian blur" to it. I then lowered the opacity of this layer to 50%. Using the erasertool, I erased the layer in places which covered the trees in the top half, to return them to clearness. On a new layer I inserted a picture of a planet and placed it just above the trees. I changed this layer to the style of "screen"so that the background of the planet became transparent. To clarify the part of the planet on which light falls, I used the "dodge tool." Then, with a usual brush, changing the size from 1 up to 3 pixels, I drew stars. I made a duplicate of the layer, set it to an opacity of 50%, and applied a "gaussian blur" to create an effect of luminescence among the stars and planet. I then inserted a picture of clouds on a new layer and set it to fit over the bottom half of the canvas. I then changed the layer style to "overlay" and adjusted the opacity. I used the same actions for the top half only using a less cloudy texture to create an interesting effect. After changing the fill of the two cloud layers to 50%, I adjusted the brightness/contrast. To create a reflection of the planet in the water I duplicated its layer and reflected in vertically. Using the smudge and dodge tool and altering the opacity I created a realistic looking reflection.

Resources:

Background

Sky1

Sky2

Planet