Retouch Magic - Photo Manipulation and Retouching / Discuss

hegarty_david says:

Here is my first attempt at a Tutorial.
It is good to simulate a flooded city or building.
You will need these pictures.





1. Open up the main image.
2. Duplicate the background (ctrl+j).
3. Draw a marquee around the area which you want to be above the water line.
4. With the second layer selected add a layer mask. The bits below the marquee will be hidden.

5. Turn the second layer (reflection) upside down. (edit>transform>flip vertical)
6. Move the reflection down until the top of the layer meets its corresponding point on the background (hold shift to move it straight down)

7. Move in the water picture as the top layer.
8. Alt-click on the reflection layer mask (this will show you just the black and white mask).
9. Magic wand the white bit and Alt-click the mask again to exit.
10. Add a layer mask to the water using this selection.
edit : To duplicate the mask, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the mask to other layer. i only just found out that i could do this.

11. Set the water layer to Overlay at 75% (try different settings to get the look you want).

12. Merge the top two layers (hide the background and shift+ctrl+alt+E to make a merged copy).
13. Add the same layer mask to the top layer using steps 8,9,10
14. Hide the water and reflection layers (you won't need them again)
15. Using the smudge tool (20% hardness, strength=100%) on the layer mask you can play around with the straight top edge of the water.
16. The idea is to pull the dark water down a bit and leave the bright bits a bit higher to make waves. This also blurs the edge a bit too.
Don't over do it, just a bit will do.

17. Copy the top layer (ctrl+j) and apply a blue filter (image>adjustments>photo filter).
18. 15% deep blue should be enough to make the water less gray.

19. apply a Gaussian blur to the top layer.
20. darken the water (image>adjustments>brightness/contrast)

The end result.

I left the water really reflective but you can alter that to taste.
Originally posted at 4:49PM, 28 August 2007 PDT (permalink)
hegarty_david edited this topic 69 months ago.