In this lesson, I will show you the method I used to create a dramatic composition with a meteorite and a burning city.
Here is a preview of the final result:
(click on image to enlarge)
Necessary materials:
Step 1. Create a new document with the size of 1440×900 px, fill the background with black color. Load the Sky image into Photoshop and select the area as shown below:
Copy (CTRL + C) and paste (CTRL + V) selected area on the working document, adjust the size:
Add adjustment layers and apply a clipping mask to each (CTRL + ALT + G):
Blackwhite (Black and white)
Channel mixer (Channel mixer)
Curves (Curves)
Levels (Levels)
Erase the top of the sky and get the following result:
Step 2. Load a photo of the city in Photoshop, cut out the city, as shown below (use Quick selection tool (Quick selection)):
Paste the city on the working paper, adjust the size:
Add adjustment layers with clipping mask for the city layer (CTRL + ALT + G):
Blackwhite (Black and white)
Channel mixer (Channel mixer)
Levels (Levels)
Adjust layer mask for levels (Levels):
Use small soft eraser
(E) to erase part of the tall buildings, as shown below (this is necessary in order to further create the effect of a burning building):
Skyscraper 1
Skyscraper 2 and Skyscraper 3
We get the following result:
Step 3. I decided to use the sky image again to fill in the empty space at the top of the document. Copy (CTRL + C) and paste (CTRL + V) the sky on our working paper:
Decrease Opacity (Opacity) layer with the sky to about 50%:
Blackwhite (Black and white)
Channel mixer (Channel mixer)
Curves (Curves)
Result:
Step 4. Load an image with stones in Photoshop, select one stone – we will use it to create a meteorite:
Insert the stone on the working paper, increase the sharpness with Filter – Sharpen – Sharpen (Filter – Sharpness – Sharpness):
Wash the edges of the stone with soft eraser (E):
For convenience, I added layer mask for a stone, we combine a soft eraser and a grunge brush.
Apply layer styles to the stone:
Outer glow (External glow)
Inner glow (Internal glow)
And we get the following result:
Step 5. We are almost done. Let’s complete the image by adding some clouds around the meteorite. We distort / distort the clouds to get the tail of a meteorite (if you have problems with the formation of clouds, see this lesson
You can also add several small stones using the technique described above:
Now you can visualize the clouds using the filter Filter – Render – Clouds (Filter – Rendering – Visualization), or use brushes (adjust their size) to paint clouds / smoke behind (!) Skyscrapers:
Paint Particles with Dirt Brush:
Also add overlapping clouds on skyscrapers:
Add an adjustment layer Color balance (Color balance) above all previous layers:
Add layer mask for the adjustment layer to increase the image depth (we do not need the whole image to be red!):
After adding a correction layer, you should see that the smoke and clouds that we added earlier turned into fire:
Also the meteorite became bright red:
And here is the final result:
