In this tutorial, I will show you the tricks that I use to create this fantastic style, a beautiful marginalized desert city with an excellent energy beam erupting from the sky in Photoshop’e.
During the lesson, we will use the styles of the layer blending technique, and I will show you how to blend the images together efficiently and efficiently. We will also apply the skills of cutting, applying filters and various traditional brush settings.
This is a very useful lesson, try it!
Here is a preview of the final effect of this lesson:
Alternative version
So let’s get started!
To complete this tutorial, you will need the following sources:
Archive
Step 1. Create a new document with a size of 1280x800px, set the background color to white. Download the source from the desert, copy and paste it into our document as shown below:
Name the new layer “Desert”, add a layer mask to it 
(add a layer mask). On the layer mask, use the fog brushes that we recently downloaded (any brush from this source), erase the upper part of the image, as shown below:
So we gave a nice foggy effect to the image and prepared for easier work in the future:
Now duplicate this “Desert” layer once and apply to the duplicated layer. filter> blur> gaussian blur (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur), setting the following settings:
Change blending mode for duplicate layer on “Screen” (Lightening) and reduce the level opacity up to 70%, you will have the following effect:
Now we have a very cute, dusty and foggy desert with a lot of space for the development of our image.
Step 2. To correct the color balance and contrast of the desert, I added the following three adjustment layers above the first two layers (bottom to top):
Color Balance
Curves (Curves)
Levels
And we have the following effect:
Step 3. It seems to me that one desert looks a bit dull, so I decided to add some object to it to give some depth to the image. Let’s load the foggy rocks into Photoshop, copy and paste them into our document, name this new layer “rock” (rock), apply the following mask to this layer:
Change blending mode this layer on “Hard light”, you will have the following:
Add a Black and White (Black and White)adjustment layer above the rock layer, make sure the box is checked “Use previous layer as clipping mask” (use initial layer as clipping mask):
Then duplicate the “rock” layer once and place it up, change blending option duplicate layer on “Overlay”, You should have the following effect at the moment:
Step 4. Load the image with the sunset into Photoshop, copy and paste it into our document, name the resulting new layer “sky” (sky), change its size and position as shown below:
Add a layer mask to the sky layer, use a soft round brush on it to gently erase the bottom of the sky layer, as shown below:
and you will have the following effect:
Add the following two adjustment layers (adjustment layers) make sure the box is checked “Use previous layer as clipping mask” (use initial layer as clipping mask):
Color Balance
Curves (Curves)
Then duplicate the original layer with the sky and place it at the very top. Apply the following filter settings to the first duplicated layer. motion blur):
After applying the filter motion blur), duplicate this layer and change the duplicate blending mode on “Hard light”, you will have the following effect:
Now you see that we have a very beautiful sky above the desert, which gives the image more energy.
Step 5. Load the border city into Photoshop, cut our town with any selection tool you like, copy and paste the selected object into our document, name it “city”, use a large soft brush to erase the surroundings and leave only the city center as shown below:
Duplicate this layer twice, change blending mode for the first duplicate on “Soft light”, and leave the second with the normal mode, but with a reduced opacity (transparency) up to 45%.
You will have the following effect:
Step 6. We approached the creation of an energy explosion. First we need to create a background glow for the explosion. To do this, create a new layer, call it “highlight” (glow), and use a soft white round brush. Carefully guide her over the center of the image.
Make sure the blending mode of this layer is set to “Hard Light ” with opacity (transparency) about 35%:
Now above this layer create a new layer called “laser” (laser), take the tool Rectangular marquee tool 
(Rectangular selection area) with feather (shading) 10 px, create a selection and fill it with white, as shown below:
Apply the following blending option to this layer:
Outer glow (external glow)
Inner glow (Inner glow)
And now you have the following effect:
Step 7. Create a new layer above the others and name it “Sparkle”, set it blending mode on “Overlay” (overlap). Download the star brushes we downloaded and paint them around the laser line to create a sparkling effect:
Duplicate its “Sparkle” layer once and apply the following filter settings to it. Radial Blur:
Name this layer “Radial” (radial) and set it to blending mode on “Overlay” (overlap). Duplicate twice, you get the following effect:
Then duplicate these three layers together once, using the tool Free Transform Tool, to place them on the left side, as shown below:
Step 8. Now we need to work on the upper part (sky) of the laser energy beam. Create a new layer and name it “sky highlight” (heavenly glow) and again use a soft white brush to paint the upper part of the sky in the center, set blending mode on “Overlay” and opacity about 40%:
Then create a new layer above all layers and name it “light top” (top glow), fill the layer with black and go to the menu Filter> Render> Lens Flare (Filter> Rendering> Glare) and apply the following settings:
Change blending mode on “screen “(clarification), Use a soft brush to erase all areas outside the center, as shown below:
Duplicate this layer once and move it to the bottom of the city, change blending mode on “Overlay” you will have the following effect:
Step 9. Now we can add a lightning effect to the top for a further effect. Load the lightning image into Photoshop, copy and paste the image into our document, and use a soft brush to erase eye-catching areas of the image.
Change blending mode on “screen “(clarification), and you will have the following effect:
Duplicate this layer once and using the tool free transform (Ctrl + T), Place a duplicate as shown below:
To further adjust the image, we can add the following adjustment layers:
Curves (Curves)
Color Balance:
Here is the final effect for this lesson:
This is all for this lesson! Of course, you can further improve the image effect by mixing light effects, changing settings hue / saturation (hue / saturation) etc.
Here is the alternative version I have achieved by changing some things:
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
