07
FLYING CARS
The flying cars in this image are very
simple. Because they will have so many lighting
effects added to them, they don’t have to be super
detailed. You can create the basic shape and
colours with the Brush tool and then use the
Smudge tool to blend them together. Be sure to
put light colours anywhere a lighting effect will be
added. You can duplicate the layer when you are
done and change the scale to create multiple cars
by hitting Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform. Be sure to hold
Shift while you drag a corner in or out to keep the
dimensions the same.06
ATMOSPHERE
A good way to give a composite like this
one some depth is to create some atmosphere. To
do this, establish a foreground, midground and
background. You can use an image of fog on a black
background to create the atmosphere. Be sure to
change the blending mode to Screen. You can
adjust how thick the fog is by using a Levels
adjustment layer. Make sure the adjustment layer is
clipped only to the fog layer so it doesn’t affect the
rest of the image. Place varying amounts of fog in
the foreground, midground and background for a
more realistic look.QUICK TIP
Make sure you save your project often. This will keep you from losing hours of valuable time on a project.
If you get to a point where you want to try something that may or may not work, save your document first.
Then click File>Save As and name it something else. This way you aren’t working on the original file and
can always go back to it later.08
LIGHTING EFFECTS AND NEON
Adding lighting effects not only enhances
the image but also helps blend all the elements
together. Photoshop has built-in flare effects and
there are also third-party plug-ins. For the neons,
make your lines with a white hard brush and then go
to Layer>Layer Style>Blending Options. Select outer
glow and inner glow. Set the blending mode of both
to Screen and adjust the size and spread as needed.
Also choose a rounded contour. Clip a Hue/
Saturation layer to your neon layer to change the
colour of the neon. Select Colorize and use the Hue
and Saturation sliders to get your desired colour.09
COLOUR GRADING
Add a Color Balance adjustment layer. The colour balance adjustments will vary
from image to image, so play around with them to get the look you want. For this image,
the shadows and midtones were pushed towards the cyan and green tones to create teal,
while the highlights were pushed towards the red and yellow tones to create orangey
yellow. Sometimes, using a Color Balance adjustment on top of another Color Balance
adjustment can give you different looks. Just don’t push it too far or you will risk losing
details in your image.10
ADD GRAIN FOR BLENDING
Lastly, add grain. Create a new layer above your sharpened
image. Hold down Shift and hit Delete. Choose ‘Fill with 50% gray’.
Change the blending mode of this layer to Soft Light. Next, select
Filter>Noise>Add Noise. The size of your image will determine the
Amount you use. Choose Uniform and leave Monochromatic
unselected. Once you apply, hold down Cmd/Ctrl+U, then pull down the
Saturation to -85%. Leaving a little colour in the grain will make it look
more natural. Be sure to do this step at 100% zoom. You can adjust the
Opacity if it feels like it’s too much. Save your PSD.CREATE SCIFI CITYSCAPES