12
REFLECT YOUR IMAGE
Return to the original image and place all of
the layers except for the bottom one in a layer group.
Duplicate this new layer group followed by Merge
Group so that you’re left with a single layer that has
all of the elements in the image flattened on that
layer. Using the Transform tool, reflect the image
vertically and align the base of the mountain range
on the reflected image to the underside of the
horizon and scale vertically to suit.13
APPLY YOUR DISPLACEMENT MAP
Make a rectangular selection of the water
area and with a soft brush around 60 pixels in
diameter, brush a dark purple haze along the
shoreline of the water. With the selection still active,
apply Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. Set the Angle to 90 ̊
and the Distance to 70 pixels. Next, go to Filter>
Distort/Displace and set the Horizontal Value to 50
and the vertical value to 100 using the new image
you created as your displacement map. Select
Stretch to Fit and Repeat Edge Pixels checked in the
Displace settings.09
DISPLACEMENT MAP CREATION
The first step to creating the illusion of reflecting rippled water is to create a
displacement map. Displacement maps work by moving pixels based on the shades of
grey contained within the Red and Green channels of a PSD image. The closer to white, the
greater the adjustment. Create a new Photoshop document the same size as the water
area of your image.10
DISTORT THE DISPLACEMENT MAP
To help replicate the angle of the water and perspective of the
image, you need to distort the displacement map so that the ripples at
the bottom of the image are much larger than those at the top of the
image. In the Layers palette, Edit>Transform>Perspective of the image
and drag the bottom corners across until the perspective matches.11
QUICK MASK LINEAR FADING
Select the Red channel. Create a Quick Mask and draw a white
to black linear gradient vertically across the image. Make a selection
from the mask and fill with a medium grey. Go to the Green channel
and repeat but add the gradient just at the tip of the image. Make a
selection from this and fill with grey also.BASE YOUR SETTINGS ON THE SCENE
The settings and values are very much relative to
the size of your document, so if you’re using this
as a guide for your own work please keep in
mind that this is based on a document that is
roughly A4 at 300dpi. If your size and resolution
is higher than this, then many of these values will
need to be too. Keep in mind also that for best
results, the displacement map needs to be an
appropriate size and resolution for your image.
For this type of perspective-based distortion, the
horizontal scale value should be roughly 50% of
the vertical value.WATER TIME DISPLACING PIXELS
001 Apply a noise textureSelect Filter>Noise>Add Noise
(Gaussian) at 400%. Follow this with a Gaussian Blur of 2px002 Red ChannelIn the Red Channel, add an Emboss
FILTERďANDďSETďTHEď!NGLEďTOďĜ ďHeight to 1px and Amount to 500%002 Green ChannelIn the Green Channel, do as above
BUTďTHISďTIMEďSETďTHEď!NGLEďTOďĜďAll other values are identical(^001002)
003
CREATE ADVANCED TYPE