PHOTOMANIPULATION
ADD THE FINAL FLOURISHES
USE ADJUSTMENTS AND CREATIVE EFFECTS TO BRING IT ALL TOGETHERQUICK TIP
When using adjustment layers, you will achieve
better results by stacking subtle effects, rather
than using a single adjustment at full strength.
Build up several adjustment layers to achieve the
exact effect you want – even of that means you
have ten Levels adjustments all at low opacity!14
ORGANISE LAYERS
If you haven’t already, now would be a good
time to start organising your layers into folders –
things are about to get busy. Select all five layers
associated with Building 2, then click the Folder icon
at the bottom of the palette. Name the resultant
folder, ‘Building 2 Folder’. The reason you should call
a folder ‘folder’ is so that you can easily distinguish it
from its contents when right-clicking the image, as
sometimes you will have many layers and folders,
and folders within folders. Organise the rest of the
layers accordingly, including a Buildings folder for all
your individual Buildings folders.15
CREATE HEIGHT
Keep adding buildings and structures
until the city looks suitably dense. Once you are
happy with the composition you can start working
at street level. The same principles apply here but
you will probably find Transforming in Warp Mode
useful to establish a layout that fits within the
curvature of the base. Add a layer mask to your
Buildings folder, then very subtly mask away
some of the tops of the tallest buildings – just
enough to give them a look of misty heights.16
MAKE ADJUSTMENTS
Create a new folder above Buildings, and
call it Adjustments. Create a Levels adjustment
layer, softly masked around the city, and use it to
increase the contrast slightly. Create a second
Levels layer and use it to increase the light levels,
then mask it so that it only applies to in and
around the top right of the dome.13
SEPARATE THE
BUILDINGS
Sometimes, in an illustration like
this, elements can get a bit lost
among those surrounding them.
If that happens to any of the
buildings, apply a bit of misting
behind its layer, to separate it
slightly. Select a brush like the
one used earlier and paint a
subtle dusting behind the
building. With the Brush tool
selected, pick a light colour from
the background, by holding down
Opt/Alt and clicking on a colour
you like. Again you can keep the
flow at around 1%.12
ADD MORE BUILDINGS
Repeat this process with more buildings
and structures. Play with Levels, Color Balance, and
Blur as you go, keeping each element within a
certain range but varied enough to appeal in an
illustrative sense. If a structure is looking too
colourful, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
and pull the Saturation slider to the left as you see fit.