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Lately, it has become popular to manipulate photos to create intense surreal environments. This tutorial will show you some of the ways to create such environments.

Finished Example

Let’s take a look at a finished example of a surreal environment.

Step 1 – Selecting a Photo

After browsing some free stock photos at stock.xchng, I finally decided on a picture of a road surrounded by daisies.

• Road Image

Step 2 – Think of Some Concepts

Now that I have my photo, I need to think of what I want to add to make it surreal. Since it is a curved road, I thought some vibrant tubes of light would create a nice effect. Also, since there were so many daisies, I wanted to make them appear to glow. I also wanted to add some more excitement into the empty sky.

Since I’m going to want some bright daisies and some glowing tubes of light, I’ll keep in mind that I may want to darken all the other parts of the photo.

Step 3 – Fixing the Background

I don’t like the tractor marks in the left field of daisies, so I’m going to use my Clone Stamp Tool to clear them away. I’ll do the same for the tracks in the upper field too.

Step 4 – Adding the First Beam

Create a path that winds up the road using the pen tool. Make sure that it extends below the actual document some, so that the end isn’t rounded. Select a 19px hard brush and set the Size Jitter Control to Fade, and give it a value around 400 or 500. Then, set the Minimum Diameter to 10%.

With your pen tool selected, right click and select Stroke Path. Select Brush from the drop down menu and make sure Simulate Pressure IS checked.

Step 5 – Adding Layer Styles

Go into your layers Blending Options (Right Click Layer > Blending Options).

Apply the layer effects shown below, making any modifications as needed.

Outer Glow

This will create a glow off of the tube of light. I used #ff0000.

Inner Glow

This will create a lighter color starting from the center of the tube. I used #f75151.

Satin

This will help to structure the shape of the tube.

Color Overlay

This will replace the color of the tube with red. I used #ff0000.

Step 6 – Add a Unique Glow

Our red tube is looking a little boring and not very vibrant. SO LETS BRIGHTEN IT UP!

Duplicate your red tube (Right Click Layer > Duplicate Layer). Then, convert it into a Smart Object (Right Click Layer > Convert to Smart Object), so that we can easily apply and remove filters.

Now, lets apply the following filters:

Reticulation (Filter > Sketch > Reticulation)

Make sure you have black as your foreground color and white as your background color.

Chalk and Charcoal (Filter > Sketch > Chalk & Charcoal)

Make sure you have black as your foreground color and white as your background color.

Plastic Wrap (Filter > Artistic > Plastic Wrap)

Finally, set the layer to Color Dodge and set the Opacity to 44%.

Step 7 – Intensify the Glow

Create a new layer and make a selection of your red tube (Ctrl+Click Thumbnail). Set white as your foreground color and set a dark red color like #7c0707 as your background color.

Go to Filter > Render > Clouds. Then, go to Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. By pressing Ctrl+F, you can now keep applying the previous filter you applied. So press Ctrl+F a few more times to apply Difference Clouds until you end up with a result you like (be sure it is red and white). Now, set the layer to Linear Dodge and lower the opacity until you get an effect you are happy with.

Step 8 – Adding Sparkles

Grab a 3px brush and apply the following brush settings.

Then, on a new layer, brush some white sparkles all down the red tube. Then do the same thing with a nice red color. After, lower the opacity of the layer to 40-50%.

Step 9 – Adding More Colors

Repeat the process with some more colors, and use layer masks to make them twist above and below each other. If you place all the layers for the green tube, for instance, into a new group, then you can create a layer mask on the group, and it will apply it to all of the green tube layers!

Step 10 – Filling the Sky

In order to create the effect in the sky, we need to create our own brush.

Create a new document that is 50×50px. Create a new layer and delete the background layer, since we want the background to be transparent. Then, create a rectangle that is 10px wide by 40px high. Then, duplicate it and rotate it 90 degrees (Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 degrees). Once you’ve got your shape, go to Edit > Define Brush Preset.

You can close the new document now that you have your brush. Select your brush, and set your foreground color to #335776 and your background color to #6084a5. Then apply the following brush settings:

Brush Tip Shape

Shape Dynamics

Scattering

Color Dynamics

Other Dynamics

Add a layer mask to the layer after you brush in some plus signs. This way there is a transition from the full sky to the empty sky, and will be easier on the eyes.

Step 11 – The Darkening

This image looks pretty decent as it is, but its going to look even better when the background items are darkened. This way, the lights will have more attention and focus in the scene.

Create a new layer above your background. Fill it with black and set it to Overlay. By creating a layer mask and hiding the area of the layer over the daisies, we can make them appear to glow.

Get Creative

Even after you achieve a great effect, spend some time trying to improve it. It is rare to achieve the greatest outcome possible in one try. You may even want to start over from scratch, keeping in mind what you liked from before and what you want to change or include!