Quick Photoshop Secrets 15: Paint a Beautiful Sunset/Sunrise

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QrNtJHHuFI#stepSize=+2

Quick Photoshop Secrets 15: Paint a Beautiful Sunset/Sunrise

Carrying from our last tutorial on Light Bleeding, we look at another technique that will help paint a beautiful sunset/sunrise crating a more impactful image in Photoshop. We are literally painting colours into the sky. We do this on a new layer, with its Blend Mode set to Multiply and then paint a colour that roughly matches the existing golden hour colour.

This technique works best when there already is some colour in the sky, and some cloud textures to work with.


Paint a Beautiful Sunset/Sunrise Step by Step Guide

1. Add a new layer.

add new layer

 

2. Select the Paint Brush tool.

photoshop brush tool

 

3. Set the brush opacity to 100%.

Photoshop Brush Opacity

 

4. Change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

Multiply Blend Mode

 

5. Select the foreground colour using the dropper tool.

photoshop colour dropper

 

6. Paint in the desired colour.

paint in photoshop

 

7. Add a layer Mask.

add a layer mask

 

8. Disable the visibility of the top layer.

hide layer

 

9. With the top layer selected, go to Image>Apply Image.

Apply image in photoshop

 

10. Ensure your settings are the same as ours and click OK.

making a layer mask

 

11. The image will be applied to the mask. Enable the layer visibility.

show layer

 

12. Reduce the layer opacity to give a more natural tone.

reduce layer opacity

 

13. Reduce the brush opacity to 50% and paint in highlighted areas to bring balance. In our case the reflection of the sky.

50% brush opacity

 

14. If the colour is not quite right, open a new Hue/Saturation layer.

Hue/Saturation layer

 

15. Create a clipping mask so the Hue/Saturation layer only affects the layer directly below.

create clipping mask

 

16. Slide the Hue slider to change the colour tone to where you feel is best for your composition.

change colour hue

 

Paint a Beautiful Sunset/Sunrise

Paint a Beautiful Sunset/Sunrise


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Follow our Photoshop Secrets series of tutorials.

There are of course various ways to add colour to skies. Here is an alternative method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LONKqAgWUs

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Quick Photoshop Secrets 15: Paint a Beautiful Sunset/Sunrise
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