Hi. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
I'm going to show you how to create a surrealistic landscape of a gigantic glass ball hovering
many feet over the landscape's ground.
For your convenience, I provided this image, so you can follow along.
Its link is in my video's description or project files.
If you'd prefer to use your own photo instead, go to Image and Image Size
and make its width and height approximately this much and its resolution 150 pixels per inch.
This will ensure that the filter amounts we'll be using will have similar results on your image as mine.
Let's find the exact center of our document by going to View.
Make sure "Rulers" and "Snap" are checked.
If they aren't just click them to make them active.
Go to the top ruler and drag down a guideline to the center.
It'll snap in place because we have "Snap" checked.
If you don't see the guideline, press Ctrl or Cmd + H. Go to the ruler on the left and
again, drag the guideline to the center.
We'll create the orb by first cutting a square from the center of the landscape.
Open your "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and go to the center of the guidelines.
Click and hold as you press Alt or Option + Shift and drag out a square selection to the edges.
Press Ctrl or Cmd + J to cut and copy the square to its own layer.
Click the icon at the upper, right of the Layers panel and click "Duplicate Layer".
This will create a separate document of the square image.
We'll trim the document to the image.
Go to Image and Trim.
Tick "Transparent Pixels" and make sure all the boxes under "Trim Away" are checked.
Go to Filter, Distort and "Spherize".
Make the Amount: 100%.
Repeat the last filter by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F on Windows or Cmd + Option + F on
a Mac or go to Filter and Spherize.
If you'd like to spherize it even more, repeat the step.
We'll cut the orb out by opening your "Elliptical Marquee Tool" and going to a corner.
Press and hold Shift as you drag the tool to the opposite corner.
Pressing Shift, ensured that the selection is a perfect circle.
To ensure that the selection is inside the perimeter of the orb, go to Select, Modify and Contract.
Contract it 2 pixels.
Then, cut and copy it to its own layer.
To place the orb onto our landscape, press "v" on your keyboard to open your Move Tool
and drag it onto the tab of the landscape.
Without releasing your mouse or pen, press and hold Shift as you drag it down and release.
Pressing Shift kept the orb centered over the landscape.
To resize the orb, open your Transform Tool by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + T.
Go to a corner and when you see a diagonal, double-arrow, press and hold Alt or Option + Shift as you
drag it in approximately this much.
If your version of Photoshop is CC 2019 or later, press and hold Alt or Option as you drag it in.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To raise or lower it, press and hold the Shift key as you press the Up or Down arrow on your keyboard.
Pressing Shift jumps the orb 10 pixels at a time, instead of just 1 pixel.
Hide the guidelines by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H.
We can also trash the square.
Make it active and press the Delete key on your keyboard or drag it to the Trash icon.
Check your foreground and background colors.
If they’re not black and white respectively, press “D” on your keyboard.
Double-click the orb to open its Layer Style window.
Click "Inner Glow".
If the box isn't white, click it and when the Color Picker opens, pick white.
The Blend Mode is Overlay and the Opacity is 100%.
The Source is "Edge", the Choke is 0% and the Size is 70 pixels.
Let's collapse the glow effect to save a little space in the Layers panel.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the orb to make a selection of its circular shape.
Click the layer mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
Notice as soon as you made the layer mask, our foreground and background colors inverted.
This is normal, however, since we'll be brushing black into our layer mask, we need to make
our foreground color black.
Click this icon to invert the colors or press "x" on your keyboard.
Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
Pick a soft, round brush.
We'll adjust the size in a moment.
Make the Hardness 0% and the Opacity and Flow 100%.
Then, press Enter or Return.
To adjust the size of your brush, make sure your CapsLock key is off and press the left
or right bracket key on your keyboard.
The size of my brush is 700 pixels.
Make sure the layer mask is active and place your cursor approximately here on the orb.
Click once.
Click the Adjustment Layer icon and click "Black & White".
Adjustment Layers affect all the layers below them in the Layers panel.
If we want it to affect just the one layer beneath it, click the Clipping Mask icon
or press Alt + Ctrl + G in Windows or Option + Cmd + G on a Mac.
You can also go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
Open the Preset list and click, Maximum Black".
Make the opacity 30%.
Click the Adjustment layer icon again and this time, click "Curves".
Then, clip it to the orb.
If you don't see the entire Curves panel, drag the window down.
The Curves panel represents the image's tonal range.
The upper-right area of the graph is the highlights, the lower-left area is the shadows and the
middle area is the midtones.
Go to the middle point and drag the line down and to the right approximately this much.
Place your brush over the sky, reduce its size and brush tightly over the area to mask
out that area, thereby brightening it.
I'll make more room in the Layers panel by dragging the Curves panel back up.
Click the New Layer icon to make a new layer.
Name it, "Highlight" and change its Blend Mode to "Overlay".
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the orb to make a selection of its shape
and click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask of the selection.
Make the layer active again.
Invert your foreground and background colors, so white is your foreground color.
With your Brush Tool still active, make its size 500 pixels and click once approximately here.
Make a new layer and name it, "Shadow reflection".
Change its Blend Mode to "Soft Light" and decrease its opacity to 80%.
Make a new layer and name it "“Highlight”.
Change its blend mode to “Overlay” and reduce its opacity to 80%, as well.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the layer mask to make a selection of it.
Go to Select and "Transform Selection".
At the top, make sure the chain-link icon is active and in either the Width or the Height, type in 87%.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Hide the selection by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + H twice.
With your brush's size at 500 pixels, click once approximately here.
Make the "Shadow Reflection" active and invert your colors.
Gently brush over the lower, right of the orb.
Make the top layer active and make a new layer above it.
Ctrl-click or Cmd-click the layer mask to make a selection of its shape and fill the
selection with any color.
I'll fill it with my background color.
Then, deselect it.
Decrease the Fill to 0%.
Doing this make the layer invisible, but it'll retain the full visibility of any layer styles
that we add to it.
Double-click the layer to open its Layer Styles window.
Click "Inner Glow" and make sure the box is white.
The Blend Mode is Overlay, the Opacity: 60% and the Size: 80 pixels.
Scroll to the bottom of the Layers panel and make a selection of the orb.
Click the background to make it active and make a new layer above it.
Name it, "Shadow".
Go to Select and "Transform Selection".
Click off the chain-link button.
This unlinks the Width and the Height of the Transform.
For the height, type in 8%.
Go inside the Transform's bounding box and press and hold the Shift key as you drag the
selection down below the orb.
Holding Shift kept it vertical as you dragged it down.
Then, press Enter or Return.
Go to Select, Modify and Feather.
Feather it 20 pixels and fill it with black.
Then, deselect it.
Reduce its opacity to 60%.
This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV.
Thanks for watching!