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Beach Scene
by Matt Kloskowski
ExtremePhotoshop.com

This time we're going to look at some realistic scenery effects. With summer coming the beach
was on my mind (actually I'll rub it in for you cold weather people... We live in Florida so the
beach is always on our minds). Oh well, you have snow and skiing which kind of makes me
jealous but I'll survive with the sun for now. Anyway, back to the tutorial at hand. While more
cartoonish than photo-realistic I think this style is very sharp and fun to work with.

Step 1: First create a new 500 pixel by 500 pixel canvas. Then create a new layer on top of the
background for our sand. Create a selection with the lasso tool or the pen that is similar to mine.

Step 2: Now make your foreground color R:242 G:240 B:187 and your background color R:203
G:198 B:154. Select the gradient tool and make sure you have the linear gradient type selected.
Select the foreground to background option. Drag a gradient out in the direction that I have
shown here.
Step 3: Next, create a layer below the sand. This will be our sky.

Step 4: Make your foreground color R:176 G:241 B:255 and your background color R:0 G:186
B:255. Select the linear gradient tool again and drag a gradient similar to what I have here.
Again, make sure foreground to background is selected as the gradient type.

Step 5: Now create a new layer ABOVE the sky layer but BELOW the sand layer. Create a
selection similar to this one. This will be our ocean.

Step 6: Make your foreground color R:0 G:168 B:255 and your background color R:125 G:221
B:255. Once again, select the linear gradient tool and create another gradient for the water.
Step 7: It should be looking good so far and you could probably leave it alone. The water looked
a little plane to me so I wanted to add a little realism. Create a new layer on top of the water
layer. Ctrl + click on the water layer to get its selection active and fill it on the new layer with
black. You shouldn't be able to see the water for now.

Step 8: Now go to Filter->Noise->Add Noise. Use these settings to add some noise. (Amount:
34%, Gaussian, and Monochromatic checked) Then go to Filter->Blur->Motion Blur. Set the angle
at 0 and 18 for the distance. Finally, to finish the highlights set the layer blend mode to screen
to take away all of the black and show the white only.
Step 9: Well, thats almost it. You could create a sun by creating a circular selection and filling it
with yellow. Then add a outer glow layer style to it.

Step 10: Finally, here is an idea of some more things you could do with this effect.
Thats it for this time. As usual visit www.extremephotoshop.com for the final psd for this tutorial
as well as other tutorials. I've also put up a beta version of my gallery site that I did in flash.
Please stop by and let me know what you think. You can get there by clicking on the "Optic
Nurve" link on my splash screen.

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