What you'll learn

When it comes to creating beautiful, believable environmental photo-manipulations, many artists either don't know where to begin or simply don't understand how atmosphere affects their scene. In this Photoshop tutorial, we will walk step by step through creating an abandoned city scene and learn not just how to perform each task in Photoshop, but why each step is important. We will be using a workflow that allows for both the integration of multiple images into our composition as well as hand painting other elements. While many of the techniques we will look at are specific to this project, you can still apply them in different forms to your own work. After completing this tutorial, you will be well equipped to begin creating your own environmental photo-manipulations utilizing the new techniques you've learned here. Software required: Photoshop CS6.