In this Photoshop editing tutorial we are not going to use selections. You will create the effects using only blend modes and layer masks. I will also show you how to use Camera RAW for post-production and get a more beautiful effect on your manipulations.
Download tutorial assets
Final result
Portrait image from Unsplash by: Lawrson Pinson
Step by Step manipulation
Since the original photo used for this manipulation was a bit dark I used the CAMERA RAW filter to make a preliminary editing. If you don’t have Photoshop CC and can’t use the filter, watch the video because I explain an alternative method of using RAW Camera.
I’ ve created some color effects using the Color Lookup but if you have a version prior to CS6 you can use other adjustments like Gradient Maps or Photo Filters.
I created the underwater effect with the color adjustments, but to give more realism I used a stock photo of water at the top with Overlay blend mode. For the jellyfish photos I used the Screen blend mode.
To give jellyfish some vibrancy I have created some colorful light effects with two layers: one using the Screen mode and the other using the Overlay blend mode. For more details check out the video version.
To create the final effect I used the RAW Camera filter. The preset I used as well as all the Color Lookup settings are included in the resources you can download from the link at the beginning of the article.
