Moon Waterfall Effect

If you are a big fan of the moon and night sky, this moon waterfall effect will definitely charm you. Moon waterfall effect is a technique of combining moon and waterfall which looks like moonlight is falling like water from the moon. In this tutorial article, I am going to show you How to make a Moon waterfall effect. So, read this article till the end and follow the steps with care, you will get easy instructions from this article, and you will be able to do it easily. Let’s see How to make a Moon waterfall effect:

Moon waterfall effect photo manipulation in Photoshop

Photos You will need to make pop out effect photoshop

You have to make sure you have the following images for making smoke night photo:

  • A photo of a waterfall.
  • A photo of rocks.
  • A photo of a moon. Choose a photo of a moon with a transparent background.
  • A photo of a man. Make sure the image has the full body of the man.
  • A photo of a night sky. Choose a photo which has the star’s light dots visible.

Let’s begin the moon waterfall photo effect making:

Step 1: Open a photo of waterfall in photoshop

  • To do that, go to the “File” menu and select the “Open” option. Then, go to your image location and select your waterfall image and then click on the “Open” button. Your waterfall image will be opened in photoshop afterward.
  • Now, we need to eliminate the sky from the waterfall image. To do this, make a selection of the sky, go to the left side’s tools panel and select the “Quick selection tool”. Now, brush over the sky. You will see that selection is selecting the area automatically. If you see that you have over-selected the area, press & hold the “ALT” button and then brush over the over-selected areas.
  • Now, go to the “Select” menu and choose the “Inverse” option. You will see that the mountain and waterfall part is selected.
  • Then press “CTRL+J” to copy the selected part in a new layer. You will see that a new layer “Layer 1” is created. Rename the “Layer 1” as “Waterfall”.
  • Now hide the background layer. To do this, go to the layer panel and click on the eye icon of the background layer, the background layer will be hidden afterward.

Step 2: Open a photo of night sky and insert it in the main file

  • Go to the “File” menu and select the “Open” option. Then, go to your image location and select your image and then click on the “Open” button. Your image will be opened in a new tab in photoshop afterward.
  • Now, press “CTRL+A” from the keyboard to select the whole image, then press “CTRL+C” from the keyboard to copy the whole image, then come to your main file tab and press “CTRL+V” to paste the copied image. A new layer “Layer 1” will be added. Rename this sky image “Layer 1” as “Night sky”.
  • Now, we will adjust the size of the night sky image we have inserted. So, go to the layer panel, select the “Night sky” layer, then press “CTRL+T” to activate the free transform. Now, drag the handler of the free transform outward to increase the size or drag the handler of the free transform inward to decrease the size. After that, press the “Enter” button.
  • Now, you have to change the order of this layer. Drag the “Night sky” layer below the “Waterfall” layer. The night sky will go behind the waterfall.

Step 3: Open a photo of moon and insert it in the main file

We will use a moon which has a transparent background.

  • So, go to the “File” menu and select the “Open” option. Then, go to your image location and select your image and then click on the “Open” button. Your image will be opened in a new tab in photoshop afterward.
  • Now, press “CTRL+A” from the keyboard to select the whole image, then press “CTRL+C” from the keyboard to copy the whole image, then come to your main file tab and press “CTRL+V” to paste the copied image. A new layer “Layer 1” will be added. Rename this sky image “Layer 1” as “Moon”.
  • Now, we will adjust the size of the moon image we have inserted. So, go to the layer panel, select the “Moon” layer, then press “CTRL+T” to activate the free transform. Now, drag the handler of the free transform outward to increase the size or drag the handler of the free transform inward to decrease the size. After that, press the “Enter” button.
  • Make sure the moon layer is put above the waterfall layer.
  • Now, we will liquify to give a percolate effect. To do this, go to the layer panel, select the “Moon” layer, then go to the “Filter” menu and select the “Liquify” option. A window with the moon image will appear. From there, select the “Forward warp tool” tool from the left side’s bar and now click & drag the bottom part of the moon. You will see the percolate effect is occurring. Do this several times. After that click on the “OK” button.
  • Now, you will see that the percolate effect has sharp edges. So, we have to smoothen the edge. To do this, first, go to the layer panel, select the “Moon” layer, then click on the “Add layer mask” button from the bottom of the layer panel and a mask thumbnail will be added afterward on the moon layer. Now, click on the mask thumbnail of the moon layer from the layer panel, then go to the left side’s tools panel and select the “Brush tool” and then set the foreground color black from the tools panel. Then go to the top bar/option bar, select the “Soft round” brush, then set the opacity 50% and set the flow 40%. Now, brush on the edge of the percolate part of the moon.

Step 4: Open a picture of rock and insert it in the main file

  • Go to the “File” menu and select the “Open” option. Then, go to your image location and select the rock’s image and then click on the “Open” button. Your image will be opened in photoshop afterward.
  • Now, we will only copy the rock portion and insert it in our main photo. To do this, you can use either the lasso tool or the quick selection tool. So, go to the left side’s tools panel, select the “Quick selection tool”. Now, brush over the rock. You will see that selection is selecting the area automatically. If you see that you have over-selected the area, press & hold the “ALT” button and then brush over the over-selected areas.
  • After making the selection, press “CTRL+J” from the keyboard. Selected part will be copied in a new layer “Layer 1”
  • Now, go to the left side’s tools panel, and select the “Move tool”. Now, go to the layer panel and click on the newly copied layer “Layer 1”, then click & hold the rock’s photo and drag to the main file. A new layer “Layer 1” will be created. Rename this rock image layer “Layer 1” as “Rock”. Drag the “Rock” layer on top of all the layers.
  • Increase or decrease the size of the rock’s photo, press “CTRL+T”, then click & drag the corner’s handler and drag it outward to increase or drag inward to decrease the size. Then, place the photo on the bottom. Then press “Enter”.
  • Now we will darken the rock image slightly. To do this, create a new layer first, go to the layer panel, click on the “Rock” layer, then click on the “Create a new layer” button from the bottom of the layer panel. A new layer “Layer 1” will be created above the rock layer. Now, go to the left side’s tools panel and select the “Brush tool” and then set the foreground color black from the tools panel. Then go to the top bar/option bar, select the “Soft round” brush, then set the opacity between 30% to 40% and set the flow 40%. Now, brush on the rock. Darken the rock as per your preference. After that, go to the layer panel, right click on the “Layer 1” layer, and select the “Create clipping mask” option.

Step 5: Open a picture of a man and insert it in the main file

  • Go to the “File” menu and select the “Open” option. Then, go to your image location and select the man’s image and then click on the “Open” button. Your image will be opened in photoshop afterward.
  • Now, we will only copy the man portion and insert it in our main photo. To do this, you can use either the lasso tool or the quick selection tool. So, go to the left side’s tools panel, select the “Lasso tool” and make a selection path on the edge of the man and join with the starting point.
  • After making the selection, press “CTRL+J” from the keyboard. Selected part will be copied in a new layer “Layer 1”
  • Now, go to the left side’s tools panel, and select the “Move tool”. Now, click & hold the man’s photo and drag to the main file. A new layer “Layer 2” will be created. Rename this man image “Layer 2” as “Man”. Drag the “Man” layer on top of all the layers.
  • Increase or decrease the size of the man’s photo, press “CTRL+T”, then click & drag the corner’s handler and drag it outward to increase or drag inward to decrease the size. Then, place the photo on the rock. Then press “Enter”.
  • Now, put a shadow of the man. Create a new layer below the man’s image layer “Man”. To do this, go to the layer panel, click on the “Layer 1” layer which is related to the rock’s layer, then click on the “Create new layer” button from the bottom of the layer panel. A new transparent layer “Layer 3” will be created below the man’s image layer “Man”. Now, go to the left side’s tools panel and select the “Brush tool”, then set the foreground color as black from the tools panel, then go to the top bar/option bar, set the opacity around 60% to 70%, and then brush below the legs of the man and then set the opacity around 60% to 70% from the layer panel.
  • Now, merge all the layers in a new layer. So, go to the layer panel and select the top layer of the list. Then press “CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E” from the keyboard. All the layers will be merged in a new layer “Layer 4”.
  • Now, we will adjust the color of the merged layer. So, go to the layer panel, click on the “Levels 4” layer, then click on the “Create new fill or adjustment layer” and select the “Color balance” option. 
  • Color balance panel will appear. From there, click on the “The adjustment affects all layers below (click to clip to layer)” button from the bottom of the panel. Then slide the “Green” color slider towards the “Magenta”, that means slide it to the left side. And, slide the “Yellow” color slider towards the “Blue”, that means slide it to the right side. A new color balance layer “Color Balance 1” will be created.
  • That’s it.

Video Tutorial about “Moon Waterfall Effect” who really don’t want to read whole article just follow below video.

That’s how you can make a Moon waterfall effect. In this tutorial I have shown you the process of making a glowing effect in Photoshop. Above I have shown you the way of making selection, removing selected parts, inserting new images, adjusting color and many more. For your convenience, I have included some keyboard shortcuts so that you can do your work fast and easily. I hope you have understood How to make a Moon waterfall effect. This is a very easy way to do this.

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