Lake Scene Photomanipulation
Finished Preview
Stocks
I used these stocks:
Step 1
After I found all stock pictures which I want to use I started to crop the egret. To this I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool 
(to choose it just press L on your keyboard). There are some soft hair on egret´s head and back. Don´t take care much about it. We will fix it later with the Smudge Tool.
After the selection you should have something which looks like this:
Step 2
Open your background picture and drag the egret into it. Now we have to blend these two pictures together.
If you look at the picture above you can see that there are three problems. First - if someone stands in water there are circles around him. Second - reeds should be in front of the egret not behind. And the third - we have to smudge soft hair.
Well now we´ll fix blending with water. At first we have to hide some parts of the egret´s foots. Many people use to this step the Eraser Tool but I don´t like it because if you erase something you will never have chance to fix it later. Instead I use Vector Mask. You can find it in the Layers Palette (if you don´t see it just click F7 on your keyboard.) The vector mask is on the bottom part.
Click on the layer with egret and then click on the button. It will add a layer mask which looks like this: 
. Now make sure that the layer mask is active (just click on it 
) and press B (= Brush Tool) on your keyboard.
Using the layer mask is the same like using the eraser tool. You can change the opacity, hardness etc. If the brush is black or gray it erases and the white brush make the opposite - re-erase.
Ok, back to the blending. Paint grey parts of the foods which you think are under the water.
After you´re done create a new layer and called it “Water Circles”. Press B to activate the brush tool. Now add the water splash brushes. Open the palette with brush strokes and press the little button on the right side:
After that click on Load Brushes… and add the water splash brushes. Paint the circles. It should look like this:
Step 3
Water blending is done. Now we have to move some of the reeds to the foreground. Click on the background layer. Press L (Lasso Tool) and select some of the reeds. Now go to Edit ->Copy. Click on the layer with the egret and go to Edit -> Paste.
The result should look like this:
It looks like the egret is really there doesn´t it?
Step 4
The last part of blending: we have to smudge the soft hair. Press R (Smudge Tool). Choose the soft round brush around 5 px big. Change the strength of the tool on 85%. Now start to “paint” the soft hair. It is quite similar to painting. After you finished the egret should be similar to this:
During smudging you can change size and strength of the tool. It will look more realistic.
Step 5
Now we have to add the sunrays. Press B (Brush Tool) and add the “sunrays” brushes same way like you added the water splash brushes.
Create new layer and call it “Sunrays”. Choose one of the sunrays brushes and change the color on white. Now click on the place where you want to have the sunrays.
Light should come from the right because on the original picture it comes from this side too. You can see the highlights on the back.
You can lower the opacity a little. It will look more realistic. I lowered in on 75%.
Step 6
Now we increase the contrast of egret a little.
Click on the layer with egret. Press Adjusment Layer (17)
and choose Brightness and Contrast. Using adjustment layers allow you to edit adjustments also later if you decide to change something. It is very useful.
Now increase the contrast on the value 35 and press OK.
We don´t want to it affects the contrast of the whole manipulation. Click on the adjustment layer with the right button on your mouse and check the option Create Clipping Mask.
Step 7
Your layers should look like this:
Now we are going to create the mood of manipulation.
Click on the “sunrays” layer. At first we are going to change levels. Click on the button Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer and choose Levels. The input levels set on 34-0,92-255.
Now we are going to change the color balance. Go to Create Fill or Adjustment Layer once again and choose Color Balance. Set the color levels on +70 +27 + 62. We are going to change only midtones so it is all in this case. Press OK.
Result:
Next step: Photo Filter. Choose deep yellow and density on 32%.
And the last step: Color Balance once again. Press Midtones on the Tone Balance and set +30 -11 -22. Than press Shadows and set 0 -4 +12. And here is the result:
Pretty cool what do you think?
Step 8
This is the last step. We are going to add the texture. Open the grunge texture and drag it into the manipulation. Set the opacity on 32% and change the blending mode on Overlay.
And tada da. In these simple eight steps we created very nice manipulation. Congratulations.
Very good tutorial. I will definitely use the Vector Mask. It´s bettter than eraser.