Creating realistic Sci Fi art in Photoshop is easy. We show you how to collage images like this in our Adobe Photoshop courses.
First set up your canvas – the image illustrated here is an A5 at a resolution of 150 ppi, which is a good resolution for in-house printing. We then source several images for our artwork. Here we found a First World War studio photograph, and image of an NASA space helmet, and a Mars lander image.
We copy the figure into our blank canvas first. Then we mask out the background using a layer mask. The helmet is imported next and has its background similarly masked out. Or you could simply select the background pixels and delete them. The helmet is then scaled to fit the figure. And the two layers are then linked for easy movement later.
Next we bring in the Mars background image and scale to size again. To match the colours of the figure to that of his environment, we added a Colour Overlay Layer Style, and picked the base colour from the Mars background. The opacity is then taken down. To deepen the tones of the figure add a Levels adjustment layer.
A fake shadow is then added as a new layer below the figure, using the Lasso tool and a Gradient fill; the blending mode is then changed.
The Mars lander image is treated in the same way as the figure with fuel jets added in a similar fashion as the figure’s shadow.
Lastly, to complete the effect, a Lens Flare was added to the Mars background image, firstly converting it to a Smart Object, for later adjustments.
Many more tips and techniques can be found at the Adobe website. And see many examples of our clients’ work on our Facebook page.
Other related Photoshop Blog Posts:

• Photoshop interface
  
• Photoshop for fashion
• Photoshop deep etching
• Photoshop animated gif
• Photoshop actions