6. Adding the Knight and his Horse
Step 1
Move the knight into the landscape document, and place him onto the rock. Make a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer for the knight (set as Clipping Mask) and change the settings of Reds and Cyans.
Step 2
Add a Color Balance adjustment layer (set as Clipping Mask) and change the Midtones values.
Step 3
Use a Curves adjustment layer to darken the back of the knight and horse. On this layer mask, use a soft black brush to erase the front of them as they're illuminated by the sunlight.
Step 4
Make a new layer (set as Clipping Mask), change the mode to Overlay 100% and fill with 50% gray. Use the Dodge Tool to brighten the front of the knight and the horse, and the Burn Tool to darken the back.
Step 5
Create a new layer under the knight one. Use a soft black brush with the Opacity about 40% to paint a small soft shadow under the horse's feet.Name this layer "shadow 1".
Step 6
We've determined the light source to be from the upper right of the scene, so the knight and the horse should have a shadow behind. Make a new layer under the shadow 1 one, and hold down the Control key while clicking the knight thumbnail layer to load its selection.Fill this layer with black (Shift-F5). Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.On this shadow layer, use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to select a hind leg, and then right click this selection and choose Layer via Cut.Convert these two layers to Smart Objects. Use Control-T to distort these shadow parts to fit the position of the correlated legs.Lower the Opacity of these shadow layers to 50%. On each shadow layer, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 4 px.Add a mask to the shadow layer of the cut hind leg, and use a soft black brush to erase the area that overlaps the other leg's shadow. Use a layer mask to reduce the opacity of the top of another shadow layer:
7. Adding the Castle
Step 1
Open the castle image. Use the Magic Wand Tool (W) to select the castle and drag it into our landscape file. Put the castle on the top of a misty mountain.
Add a mask to this layer, and use a soft black brush to erase the hard edges and make it fade into the mountain.
Step 2
Create a Curves adjustment layer (set as Clipping Mask) to darken the castle. On this layer mask, use a soft black brush to erase the upper of the castle, as it should be brighter than the lower.
Step 3
Make a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and decrease Saturation to -66.
Step 4
To match the contrast of the castle with the mountain, go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color and pick a color from the misty background (#bec2c5). Lower the Opacity of this layer to 60% to make the castle blend smoothly with the scene.
8. Adding the Eagles
Step 1
Open the eagle 1 image. Select the eagle using the Magic Wand Tool and add him to the left side of the image. Flip him horizontally by using Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal.
Press Control-J to duplicate this layer. Move the duplicated one to the lowest edge of the foreground and enlarge the size.
Step 2
On the duplicated eagle layer, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 8 px.
Step 3
Make all the eagle layers selected, and then press Control-G to group them. Change this group mode from Pass Through (default group mode) to Normal 100%. To remove the blue cast on the eagles, create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on top of these layers. Choose the Blues channel and change Hue to +49, Saturation to -75 and Lightness to -38.Because the group mode is changed to Normal 100% (no Pass Through), this adjustment layer only affects the layers within this group (the eagle ones).