In this tutorial, we’ll be learning how to create a cool, 70’s like retro city image.

The first step is to find a suitable image. Any building/city landscape will do, but try to pick something with a single-color sky, so you can easily select and delete it.

After you’ve found your image, grab the Magic Wand tool, and select the sky. We wanna get rid of it, so hit delete.

Next, grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and delete the foreground. In my case, it’s the water, but it could also be grass, pavement, or cement depending on the photograph. Once you’ve selected all around your foreground, delete it.

Alright! Now you have your base image. We need to apply a gradient to this image. Right click on the building layer in the layers palette, and select “Blending Options“. Move down to the gradient, and apply a #000000 to #666666 gradient, with the lighter area at the bottom.

Ok, we’re moving along well, time to add some water. Grab your Polygonal Lasso Tool again, and make a selection where the foreground of your image used to be. It doesn’t need to be exact, we just don’t want the foreground bleeding above the midground! Next, make a layer below your building/midground layer, and fill it with a gradient. The color of this gradient is dependent on the original color of your foreground, so try experimenting a bit! In my case it was #0451ab to #3491fb.

Next we need to add our sky! We’ll do this in the same fashion as our foreground, but we won’t use a gradient. You know the drill, grab the Polygonal Lasso Tool, and select the sky area. Create a layer below the buildings and fill it. You pick the color. In mine, I used #f7f181.

Ok, time to add a light source. After all, the image would be pure black without the sun, no? Grab the Ellipse Tool, and draw a big circle. Make sure it’s behind the building and foreground layers, but in front of the sky layer.

Let’s give the sun some shading. Open up it’s Blending Options (Either via right click in the layers pallette or a double click), and select gradient. Apply the normal white to black gradient, but instead, set it’s blend mode to overlay, as well as the opacity to about 80%.

Time to add one of my favorite elements! Starbursts! Grab the file from here, and place it behind your sun. Once again, make sure it’s above the sky layer. Set it’s blend mode to Overlay.

Great, we’re almost done, just a few more steps! It’s time to add some texture to our image. Create a new layer, and fill it with #dddddd. Make sure your foreground color is still set to #dddddd, and your background color is #000000. Next, go Filter -> Artistic -> Sponge, and play around the settings until you find something you like. Hit OK, and then set that layer’s blend mode to Overlay.

Alright, let’s add some glowing spheres to the image. Create a new layer, and set it’s blend mode to (you guessed it!) Overlay. Now grab the Brush Tool, and select a size that you like. I used 30px. Open the Brushes Palette. Let’s go over the settings.

• Brush Tip Shape - Set the spacing to 118%
• Shape Dynamics - Set the Size Jitter to 100%
• Scattering - Set the scattering to 187% or more. The higher the number, the greater the randomness of the placement.

Drag the brush around the image randomly, until you’re happy with the result. I advise to put more “dots” in the bottom half.

Now we need to add a bit of framing to our image. A pre-made frame is available right here (right, click save as). But, if you’d like to make your own, grab some watercolor brushes, and apply the following settings to the brush.

• Brush Tip Shape - Set the spacing to 33%
• Shape Dynamics - Set the Size Jitter to 100%
• Scattering - Set the scattering to 100%, but you can always go higher or lower.
• Size - I used 225px, but you can pick what you’d like

Create a new layer at the very top of all the others, set it’s blend mode to overlay. Next, start to drag the brush around the outer edges of the image, so you end up with something like this.

You can either stop here, or do one more step. If you want to, grab the eraser tool, and set it’s opacity to about 30%. Pick the type of tip you want, and start erasing little bits of the frame. Continue until you’re happy with the results.