masked the field layer upon the mountains layer
used grass brush on mask to make a soft transition
step 2 of 13
mountains private stock image
step 3 of 13
added the fish
step 4 of 13
painted extensions to the fish fins
step 5 of 13
added the boy
for soft transition used the grass brush again on the mask
step 6 of 13
boy private stock image
step 7 of 13
added shadows to the boy and fish and some adjustment layers for light and color
step 8 of 13
i merged the landscape background wit out the fish and boy to a new layer
did lens blur filter on it with black mask and exposed with the gradient tool only the strip where the boy is standing
merged the background again to a new layer did maximum filter and exposed with a mask only the bottom part (that gives an interesting out of focus effect)
step 9 of 13
added shadow under the fish
step 10 of 13
merged all layers and put layer on soft light exposure
step 11 of 13
added orange color adjustment on soft light and about 50% opacity
and light blue color adjustment on color mood and about 20% opacity
step 12 of 13
merged all layers again, did watercolor filter and masked the layer with the green channel selection
step 13 of 13
merged all layer to a new one, added Gaussian blur and lowered the opacity to make a dream like atmosphere