Photoshop Quick Fixes: Making an Image look Surreal/Ethereal

This is my image right now This is my image right now. The lighting isn’t that great, and while the picture itself is good, it looks very dull and dreary. I’d like to make it look brighter, appealing, and try to make it look “magical”.

First, I’m going to go to the Hue/Saturation Presets to make the water look a bit cleaner.

I messed around a bit with the hue and decided on a pinkish/red hue I messed around a bit with the hue and decided on a pinkish/red hue. The saturation was increased only a little bit, and I made the picture lighter as well.

Now go to Filter – Distort – Diffuse Glow

You can adjust the graininess, how glowy the image is, and how clear it is using these options.

I prefer my graininess to be 0, the glow amount to be 13, and the clear amount to be 16.

This is what the image looks like now This is what the image looks like now. I cropped the top slightly, but you can still see the effects.

Before

After