How to Make an Album Cover
How to Make an Album Cover
I’ll try to make this as simple as possible.
Let’s break this tutorial down:
- Setting up Photoshop (Canvas, Resolution)
- Getting the Photos & Masking the Photos
- Darkening the Photos
- Adding the Sun & Glows
- Adding Water Reflection
- Adding Stars
- Write your Text & Add Your Logos
- Bring the Image to Life (Final Adjustments)
Step 1. Setting Up Photoshop
Create a Photoshop Document with a size of 3000px x 3000px (square) and a Resolution of 150 Dpi
You’ve got a Perfect Square!
Step 2. Getting & Masking the Photos
Once you’ve downloaded the images, bring the Water Image / Sea Image in first and crop it to fit the canvas. It should look like this.
Next we’ll bring in the Sky image and place it over the Sea Image. You’ll should only be able to see the Sky image now.
I have increased (transformed) the size of this image to increase the size of the clouds and make sure the trees and buildings are below the horizon line of the sea. We will be masking out the trees and the buildings.
While your Sky image is selected, click on the layer mask icon at the bottom of the panel.
You should see a layer mask added to your photo. Make sure the layer mask is selected. Notice how the layer mask is highlighted when selected.
Press G on the keyboard to pull up the GRADIENT TOOL (G), now place the cursor over the mouse and drag from top to bottom.
Don’t forget your foreground and background should be set to black & white.
You’ve now masked the “sky” and got rid of the trees and buildings.
Bring down the Opacity of the sky to 50%
Step 3. Darkening the Images
Add an Exposure Adjustment Layer & a Black & White Adjustment Layer above the images.
On the Exposure Adjustment Layer bring down the exposure to around -2.5 and the Gamma to 1.13




Time to make the Sun Shine!
Create a New Layer and call it Orange Glow
Press B on the Keyboard to Bring up the Brush Tool and select a Soft Round with the Hardness set to 0 and the Opacity set to 100% and a Color #ff8a0c.
Oh! Make sure the BLEND MODE of the LAYER IS SET TO HARD LIGHT. This is very important.
Make sure that the size is slightly bigger than the Circle/Sun. (Brush size will vary depending on the dimensions of the album cover)


Step 5. Adding Water Reflection
Just like you did with the glows on the sun, use those same colors and paint on the water.
Press B on the Keyboard to Bring up the Brush Tool and select a Soft Round with the Hardness set to 0 and the Opacity set to 100% and a Color #ff8a0c.
Oh! Make sure the BLEND MODE of the LAYER IS SET TO OVERLAY. This is very important.
Make sure that the size is around the same size as the Circle/Sun. (Brush size will vary depending on the dimensions of the album cover)

Create a New layer and paint with the same yellow #ffda0c but this time CHANGE THE BLENDING MODE TO Linear Dodge (add) and bring down the opacity to 50%


It’s good practice to group all your layers and name them appropriately.
Bring all your Water Reflection/Glow Layers below the Sun Layers.
I put all the layers in groups to create a little order in the layers panel. With so many layers it can get a bit daunting and chaotic.
For a little drama, I added a white silhouette of a man. I did a google search by typing
man standing silhouette and I got exactly what I was looking for. Because the Silhouette was in BLACK I inverted the silhouette to white (ctrl or cmd + i) bring down the opacity to 60 (use your discretion).
Step 6. Adding Stars
Bring in the STARS photo and place it in the canvas. Transform it so it fits nicely in the canvas. I prefer to have the stars as small as possible.
Change the Blending Mode of the layer to “Screen”, this way every thing that is BLACK will be REMOVED and only the white will show. Bring down the Opacity to 50%.

First off download the GRADIENT MAPS. I’ve included. Pretty Basic Gradient Maps but I want to save you the trouble.
By default you should see the Gradient Map Adjustment set to Black to White.
Change the Blending Mode of the Adjustment Layer to Overlay at an Opacity of 40% (incase you don’t see the Black to White Adjustment layer, I’ve included it for you)
To get the dark bluish tint we need to use our next gradient.
Make a Gradient Adjustment Layer and this time click on the color bar of the adjustment layer.
Click on the Color Bar
You’ll be presented with a Dialog Box called the GRADIENT EDITOR where all the gradients are stored.

Click on the little Gear Icon and select Import Gradients from the fly-out menu.
Locate the Gradient file you downloaded and click open
Click on the Grey to Blue Gradient and then select “reverse”.
Change the Blending mode of this Gradient Map to Soft light.
Bring the Grey to Blue Gradient Map Adjustment layer below the Black to White Adjustment layer.
And with both adjustment layers turned on it should like this…(see below)
Finally, we’ll add two Curves Adjustment layers to bring in some contrast and add some shadows (darkness) to the composite.
You’ll be better off just copying this curve. It’s super simple.
After adding the Curve Adjustment Layers
Let’s add one more Curves Adjustment Layer. Bring down the opacity of this adjustment layer to 80%
After adding the Curve Adjustment Layer