I was shown a quick and easy way to create environments in photoshop using only the back ground layer, it involves using the lasso tool, the gradient tool, the brush tool and the burn tool. T he first attempt i had was set in a city at night, I even managed to include the character i have been working on.
After i did this i had another attempt but i wanted the next one to be completly different so i decided to make it a day time setting in a desert, I chose this because I wanted to experiment with different colours and settings so I could get some practice from a number of different possibilities.
Here is what I came up with, the colours are opposite and I feel it has a completly different feel.
dalehaughey 