Design a Dark and Misty Mountain with Distant City Scene in Photoshop

Posted on March 5th, 2009 under Photo Effect, it has 38 Comments and 21,969 Views so far.

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps involved in designing this dark and misty mountain scene with a gloomy looking far-away city scene in Photoshop.

Along the way, we will use techniques such as layer blending and masking, adjustments layer, filters effects and a variety of image adjustment options. You will learn methods to seamless blend two (or more) images together and generate cinematic effect. This is a simple tutorial with just 5 steps, have a go!

Here is a preview of before and after effect:

Before

moutain

After

mountain-city-scene-final-3

Alternative colour scheme:

mountain-city-scene-final

mountain-city-scene-final-4

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Download the following two stock photos from stockvault.net:

Mountain Image

New York City Stock Photo

Load the “Moutain Image” into Photoshop, duplicate the background layer once. The reason we duplicate the background layer is in case we mess up this duplicated layer, we can always delete it and go back to the original background layer.

We can firstly give this photo a nice and cool gradient effect. So after duplicating, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Fill, apply the following gradient settings:

1-gradient

Then set the layer blending mode of this adjustment layer to “soft light” and you will have the following effect:

1-effect

Step 2

Duplicate the background layer once more and drag it to the top. Set the blending mode of this to “Screen” and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer >Color Balance and apply the following settings:

2-colour-bal

Keep the blending mode of the adjustment layer as “normal” and you will see the following effect:

2-effect

Step 3

Now we will add some more colour depth and make the image a bit darker. Firstly, we go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer >Channel Mixer and apply the following settings:

3-channel-mixer

Then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves and apply the following settings:

3-curves

Lastly we go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels and apply the following settings:

3-levels

And you will have the following effect so far:

3-effect

Step 4

Load the “New York City Stock Photo” into Photoshop, use the Rectangular Marquee (M) tool to select a portion of the image as shown below:

4-selection

Copy and paste the selection onto our document and name the layer as “city”. Resize the image until it fits the width of our canvas and position it as shown below:

4-position

Set the blending mode of “city” layer to “multiply” and erase (using a big soft brush, I used 1,000px with 0% hardness) the the bottom portion of the layer (use a layer mask if you would like to be safe)

4-erase

Duplicate the “city” layer once and apply the following Gaussian Blur settings:

4-gaussian

Set the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “screen” and you will add a glowing effect for the city far-away:

4-effect1

Step 5

Now we can render some mist/cloud for the forest and also add some uneven lighting effect. To do this, create a new layer called “lighting effect”, use the Lasso Tool with 80px feather to make a selection for the mountain forest, and render some cloud inside it (Filter > Render > Cloud):

5-cloud

Change layer blending option to “overlay” and you will see the following effect:

5-effect1

Duplicate the “lighting effect” layer and hit Ctrl + L, apply the following Curves Adjustments to the duplicated layer:

5-level

Change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “color dodge” and you will see the following effect: (lighting effect towards certain area has been enhanced)

5-effect-2

Duplicate this layer a few more times, drag each of the duplicated layers around the image to produce more dynamic lighting effect and misty environment: (keep the blending mode to “color dodge” for each layer).

Here is the effect after duplication:

5-effect-3

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! As for my final image, I slightly adjusted the hue/saturation:

mountain-city-scene-final-3

Alternative colour scheme:

mountain-city-scene-final

mountain-city-scene-final-4

Hope you enjoy this tutorial, drop me a comment if you have any question, I will try my best to help you out.

Cheers and have a nice day!

TipSquirrel Says:
Really nice effect, some great techniques. Thanks!
Craigsnedeker Says:
Sweet tut, I’ll give it a go.
mark joncheff Says:
Good tut, mate site is good too.
admin Says:
Thanks everyone!! very much appreciated
hieronymus Says:
Again a really nice tutorial. I got some inspiration again to get to work. Good work m8
Noulis Says:
STEP 1 and 2 are ok but after i complete STEP 3 i get a Black and White Image not like yours.I hope you can help me
Btw the tutorial is awesome , and i have also done almost everything in this site
except this one :P
Ben Lind Says:
Wow, really nice effect! I love how everything is misty and glowy.
photolover Says:
Again an amazing tuturial!! You rock!!
glitter Says:
thankk…….. nice info… realy realy good……:)
admin Says:
@Noulis: the image will look slightly different, the purpose of the step 3 is basically to darken the image a bit and produce more variation. you can try a different setting with curves and levels and see what results that bring you.
Hope this helps
psaddict Says:
Added to http://www.psaddict.com
chronic Says:
thanks bro! it’s helpful..:)
Photoshop masking Says:
Awesome tutorial. Thanks.
logo design guru Says:
looks nice. has the appearance of some sort of gloomy, comic book city. I expect batman to fly through the sky.
Noulis Says:
Ok , thank you. I like to experiment :)
admin Says:
@logo design guru: nice idea! Might try one some time soon
davant Says:
cant figure the measurements for step 3
sulafa Says:
i like this tutorial. but i dont know how i make Step 5 :(

and good job
Brochure Printing Says:
Ooh this is really cool! Very moody and dark effect. The techniques you used were great, and your instructions were clear and easy to understand. Thanks for sharing this tutorial. Great job!
jorge Says:
excelente tutorial, gracias por compartirlo, aunque estube confundido un poco en el paso 3 ya que no me quedaba igual me generaba un tono rosado.
photo retouching Says:
What a great looking photo retouch. Thanks for sharing this tutorial.
huwaw69 Says:
looks like the earth is going down sooner or later at the photo… VILLAINS!!!!!
ryan Says:
very good tut man ..make more tut for us
OlliEY Says:
for those who wonders the step three is to set the adjustment layer on multiply
OlliEY Says:
the channel mixer layer that is
doggy Says:
thanks for sharing the idea,it looks really nice!
Dean Says:
I recently came across your blog. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Very informative and nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
WebDesign Says:
Outstanding!!! Never seen before…. I loved visiting this Blog as every time, I visit I’ll get something out of you guys…
Custom Logo Guru Says:
Hey,

This is emagine of looking very very good technical.
This blog is very nice. and its image what a looking for great reallly very good.

Thanks…
Psycho Says:
Thank you for this tutorial!I loved it!