Latest Posts from PSD Vault
- March 5th, 2009
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
After
Alternative colour scheme:
Ok let’s get started!
Step 1
Download the following two stock photos from stockvault.net:
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:
Then set the layer blending mode of this adjustment layer to “soft light” and you will have the following 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:
Keep the blending mode of the adjustment layer as “normal” and you will see the following 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:
Then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves and apply the following settings:
Lastly we go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels and apply the following settings:
And you will have the following effect so far:
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:
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:
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)
Duplicate the “city” layer once and apply the following Gaussian Blur settings:
Set the blending mode of the duplicated layer to “screen” and you will add a glowing effect for the city far-away:
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):
Change layer blending option to “overlay” and you will see the following effect:
Duplicate the “lighting effect” layer and hit Ctrl + L, apply the following Curves Adjustments to the duplicated layer:
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)
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:
Ok that’s it for this tutorial! As for my final image, I slightly adjusted the hue/saturation:
Alternative colour scheme:
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!
User Comments:
Really nice effect, some great techniques. Thanks!
Sweet tut, I’ll give it a go.
Good tut, mate site is good too.
Thanks everyone!! very much appreciated
Again a really nice tutorial. I got some inspiration again to get to work. Good work m8
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
Wow, really nice effect! I love how everything is misty and glowy.
Again an amazing tuturial!! You rock!!
thankk…….. nice info… realy realy good……:)
@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
Added to http://www.psaddict.com
thanks bro! it’s helpful..:)
Awesome tutorial. Thanks.
looks nice. has the appearance of some sort of gloomy, comic book city. I expect batman to fly through the sky.
Ok , thank you. I like to experiment :)
@logo design guru: nice idea! Might try one some time soon
cant figure the measurements for step 3
i like this tutorial. but i dont know how i make Step 5 :(
and good job
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!
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.
What a great looking photo retouch. Thanks for sharing this tutorial.
looks like the earth is going down sooner or later at the photo… VILLAINS!!!!!
very good tut man ..make more tut for us
for those who wonders the step three is to set the adjustment layer on multiply
the channel mixer layer that is
thanks for sharing the idea,it looks really nice!
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.
Outstanding!!! Never seen before…. I loved visiting this Blog as every time, I visit I’ll get something out of you guys…
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…
Thank you for this tutorial!I loved it!
Wow, this is cool