Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin-City Inspired Night-Scene Image

Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin-City Inspired Night-Scene Image

Posted on November 19th, 2008 under Photo Effect

In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how you can easily turn a normal photo taken in daylight, into a realistic Night-Scened Image, inspired by the moive Sin City.

We will be using tools such as the curve tool, brush tool, level adjustment and various layer blending options.

In fact, you are able to use this method I showed you on pretty any image with daylight on.

Step 1

Download a copy of the following image. Load it into Photoshop.

This is a photo I took while holidaying in London, you can use it freely anywhere.

london day 1 and 2 009 500x282 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

Step 2

Use a big black brush with the following settings to gentle brush over the image, you should pay attention to the sky in particular.

1 brush setting 300px 500x31 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

2 effect after 300px 500x281 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

Step 3

Use another big brush with a hard-mix mode, brush over the other left hand side of the buidling with red roof, this will create some extra contrast and kill some day lights. See below for detailed settings:

3 brush setting 300px 500x32 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

4 effect after 300px 500x282 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

Step 4

Go to Image > adjustments > level and alter the RGB level of the image a bit. See below for detailed settings:

5 level adjustment Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

Step 5

Double click the background layer to unlock it, duplicate this background layer once, click on the duplicated layer and go to image > adjustment > curve to adjustment the colour contrast a bit, see below for details:

6 curve Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

then set the layer blending option to “color-dodge” by right-click on the layer and choose “blending options”. See below for detailed setting:

7 layer style 500x368 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

Step 6

Duplicate the background layer once more and put it on top of the previously duplicated layer, change the layer blending option to “lighten” (See below) and apply some Dodge and Burn tool effects (use a big brush for overall effect, a smaller brush for fine-tune details).

8 layer style 500x368 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

8 dodge burn Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

You should now have the following image (or similar):

9 effect after 500x285 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

Step 7

Go to image > adjustment > channel mixer and apply the following settings:

10 channel mixer Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

This is the image so far:

11 effect so far 500x283 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

Ok, that’s it for this tutorial, you can use your own imaginatios from here and add some street lighting and further adjust the existing lighting condition. Have a try!

Here is my finished work:

night scene 500x282 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin City Inspired Night Scene Image

Hope you enjoy this tutorial! Any comment or feedback, just drop me a comment!

Thanks and have a great day!

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  • http://pw-software.com NetOperator Wibby

    Hey man! This is Nokadota from the Photoshop Lady forums. This is a nice site you have here, and I liked this tutorial as well. I’ll be checking your site more often.

    Peace!

  • http://www.psdvault.com James

    Thanks buddy for your comment and support! Cheers~

  • http://www.jamesqu.net/portfolio/abstract-design/day-to-night-photo-transformation/ Day to Night Photo Transformation | James Qu

    [...] I also published a tutorial of how I created this effect on my other site psdvault.com. If you’re interested, you can take a look at it here. [...]

  • http://www.photoshoplady.com/forums/photo-editing-tutorials/120-transform-daylight-photo-into-sin-city-inspired-night-scene-image.html#post424 Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin-City Inspired Night-Scene Image – Photoshop Lady Forums

    [...] taken in daylight, into a realistic Night-Scened Image, inspired by the moive Sin City. Click here to view the tutorial on my website. Here are the before and after images: Before: After: [...]

  • Hugo

    Great tutorial!!!

    I never thought about using brushes in overlay mode, usually i create another layer and, after painting on it, i change it to overlay.

    There isnt much difference, but as im not confident with my painting skills, i find that using layers is better to experiment with different settings and brushes, so i can always keep the original and see the results just by changing the visibility of the painted overlay layers!

  • http://www.psdvault.com James

    Hi Hugo, good to see you back here! yeah i guess both method are pretty much the same, it just depends on which one u feel more comfortable with. For me i like to use as fewer layers as possible :)

  • http://www.area1.info/2008/12/22/transform-a-daylight-photo-into-a-sin-city-inspired-scene/ Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin-City Inspired Scene | AREA 1

    [...] here to read the [...]

  • http://www.area1.info/2008/12/22/transform-a-daylight-photo-into-a-sin-city-inspired-scene/ Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin-City Inspired Scene
  • http://iamrainbow.wordpress.com MJ

    Incredible! Thanks, been searching for such effects.

  • http://homepage.mac.com/y_ideas9/PhotoAlbum17.html y.Ide

    Hello. They raised a great tutorial site, thank you. I’m Japanese. Now I was looking for exactly how such a device. Learn your great technology and try to change my beautiful landscapes. Thank you very much.

  • http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.psdvault.com/photo-effect/transform-a-daylight-photo-into-sin-city-inspired-night-scene-image/ uberVU – social comments

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  • http://Website mo3@

    thanks for the tut.. been looking everywhere for it