In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to transform a single piece of plain paper into a dark, mysterious hard rock mountain scene in Photoshop. I discovered this interesting effect by accident and thought I could share it with you guys :)

Along the way I will be using various image adjustment tools, a bunch of filters, layer blending options and some basic selection techniques. Have a try!

Below is a before and after preview:

Before

After

Alternative version

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

Download a copy of this paper image from CG Texture and load it into Photoshop.

Duplicate the Background Layer Once, hit Ctrl + M and apply the following Curve Adjustment to the duplicated layer:

Apply applying Curve Adjustments, go to Image > Adjustment > Channel Mixer and apply the following settings:

The effect will now look like this:

Step 2

Now we are onto making some rocky feeling for the image. Duplicate the “Background Copy” layer once, go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharpen Mask and apply the following settings:

Then change the blending mode of this layer to “overlay”. Your image should look like this now:

Optionally, if you feel like to get rid of some noise on the image, you can duplicate this layer once more and set the blending mode to “Soft Light”, then go to Filter > Noise > Despeckle and apply this filter a couple of times.

You can also use the Blur Tool (R Key) with a big soft brush to brush over this layer after applying despeckle filter.

Combining Despeckle and Blur Tool will make your image look more smooth:

You can the image has turned from a piece of paper into a rock mountain scene.

Step 3

Duplicate the “Backgourd Copy 2″ once and apply the Surface Blur filter with the following settings:

Apply the Surface Blur Settings 2-3 times on the duplicated layer, then change the layer blending mode to “Soft Light” and you will have the following effect:

Step 4

Duplicate the “Background Copy 2″ layer once more and drag it on top of all other layers, go to Filter > Artistic > Smudge Stick and apply the following settings. Through this we will be able to bring in more lighting contrast into image while giving the image a more stone-like feeling.

You image will now look like this:

Step 5

Create a new layer called “Darken Area” on top of all other layers, set its blending mode to “Multiple”.

Set the Foreground Colour to Black and grab a big soft round brush (300px, 0% hardness, flow and opacity to 80%), paint over the area you would like to make it a bit darker then the others.

I chose to paint over the edges of the image. The effect is shown below:

Step 6

Now we can see the mountain sort of turning into a maze, and I thought I could make an exit sign for it. Create a new layer and call it “exit”, use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather to drew a selection anywhere you want on the image, I chose this spot:

Fill the selection with Black Colour and render some cloud:

Then go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare and apply the following settings:

After applying the Lens Flare, duplicate this layer a couple of times to make it brighter:

Then merge those duplicated layer together and use the Liquify Filter to make it look like this:

Step 7

Now to add more effect to the image, we can create a new layer call “Cloud”, again use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather, draw a few large selection around the image (Hold down Shift Key to drea multiple selection at once).

Fill the selection with Black and render some cloud inside it, then drop the layer opacity down to about 80%.

Your image will now look like this:

Step 8

We can add a bit of colour onto image. To do this, we can simply create a new layer on top of the existing ones and set its blending mode to “Color”, then use a big soft brush with colour of your choice and paint over it.

Here is my image after adding colours:

Ok that’s it for this tutorial! I also added some snow particle effect, which is rendered by using this star brush and applying motion blur.

Below is my final image for this tutorial: (Click to Enlarge)

Alternative version

As usual, if you have any questions, just drop me a comment :)

Thanks very much and have a nice day!