Transform a bright lakeside photo into a dark moonlit scene in Photoshop.
As well as learning day to night techniques, you’ll also learn how to create a glowing full moon reflected on misty water.
The stock photo I’ve used for this tutorial can be downloaded here.
With your photo open in Photoshop, use the Quick Selection Tool to make a selection of everything except the sky and clouds.
Go to Select>Refine Edge and use the Refine Radius Tool to tidy up the edges of the trees (more info on making selections here).
When you’re done, make sure the output is set to New Layer with Layer Mask, and click OK.
Right click on the new layer’s layer mask and disable it, then add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer above it.
Click on the Brightness/Contrast layer mask, then go to Image>Apply Image.
Set the Layer to the Background copy, and the Channel to its Layer Mask.
With the layer mask in place we can now darken the trees without changing the brightness of the sky and water.
Take the Brightness down to -90, and the Contrast to -30
Next we’ll give the photo a deep blue tint.
Add a Color Balance adjustment layer, and take the yellow/blue slider all the way to the right.
Next we’ll decrease the saturation and lightness of the photo.
Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and take the Saturation and the Lightness both down to -70.
Next we’ll add some light to the photo by adding a glowing full moon.
First, in a new layer above all the others, draw a white circle using the Ellipse Tool.
Duplicate the shape layer, and rasterize the duplicate by right clicking on the layer and selecting Duplicate Layer.
Gaussian Blur the duplicate layer at 100 pixels to create a wide glow.
Then give it a layer mask, which we’ll use to mask out places where the glow overlaps the trees.
Click on the layer mask and go to Image>Apply Image.
Set the layer to Background copy, and the Channel to layer Mask, this time tick Invert.
We can now insert the moon, which you can download from here.
Use the Elliptical Marquee Tool to make a selection of the moon, then copy and paste it into your project.
Resize it so that it fits on top of the white circle.
To give the moon a glow, double click on it’s layer to bring up the Layer Styles dialog box.
First click on Outer Glow and use the settings shown above.
Then click on Gradient Overlay, and use the settings shown above.
The moon is finished, but it now needs a reflection on the water.
Duplicate the moon layer, flip it vertically, then place it on the water.
Now group all the layers together, then duplicate the group and rasterize the copy.
With the copied and merged layer
selected, make a circular selection around the moon reflection, invert
the selection, and delete the rest.
You can now go back to the moon reflection from the grouped layers and hide it.
Now select the merged moon reflection layer again and go to Filter>Filter Gallery, and choose the Glass distort filter.
Use the settings shown above.
This will have given the reflection a rippled texture.
Next go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur, and set the Distance to 100 pixels.
Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer above the moon reflection with a clipping mask.
Set the Brightness to -30 and the Contrast to +30.
With the reflection done, we’ll now add some stars.
In a new layer above all the others, use a
very small white brush to paint on a few dots of varying size in the
top part of the sky.
And finally we’ll add some mist over the water.
Create a new layer and go to Filter>Render>Clouds.
Duplicate it, then hide the duplicate.
Use the transform tool to flatten the layer into a band covering the area where the trees and the water meet.
Next, Motion Blur the mist at 90 degrees with the Distance set to 100 pixels.
Set the layer’s blending mode to Screen, and it’s Opacity to 20%.
Now unhide the top mist layer and use the transform tool to resize it so that it covers only the water.
Gaussian Blur it at 50 pixels, then set it’s blending mode to Screen, and its Opacity to 10%.
Finally add a Photo Filter layer set to Deep Blue, giving the image a blue tint.
And here’s the final outcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment