22 Easy Steps to Create This Haunted House Scene

22 Easy Steps to Create This Haunted House Scene
22 Easy Steps to Create This Haunted House Scene
haunted10

First I removed the background of the house using the Polygonal Lasso Tool:

haunted10a

Step 11

You can see that the edges are still very hard after using this tool, especially the bush around the house. To correct it, click Reset Brushes from the brush menu to set the brushes to the default ones. Choose the Spatter 24 pixel brush to refine the edges of the bush and make it more natural. Also, use a soft black brush to soften the edges of the house bottom and blend them with the grassy ground:

haunted11
haunted11a

Step 12

Use Curves to darken the house a little:

haunted12

Apply brush masking on this layer mask to refine the light and shade there, to keep the upper part brighter and the lower one darker:

haunted12a

Step 13

Isolate the crow and place him at the top of the roof:

haunted13

Step 14

Make two new layers on the top. Change the foreground color to black and the brush kind to the birds ones. Paint some birds in the sky as I did below ( remember to lower the size of the birds in the further distance to create a depth look):

haunted14

Step 15

Make a Gradient Map adjustment layer on the top of the layers with the default colors (black and white):

haunted15
haunted15a

Step 16

I want to create an eerie mood in this scene. Create a new layer and change the foreground and background to #9d9d9d and #121212. Go to Filter > Render > Clouds:

haunted16

Convert this layer to a Smart Object. Lower this layer opacity to 50%:

haunted16a

Step 17

Add a mask to this layer and use a soft black brush to remove the mist effect on the sky part:

haunted17

To refine the mist effect, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 90 px:

haunted17a
haunted17b

Step 18

It's time for coloring the scene. Make a Color Balance adjustment layer on the top:

haunted18
haunted18a

Step 19

Use Curves to darken the scene:

haunted19

On this layer mask use a black brush to refine the contrast there:

haunted19a
haunted19b

Step 20

In this step, we'll make the red light glowing from one of the house windows. Make a new layer, use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to make a selection on the window below and set the feather radius to 3:

haunted20

Go to Edit > Fill (Shift+F5) and fill with a red color (#ff0000):

haunted20a

Use the Polygonal Lasso Tool again to make two selections with the feather radius =3 as shown below:

Pages: 1 2 3

Download Free Presets
Sponsored

Download Lightroom presets and LUTs, absolutely free. Use the presets to add creativity and style to your photos.

6 comments on “22 Easy Steps to Create This Haunted House Scene”

  1. The red light isn't realistic...projections (wall) and reflections (windows) aren't repected...
    But the athmosphere is great !

  2. This is one of the coolest tutorials that I have ever seen for photoshop. Even as a new user, I feel like I could follow your instructions beginning to end.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cross