Create a Mysterious and Eerie Surreal Image in Photoshop

Note: Renaming a group is similar to renaming a layer.

Step 5: Create the Depth of Field

In this step, we will create the Depth of Field. The depth of field makes it easier for the viewer to focus their attention to the subject of the image/photo by blurring the background of foreground. In this case, we will be blurring the background. To start, let's select all the layers (Ctrl/Cmd + Left-click on a layer) from the "Background" group and Merge them. To merge them, simply right click on any of the selected layers and click on the "Merge Layers" from the contextual menu.

After merging them, the result would be similar to this:

Now, let's start creating the depth of field. Let's start by selecting parts of the sky and the road. To start, activate the Polygonal Lasso Tool by pressing L on your keyboard.

Once activated, follow the instructions shown on the image below:

Next, we would need to save this selection for later use. To do that, go to Select > Save Selection and just press OK once the box opens. After that, let's use a mask, so Enter Quick Mask mode by pressing Q on your keyboard. You'd notice a red field on the region which isn't selected.

Now, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and input the following:

Radius: 16.0 pixels

Now that you're done, exit Quick Mask mode by pressing Q again and then Load your selection by going to Select > Load Selection (the selection we made earlier will be automatically loaded). Now, let's go now to the process of blurring the background. To start, go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. Once it's open, input the following:

Now, take a look at the image – depth of field has been created.

But if you'd notice this depth of field looks fake, so we would need to blur some parts, manually. To do that, activate the Blur tool (R) and then input the following Blur tool settings:

Brush size: 250px
Hardness: 0%
Mode: Normal
Strength: 100%

Blur the following parts:

The result:

Step 6: Create the Hanging Window

Now we will begin adding the subjects to our artwork. First, open "Window" by Mehrunnisa stock and then activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M).

Select the window:

Once you've made the selection area, activate the Move tool (V) and drag the selected window to our canvas. Once on the layer, rename it to "Window".

Next, we will create the ropes as to where the window will be hanging from. Open "Swing Stock 2" by Shoofly Stock. Once open, activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M).

When you've created the selection area, activate the Move tool (V) and drag the selected swing to our canvas.

Once in the canvas, rename this layer to "swing", also, remember to put this layer below the "window" layer. Now, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and then resize the swing as shown below:

Now, we're going to cut the swing from its ropes. To do that, simply follow the instructions shown below:

The result:

Step 7: Create the Scene inside the Window

Now that we've created the window and the rope, let's now take a peek on what's inside this window! First, let's remove the white part of this window. We can do that by selecting it using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and pressing Delete. See image below:

Next, let's create the scene! Open Cliff type 2_2 by the Strawberry Tree. Once open, simply move the image to our canvas using the Move tool (V) and then after moving it, rename it to "Cliff". Take note that you should put this layer below the swing and the window.

5 comments on “Create a Mysterious and Eerie Surreal Image in Photoshop”

Kath says:

January 18, 2019 at 2:23 pm

These instructions are huge and I appreciate how detailed they are. Thank you for sharing. :)

Su Hall says:

January 16, 2019 at 5:09 pm

This is an oldie! LOL I think I'll give it a go! Thank you!!

1. Photoshop Tutorials Staff says:
  
  January 16, 2019 at 11:41 pm
  
  It is. We have a lot of tutorials that are still good but just need a bit of update/fixes with the resource links :)
alec says:

October 7, 2013 at 10:22 am

i love photoshop

bephot says:

March 2, 2013 at 4:19 am

nice work