How to Turn an Ordinary Landscape into a Dramatic Moonscape

How to Turn an Ordinary Landscape into a Dramatic Moonscape
How to Turn an Ordinary Landscape into a Dramatic Moonscape
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Step 10 - More Fog

If you look at your photo manipulation now you see there isn't much fog on the horizon even though you've already added some in previous steps. It's time to add more!

Add new empty layer on the top of all layers and name it MORE FOG. Grab the Brush Tool (B), select some of the fog brushes you've installed recently and paint some more mist same way you did few steps ago. After you're done your image should be similar to the one below.

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Looks much better, isn't it?

Step 11 - Adding a Man

Drag photo of a man listed in the beginning of the tutorial into Photoshop. Place it on the top of all layers and name it MAN. Press Ctrl+T on your keyboard and resize it on proper size. Cut out the background around man with whatever tool you're comfortable working with. You can use e.g. the Lasso Tool (L), the Pen Tool (P) or the Eraser Tool.

After you're done go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and lower the Saturation on about -80. You may also use the adjustment layers as in all previous steps. But this adjustment is so small that I believe it's not necessary. But it's totally up to you!

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As you can see on the photo above man is too bright and it doesn't look realistic. To darken it go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and set the Input Levels on 15; 0,6; 255 to darken it.

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Step 12 - Adding Shadow to Man

Right now there is no shadow on the ground casted by a man you've added in previous step and because of that it doesn't look realistic. But you'll fix it in this step.

Right click on the layer MAN and select the option Duplicate Layer. Place the new layer under MAN and name it MAN'S SHADOW. Press Ctrl+T on your keyboard to activate the Free Transform Tool and follow instructions of the picture below to get the right shape and direction of the shadow.

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After you're done press Enter on your keyboard to confirm your changes.

As you can see there are some light parts of the shadows. To get rid of them grab the Brush Tool (B), pick dark brown color of the shadow and paint carefully over the lighter areas.

Your photo manipulation should be similar to the picture below after this step.

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Step 13 - Adding Colder Tones

When I was doing this photo manipulation I kept the hollow landscape of the Moon in my mind and tried to achieve its atmosphere. You'll do it too in this step.

In my imaginations there is very cold lighting on the Moon. To achieve that effect add new adjustment layer Color Balance on the top of all layers. In Tone palette choose Highlights and set the colors as shown on the following picture.

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On the picture below you can compare the atmosphere of the photo before and after this adjustment.

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Step 14 - More Magical Atmosphere

If there isn't so harsh transition between clouds and mountains the whole picture would have more magical atmosphere. You'll take care of that in this step.

Add new empty layer on the top of all layers and name it e.g. TRANSITION. Grab the Brush Tool (B), select some soft round brush and set its Opacity on about 15%. Pick some light cyanish color and gently paint over the parts of the image where mountains and sky meet. On the following photo you can get the idea where to paint and how much color you should add.

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16 comments on “How to Turn an Ordinary Landscape into a Dramatic Moonscape”

  1. Las imagenes para poder seguir el tutorial son muy pequeñas

    The images to follow the tutorial are very small

  2. I every time spent my half an hour to read this website's
    articles daily along with a cup of coffee.

  3. Excellent site you have here.. It's hard to find good quality writing like yours these days.

    I honestly appreciate people like you! Take care!!

  4. please i need more of your tutorial to be sent to my email please am need of it i beg you in the name of god

  5. Very good! The technique is applicable to many arraignments I have and will be very useful! I believe this to be an art onto itself. For some very, very, strange reason, there are people, (like my sister-in-law), who believe this is “cheating”. I reply with “Cheating what?!”

    I am always left dumbfounded as to what people are thinking when they say something like that. I have asked them if they would own/hang the art if the place in question did exist and was photographed in one shutter release?

    They actually say they would!! So what part of “art” don’t they understand? Lol It’s very frustrating to argue such an obvious point but trust me when I say that there are people out there that are very confused when it comes to this kind of work.
    Thanks for the tip!
    Rich

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