Could you post a tut on just how you got to the stage your at please, if you have time that is?
Sure Paul, I’d be glad to try. Bear in mind this is a detailing of the steps I took (an abbreviated version at that) and not a tutorial. You could pretty much learn basic Photoshop from one of us by following along on the creation of such a composition (not to put myself anywhere near The Making of Times Square, lol).
There are over 30 layers and I’m not sure how many have already been merged, so this is not a real quick explanation, but I’ll condense it.
I start by removing all the things I don’t want in my scene. This includes the handrail, people, cars, and electrical lines. This is perhaps the most time-consuming , meticulous part. I use the clone tool and some painting for that. I used the pen tool to removed the parking lot and replaced it with a downloaded “texture” which is dark grey bricks.
Then using the pen tool to outline the daytime sky -- I save this workpath – then delete that portion of sky. I use the quick select tool between and around the tree leaves, delete sky, then use the clone tool and maybe some paint brush to replace and fill in some of the leaves. At some point, I play around with a levels adjustment on the sky to bring it into the tonal range, etc., wanted.
When I’m more or less satisfied, I replace the sky with an image of my own. I made this starry sky during our Planetary Challenge. I use the transform tool to get the star clusters positioned, then reexamine the edges and tree for areas that might need cleanup.
The next step is to make this a night time scene. I use exposure, levels, and curves adjustments for this and make several selections to adjust or I paint on the adjustment mask to change the amount of adjustment on select areas.
Some of the bricks I paint with a lavender color and set blend to Hue. The courtyard doorway is cut out with the pen tool and replaced with light. I have an entire grouping of light and shadow effects alone. I increase the courtyard glow, the steps and the spillover onto the sidewalk using paint brush and soft light or overlay mode.
I make a pen tool cutout of the inside of the lamp and fill that with a pale yellow and add inner and outer glows all set to overlay mode. I do the same to the small lamps but with white and far less glow. I do the same to the sky lights with blue. The house windows I cut out with the pen and also use glows (normal blend mode). The castle windows I cut out and fill with a chartreuse, use an outer glow, and set mode to screen.
I do some painting to adjust the saturation and hue of the castle and the hillside and set that to Hue.
I make a selection of the blue roof on the left and create a shadow to change the sun’s highlites and shadows. Shadows are created in various places, along the walls on the street, on the bushes, and other select areas. By the same token, highlites are added such as to the grass. The plants coming over the wall on the front right needed a levels or curves adjustment to bring out some detail. I add a layer I call color punch set to overlay to bring back some brightness to the house and the grass. On agentmoeller’s suggestion I reduced this some with a gradient overlay making the house a bit darker on the right edge and lighter as it comes closer to the streetlight. Initially, I thought it was kind of surreal and hinted at other light sources on the house front, but this is probably just confusing so I have changed it, but am still not quite satisfied with my result.
I went “shopping” to an online frame store, chose one and altered the tones to darken them and fit the “mood.”
These are the basics. It was fun and I hope you’ll try it Paul. You’ll learn a lot about compositing, use of the pen tool, various blend modes, layer effects, and matching color tonality. Maybe you could try it with a racing car scene as I know you like that subject matter. You could create one of the night time semi-legal drag racing scenes! Just kidding.
Thanks for asking. I hope this helped. :mrgreen:
Here is the latest version. What do you think agent?
