Learn how to create a dark mysterious hideout in a rocky mountainous place in Photoshop. How will we find this tutorial useful? Well, I won’t brag about this tutorial, so I have to tell you that I won’t promise you special or sophisticated techniques used in this tutorial. However, by reading and following this tutorial, you will be amazed on how simple and essential techniques like blending, masking, color adjustments, basic painting and some others can be easily applied to create a nice scenic panorama.


What you’ll be creating


The idea of this tutorial is just simple is that creating dramatic scene featuring rocky mountainous place set in dark scenic atmosphere which people may assume (just like I do hehehee…) to be a hideout where vampires, ghost or sorts of reside. So get yourself ready with your Photoshop CS3 or newer, a glass of tea or coffee and….. a pack of cigarette will be good companions. Let’s start !


final result


Tutorial Resources



Step 1


Open Photoshop and start creating a new document in it by hitting Ctrl+N. Set the size of the document like the one shown in the screenshot below:


step1a


Firstly, I tried to map what I had in mind by creating gradual scratches about the scene I am going to create. Here it is:.


step1b


Step 2


Well, make sure that we have downloaded all stocks in the stock list and save them in our computer. In this kind of photo manipulation, finding good stocks will be essential. Good and suitable stocks really will help us to execute the idea we have. In this early step we will create the right composition of our scene. Open the stock image. Take lasso tool in the tool panel and cut out the rock highlighted in red. I named this cut out rock 1


step2a


Step 3


Add the cut out to the main document. Take free transform tool (Ctrl+T) and then scale its size. Place it in left part of document. Here is the screenshot for your inspiration.


step3a


Duplicate the rock 1 layer (Ctrl+J) and place the duplicate where needed as shown in the screenshot. Select all the rock layers and group them in one folder. I named this folder rock.


step3b


Step 4


Proceed to add another rock to fill the composition on the left of the scene. Open the other rock image and cut out the red highlighted part. I named this cut out left rock..


step4a


Add the left rock to the main scene. Make sure to position this left rock layer above the rock folder. Take free transform tool. With the tool scale its size to the one needed. We need to alter the perspective of this rock, to do this right click on the document when the free transform tool still activated to show up free transform option. Choose perspective. Drag the anchor point to the direction shown in the screenshot to alter the perspective of the rock:


step4b


Duplicate the left rock layer and move the duplicate to the right side to place it in front of the rock created in previous step 3. I named this duplicate right rock. Take the free transform tool and alter the shape of this right rock by warping it.


step4c


Step 5


In this step we will add waterfalls to the scene. Open the waterfall image and cut out the part needed.


step5a


Add the waterfall to the main scene. Scale its size and place it between the right and left rock. Flip it horizontally and alter the perspective to have the one like this:


step5b


Here is what we should have so far….


step5c


step5d


We need to hide some unneeded parts of the waterfall layer. I think we know what to do to execute this purpose, don’t we? Yes…..! We use layer mask…! Give this waterfall layer a layer mask and mask parts unneeded as highlighted in red to hide them. Use a very soft round brush to mask them.


step5e


Here is the result I created after being masked.


step5f


Next, duplicate the waterfall layer and move the duplicate to the right a bit to have the result like the one below. Don’t be panic if you do not get the exact result like the one I created, you can compose your own waterfall composition like you prefer. It’s not a big deal, is it? So can we go on now?


step5g


Step 6


Ok, let’s go to the next process. Select the right rock layer again to be active on it. Give this layer a layer mask. Mask some areas where needed as highlighted in red. The main purpose of this masking is to blend the layer to the rock behind it. Use a very soft brush to do this. To alter the shape of the rock edges we can mask them as well, we should use chalk brush taken in the brush preset to this purpose.


step6a


step6b


Step 7


Proceed to add another object in the scene. Place the castle image in the main document. Scale its size and position it behind the rock folder created in previous step 3.


step7a


Hide the background of this image by masking it.


step7b


step7c


Step 8


We need the other stock image to be added to the scene. We use this image for this purpose. Cut out the some part of the rock in the image.


step8a


Add the cut out in the document. Scale it size and place it in front of the right rock layer. Rotate its position to have the one like I did:


step8b


Mask parts unneeded.


step8c


Step 9


Now add the bridge to the scene. Scale its size to the one we need. Position this layer in front of the waterfall between the right and left rock.


step9a


Step 10


In this step we will add tunnels or caves ( I am not sure myself what they are….LOL)in the scene. We use this image to fulfill this purpose. Cut out the part needed.


step10a


Add the cut out to scene. To blend it to the rock behind, mask the edge of the cut out. I named this cut out left cave.


step10b


Duplicate the cave layer. Flip the duplicate horizontally, scale the size and place it in front of the rock on the right. Mask areas where needed.


step10c


Step 11


Finally we will add cloud and moon as the background for the scene. Place the cloud image in the scene. Make sure to position this layer behind all the other layers. The moon will give dramatic nuance to the scene, so it will something fantastic if we position the moon right behind the castle. Don’t you agree? So be it…..!


step11a


We need to fill the blank part of the background. We do this just simply by duplicate the cloud layer. Scale the size of the duplicate to the one needed and move it to the left to cover the blank. Where is the moon? The moon is now covered by the cloud.


step11b


Give the duplicate layer mask and mask areas round the moon to reveal it. Here it is now:


step11c


step11d


Step 12


I decided to hide some areas on the rock 2 layer by masking them. So go to rock folder created in previous step 3. Open the folder and select the rock 2 layer. Give this layer a layer mask and mask some areas around it as indicated in red color.


step12a


This is what I did as the result:


step12b


We need to alter the shape of this rock a bit. To do this, we will get ride some upper part of the rock.


step12c


Give the rock folder a layer mask and mask the upper part of the rock.


step12d


Step 13


So far we have almost finished the composition of the scene. However referring to the moon as the main light source, the front sides of the right and left rock are too bright while the moon is in upper position behind them. The moon light does not shine that much on the areas. We will fix this in the following step.


step13a


To fix the bright parts, we will give them the other rock texture. Open the rock image and cut out the part used to be texture:


step13b


Scale the size of the texture and place it in front of the left rock to cover the bright part of it.


step13c


Then give this texture a clipping mask.


step13d


Finally mask some parts of this texture where needed.


step13e


Duplicate the texture layer. Move the duplicate downward to cover the rest of the bright parts of the rock. Here is the result I created for our inspiration. Select the left rock and texture layers and hit Ctrl+G to group them in a folder. I named the folder left rock.


step13f


Do the same ways to cover the bright parts of the right rock by giving them the same rock textures.


step13g


Step 14


Now we will fix the castle. We will get rid of the people seen in the image, we do not need the people. There should be vampires or Dracula living there instead…. LOL.


step14a


To get rid of the people we can do this by painting over them, using clone stamp tool or patch tool. On my own, I used simple way to do this purpose. Cut out the nearest wall and use the cut out to cover the people. Make sure to give the cut out layer a clipping mask.


step14b


step14c


Mask the edges of the cut out to blend them well to the main wall.


step14d


Do the same ways to cover the other parts of the image.


step14e






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