& Create Black and White Dramatic Storm Scene
Published on Wed, Oct-06-2010 by Edmar
Create Black and White Dramatic Storm Scene
Following this Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create dramatic black and white storm scene. Like on other our latest tutorials, we will use not only Adobe Photoshop software, but also Poser to create giant Poseidon. Using Poser you will be able to create a futuristic man body, but if you didn’t have Poser you can follow other steps in this tutorial and add yourself to storm scene, and also you will learn some tips how to work with black and white effects.
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Final Image Preview
Stocks Used:
1.Step – Body Rendering
Open up Poser to render our main human shape of the image. I used the default shape and changed it’s pose using the body transformation tools to give it some dynamism.
Then export your file to Cinema 4D. Move the render around to find the perfect perspective we need to render the body.
In the Material editor create a new material and then use the next settings:
Apply it on the body. Then use this next settings for the final rendering:
Do a second render, but now with the next settings:
This will render our body with a white wireframe to give a panel look to our final render we will use this to screen this effect over the first body.
2.Step – Body Extraction
Open both TIFF files on Photoshop and go to your Channels palette. Select the Alpha channel by holding (ALT+Click) over the layer thumb and invert the selection (CTRL+SHIFT+I) and press delete to remove all the black background we don’t need.
Do this for both images.
Drag both renders to the same document and overlap them. (This will make sure they match when we need to resize them and apply the effects).
3.Step – Background
Open up the Stormy Sea stock, unlock the layer (double click on the layer thumb) and desaturate it (CTRL+SHIFT+U). Go to Image -& Adjustments -& Brightness and Contrast and apply the next settings:
You can also use the Burn tool (O) set to “Shadows” with an exposure of about 6% and a Soft round brush to darken parts of the sea that were left too bright. Right now the sky looks boring and it doesn’t really fit our scene so we are going to replace it with a new one. Grab the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and select all the sky on the original stormy sea image.
Grab the First cloud stock, place it under the sea layer and desaturate it. Resize it to your liking on the canvas and flip it Horizontal. We want the main light source to be coming from the left. Then Apply the next Brightness and Contrast settings to give them a more dramatic look:
If you feel there needs to be more clouds to fill a bigger part of the sky you can use the Clone Stamp tool (S) or add a second cloud stock and blend it to the background. Open the Second Cloud stock and just like before desaturate it. Place it on the side of the document where you feel needs more clouds and apply the next settings:
To blend it to the background image, add a layer mask and brush using a soft round brush with color black around the edges to delete them:
To keep things in Order you can create a new Group (CTRL+G) and drag all your layers inside, rename the group “Background“.
4.Step – Renders Placement
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Create a new group and rename it “Body”. Drag both your renders inside of it. Resize them and place them on your canvas.
Set the render with the wire frame on top of the other one and set it’s Blending mode to “Screen” (you can change the opacity of this layer to your liking). If you want the wire frame to be more vibrant just duplicate the layer.
Add a layer mask to the whole “Body” group. Delete the lower part of the body to blend it with the sea.
5.Step – Human body Parts
Look for a stock that has a similar pose to the body of the render we did. It doesn’t need to be the exact same position because are are going to morph it to fit the image. I used two different stocks, one for the face and one for the body of the giant:
Using the Pen tool (P) cut a hole trying to follow the shape of the body, of the human parts you want to show:
Create a new layer for each selection you make and place it over the render layers. Stroke the selection with color white with a width of about 1px.
To blend the edge with the render outline, apply the next layer style settings. This will give a subtle shadow to the stroke:
Use the same settings for each individual outline you made. Grab your stock of the male face and place it under the body holes. Select the renders body and add a layer mask to the face to delete anything that shows outside the body. Desaturate the image and use the Brightness and Contrast Adjustment to match the environment. (It varies depending on the stock)
Now we need to match the face with the render features.Use the Transformation tools like “Warp” to manipulate the shape of the face.
Do the same for the lower part of the body.
Create a new layer between the human parts and the renders. Name this layer “Shadows“. Using a large Soft round brush paint around the edges to create a soft shadow. This will give some depth and the illusion that there is a human form using a shell-like armor.
6.Step – Body Details
Create a new layer on top of all the layers and name it
“Eyes“. Using a large soft brush to about 70% opacity stroke on each eye. Then with a brush half the size of the other stroke again this time with an opacity of 100%. This will make a nice glowing eyes effect:
7.Step – Boat
Open the Black Pearl boat stock, flip it horizontally and place it on your canvas. Although it’s black and white, it can still hold some hue so you may want to desaturate it first. Then just like before, apply the next Brightness and Contrast settings:
8.Step – Waves
Grab your first wave stock and place it under the ship image.
Desaturate it and apply the next settings to make it match the high contrast of the sea:
Add a layer mask and using a large soft brush with color black, start masking all the hard edges of the stock image until its blended with the sea:
Do the same for the other stocks. Put them where there would be bigger waves and where the water would be splashing against larger objects:
9.Step – Rain
Create a new layer on top of all the layers and fill it with black. Then go to Filter -& Noise -& Add noise and use the next settings:
Then go to Filter -& Blur -& Motion blur and apply the next settings:
This will make the rain drops look like they are falling down. We need to make the rain drops more defined so apply the next settings:
Set this layer Blending mode to Screen. If you want the effect to be less intense you can apply even more contrast to the blured noise. Increase the size of the layer to hide the top and lower parts, rotate it a bit and duplicate it. Rotate the duplicated layer even further to make the rain effect more realistic:
10.Step – Highlights
Create a new layer over the render body layer and clip mask it (ALT+CLICK between the layers). According to the light source that is located on the top left corner, using a large soft round brush with color white with an opacity of about 30% start brushing around the edges of the body:
Do the same to the boat and any other large object that would have some light casted on it:
11.Step – Splashes Details
We need to add more water splashes to the waves and also the rain hitting the boat and the body. Therefore I used this water stock:
Mask some of the largest parts of the stock out and use the warp tool to change the direction of the droplets. Put them where the waves break: Keep duplicating, transforming and masking parts of the stock to fit the motion of the water.
Create a new layer on top of all the layers. We are now going to create little drops of rain hitting the boat and the body.
Grab a textured brush like this:
And using white color with 80% brush opacity start painting some details of rain over the edges of the object. Use the Eraser tool with a soft brush to erase some bits of the raindrops:
12.Step – Sharpening
Save your file as a jpeg on maximum quality and open it on Adobe Photoshop. Duplicate the layer and go to Filter -& Other -& High pass. Use a radius of 2 pixels and change the Blending mode of the layer to Overlay.
And there you go! Here is the final Result:
Final Result: Black and White Dramatic storm scene
Download Psd file
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Written bySplit Toning Black and White Photos With Photoshop
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& Split Toning Effect
Split Toning Black and White Photos With Photoshop
Written by Steve Patterson.
In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we're going to look at an easy way to give a photo a split toning effect. The term "split toning" means we'll be adding a color tint to the highlights using one color, and then using a different color to tint the shadows. The two colors you use can be similar, giving you a subtle effect, or they can be complete opposites. It's really up to you and the effect you're going for. Whichever colors you choose, split toning an image can be a great way to add more visual interest to a black and white photo. As with most things in Photoshop, there's several different ways to create a split toning effect, but in this tutorial, we're going to look at one of the easiest ways. We'll be using a couple of Photoshop's adjustment layers, one to convert our full color image into a custom black and white photo, and then another to add our colors to the highlights and shadows. A nice thing about this technique, besides being easy, is that it allows us to create the split toning effect without harming a single pixel in our image!
Learning Photoshop has never been easier!
Here's the photo I'll be using for this tutorial:
The original photo.
Here's how it will look with our split toning effect:
The photo after applying a split toning effect.
Let's get started!
Step 1: Add A Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
The first thing we need to do with our split toning effect is convert our image into black and white. There's quite a few ways to convert a color photo to black and white in Photoshop, but one of the best ways is by using a Channel Mixer adjustment layer, which will allow us to create our own custom black and white version rather than allowing Photoshop to make all the decisions for us. Since we're using the adjustment layer version of the Channel Mixer, we can safely convert our image to black and white while leaving the original full color image intact. Click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose Channel Mixer from the list that appears:
Click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon and choose "Channel Mixer" from the list.
Step 2: Select The "Monochrome" Option
This brings up Photoshop's Channel Mixer dialog box. In the bottom left corner of the dialog box is the Monochrome option. Click inside its checkbox to select this option. As soon as you select it, you'll see your image in the document window convert to black and white:
Select the "Monochrome" option at the bottom of the Channel Mixer dialog box.
Step 3: Create A Custom Black And White Version Of The Image
In the center of the Channel Mixer dialog box are three sliders, labeled "Red", "Green" and "Blue" from top to bottom. These sliders represent the red, green and blue color channels in the image. If you want to learn more about color channels in Photoshop, be sure to check out our
tutorial in the
section of the website, but basically, these three slider bars allow us to create a custom black and white version of our photo by mixing different amounts of the red, green and blue colors in the image to give us different results. Dragging the red slider towards the right, for example, causes any areas with red in them to appear lighter in the black and white version, while dragging the slider towards the left causes
areas with red in them to appear darker. The same goes for the green and blue sliders. There are no &correct& settings for the sliders, since each image is unique and your idea of the &perfect& black and white version of the image will also be unique, so the best thing to do is to simply drag the sliders around while keeping an eye on your photo in the document window until you're happy with the results.
The only rule to be aware of with the sliders is that the total percentage of all three sliders should equal 100% when you're done. You'll see an input box above and to the right of each slider, with a number in the box that changes as you drag the slider. The number you see is the percentage of that color that's currently being applied to the black and white version. When you're done converting your image to black and white, the total of all three boxes should equal 100%. Anything less than 100% causes your image to appear darker than it should be, while going above 100% will lose detail in the highlights. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about doing the math. The Channel Mixer conveniently lists the current percent total directly below the sliders. For my image, I'm going to go with a mixture of 70% red, 20% green and 10% blue to create my black and white version, which gives me a total of 100%. Your values will most likely be different depending on the photo you're working with:
Drag the Red, Green and Blue sliders to create a custom black and white version of your photo, making sure the total of all three is 100% when you're done.
Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Channel Mixer dialog box, and you'll now have your black and white version of the image. Here's what my photo looks like after converting it to black and white:
The image after converting it to black and white with the Channel Mixer.
Keep in mind that we haven't really converted the image to black and white. The original full color photo is still there, sitting safely on the Background layer in the Layers palette. Everything we've done to convert the photo to black and white is being handled by the Channel Mixer adjustment layer sitting above it in the Layers palette. If we were to delete the adjustment layer, our full color image would appear in the document window once again.
Step 4: Add A "Color Balance" Adjustment Layer
Now that we've converted our photo to black and white, we're ready to add some color to the highlights and shadows. For that, we'll use another of Photoshop's adjustment layers. Click once again on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and this time, choose Color Balance from the list:
Add a Color Balance adjustment layer.
Step 5: Select "Highlights" And Choose A Tint Color
This brings up Photoshop's Color Balance dialog box. The Color Balance adjustment works great for our split toning effect because it allows us to easily switch between the shadows and highlights in the image simply by choosing either the Shadows or Highlights option at the bottom of the dialog box. Once we've chosen the shadows or highlights, we can use the color sliders to select the color we want to use and it will be applied only to the shadows or highlights. Let's start with the highlights in the photo. Select Highlights at the bottom of the dialog box:
Select the "Highlights" option in the Color Balance dialog box.
With the highlights now selected, use the color sliders to dial in the color you want to tint the highlights with. The top slider will add red or cyan to the image depending on which direction you drag the slider. The further you drag the slider, the more intense the color will appear in the image. The middle slider will add green or magenta, again depending on which way you drag the slider. The bottom slider will add blue or yellow. It helps to know a little Color Theory 101 here if you need to mix colors together to create the one you want, but I'm going to keep things simple. I'm going to add a bit of yellow to my highlights by dragging the bottom slider towards the left until the third Color Levels input box at the top of the dialog box shows a value of -15:
Dragging the bottom slider towards the left to add yellow to the highlights in the image.
If I look at my photo in the document window now, I can see that the highlights have been tinted with a small amount of yellow:
The highlights in the photo are now tinted with yellow.
Step 6: Select "Shadows" And Choose A Tint Color
We've added a color to the highlights. Now let's add a different color to the shadows. Select the Shadows option at the bottom of the dialog box:
Select the "Shadows" option at the bottom of the Color Balance dialog box.
With the shadows now selected, we can dial in a different color to complete our split toning effect. Again, I'm going to keep things simple by adding some red to my shadows. I'll drag the top slider towards the right until the first Color Levels input box at the top of the dialog box shows a value of +35:
Dragging the top slider towards the right to add red to the shadows in the image.
Of course, the colors you choose for your shadows and highlights may be completely different from the ones I've chosen here. I just happen to like this particular effect, with yellow in the highlights and red in the shadows. Click OK when you're done to exit out of the Color Balance dialog box. If we look in our Layers palette, we can see that we now have three layers. The original, full color image is on the Background layer on the bottom, the Channel Mixer adjustment layer directly above it is what's giving us our black and white effect, and finally, the Color Balance adjustment layer at the top is adding our tints to the shadows and highlights:
The Layers palette showing the two adjustment layers used to create the split toning effect.
And with that, we're done! Here, after adding some red to my shadows, is my final split toning effect:
The final split toning effect.
And there we have it! That's how to create an easy split-toning effect with Photoshop!
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