In this tutorial I’ll be showing you how to create a dramatic landscape from a rather dull photo I took when I was visiting Mount Athos in less than 5 minutes. The concepts you’ll learn in this tutorial apply to any image you want to manipulate. You can also experiment with the numbers yourself, to get a different result.

Step 1

Here is the dull photo I took that we’ll be using:

Download it here

Step 2

Open up the image with Adobe Photoshop. The image needs to be straightened out. To do so, first go to Layer > Duplicate Layer.

Step 3

Next, with the new layer selected which contains the image, go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T).

Step 4

Inside the rotation field, type in 1.3. You can also experiment with the rotation value and increase it or decrease it in order to rotate the image, more or less. Positive values rotate the image clockwise whereas negative values rotate the image anti-clockwise.

Step 5

Inside the Layers Window (F7), hide the background layer by clicking on the eye icon next to the layer. Next, select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M) and make a selection of the image, excluding the empty stripes created from the rotation of the image.

Step 6

Select the Dodge Tool (O), change the brush size to 298 and make sure it’s a soft brush (Hardness is at 0%). Change the Range to Highlights and the Exposure to 6%. Then brush (holding the left mouse button), in this case, on the castle and on the water, around the center area of the image. The trick with using the Dodge Tool and Burn Tool effectively is to brush an area, then release the mouse button and brush again over the same area to enhance the effect.

You should end up with an image similar to this one:

Step 7

Next is the Burn Tool. Select the Burn Tool (O), change the brush size to 570 and make sure it’s a soft brush (Hardness is at 0%). Change the Range to Midtones and the Exposure to 20%. Then brush (holding the left mouse button) around the same area where you used the Dodge Tool. Again, the technique is the same, as with the Dodge Tool.

You should end up with an image similar to this one:

Step 8

The hardest part of this tutorial is finished. You should’ve spent around 3 minutes to complete Steps 1-8. Next, some colour correction to be made and the sky to be added. Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves (Ctrl+M) and in the RGB Channel create an “S” like curve. View the image for reference. This will enhance the contrast, boosting up the highlights and darkening the dark parts of the image.

Step 9

The water is a bit too muddy and needs its blue colour back. So, go to Layer > New > Layer (Shift+Ctrl+N), select the Brush Tool (B), make sure it’s a soft brush (Hardness is at 0%) and change the size to 370. Then click on the Foreground Color and set a blue colour (#0069c2). Brush over the water until it is fully coloured.

Step 10

With the layer that you coloured the water being selected, from within the Layers Window (F7), change the Blending Mode to Soft Light and reduce the Opacity to 60%.

Step 11

Go to Image > Image Size (Alt+Ctrl+I) and change the width of the image to 2000px.

Step 12

Now go to Layer > Merge Visible (Shift+Ctrl+E) to merge the visible layers.

Step 13

The image we’ll be using for the sky is from http://www.sxc.hu called “Stock Photo: .|Sailing|.” and you can download it here.  Go ahead and open the image with Photoshop. Then Select the image (Ctrl+A), Copy the image (Ctrl+C)and Paste (Ctrl+V) it inside the project, on top of all the other layers.

Step 14

With the sky image layer selected, from within the Layers Window (F7) change the blending mode to Multiply.

Step 15

Next, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All and select the Brush Tool (B). With a soft brush and a black colour, brush inside the lower part of the image, erasing thus the sky layer that overlaps the castle.

You should end up with an image similar to this one:

Step 16

Now, the light that falls on the castle comes from the left and the sky’s light is located on the right making the scene not so believable. Select the sky layer. To do so, click on the Layer Thumbnail from within the Layers Window (F7). Then go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal to change the direction of the sky’s light to match the direction of the castle’s light.

Step 17

Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves (Ctrl+M) and inside the RGB Channel draw a curve just like the one showed in the image below. The idea is to darken the dark parts of the image while maintaining the highlights as they are.

Step 18

Next, overall colour correction. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation and inside the Master Channel increase the Saturation by +10. Next, go to the Reds Channel and increase the Saturation by +20.

Step 19

Create a new layer, Layer > New > Layer (Shift+Ctrl+N), select the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill the layer with a light orange-yellow colour (#eeae00). Next, with the layer selected, change the Blending Mode to Color Burn and the Opacity to 35% from within the Layers Window (F7).

Step 20

Now go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels and decrease the center and left slider. Change the center slider’s value from 1.00 to 0.90 and the left slider’s value from 255 to 240.

Step 21

Now, let’s create a vignette. Create a New Layer, Layer > New > Layer (Shift +Ctrl+N). With this layer selected, choose the Eliptical Marquee Tool (M) and make a selection around the castle. Go to Select > Inverse (Shift+Ctrl+I) to select the outer part of the selection. Take the Paint Bucket Tool (G) and with a black colour, fill in the outer part of the image.

Step 22

Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and enter the value 250. Click OK.

Step 23

Here is the final image. P.S. the castle is not really a castle, it’s a monastery.

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Download the source file used in this tutorial: DOWNLOAD SOURCE FILES