This week I tried to make my photo look like it was taken at night under the moonlight…

Since I started out with a photo that was taken a little overexposed (and then modified) I had to do a bit of work to get it dark, but still retain visibility of the image.  My original idea was to just put a blue wash over the image, but it required a few more tweaks to get it to the image above.

Below is a tutorial of how I accomplished this image.  You will notice that many of the ‘tricks’ I used were things I’ve been doing for the past two months in the challenges, just applied to create a different effect.  As I’m always saying, hopefully you’ll gain some knowledge from the tutorial about new concepts, and then experiment to apply them to your photos in new ways.  You are only limited by your own imagination. 😀

You will need:

• A photo editor, I used GIMP*
• Your imagination

Moonlight Tutorial – Quick Glance: Create a New Layer (transparent), fill with a dark blue, change blend mode to Multiply. Duplicate base layer, apply Hue-Saturation adjustments, change blend mode to Value. Duplicate hue-saturation layer, apply Hue-Saturation adjustments, change blend mode to Value (optional). Create a New Layer (white), change opacity to 50%, change blend mode to Color. Create a New Layer (transparent), fill with a dark brown, change blend mode to Multiply, add a Mask (black), paint in White the areas that need fixing, adjust the opacity to 70% (optional). Create a New Layer (transparent), using the gradient tool create a square gradient, change the blend mode to Overlay. *** The order of the layers does matter, keep this in mind as you create the new layers. ***

Detailed Notes:

1.Create a New Layer (transparency), fill with a dark blue, change blend mode to Multiply.

This first layer will lay the foundation for the rest of the image… once we have a blue-wash over our photo we can see what needs to be done to make it look more like a moonlit night… Fill the layer with a dark blue (something night-like, I used the color picker tool on my current sky and then adjusted the V  and S values until I liked the blue), Edit->Fill with FG Color. Then change the blend mode to Multiply.

2.Duplicate base layer, apply Colors->Hue-Saturation adjustments, change blend mode to Value.

I mainly reduced the saturation and the lightness in the master section, then I adjusted the cyan and blue in an attempt to darken the blue sky.

3.Duplicate hue-saturation layer, apply Hue-Saturation adjustments, change blend mode to Value (optional).

The sky wasn’t quite dark enough for me, so I applied another layer of hue saturation concentrating on cyan and blue lightness values…

4.Create a New Layer (white), change opacity to 50%, change blend mode to Color.

Ok we are getting close, but you know how things seem to be less colorful at night?  This layer will reduce the saturation of the whole image…

5.Create a New Layer (transparent), fill with a dark brown, change blend mode to Multiply, add a Mask (black), paint in White the areas that need fixing, adjust the opacity to 70% (optional).

We are nearly there, I felt that the light on the trunks was a bit too much for night time, so I added a dark brown layer, added a black mask, then painted the areas on the trunks that were too bright with a white brush on the black mask.  I changed the blend mode to multiply to make it darker, and I reduced the opacity to 70% to get the look I wanted…

6.Create a New Layer (transparent), using the gradient tool create a square gradient, change the blend mode to Overlay.

And now for the finishing touch.  I still had some highlights from where the sun peeked through the leaves, so why not make it seem like it was a full moon?  I added a gradient to make some of the image light and other areas dark… this layer was the most experimental (trial and error)… I originally started with a radial gradient up in the upper left hand corner down to the lower left hand corner, then continued to pull the gradient off the image… eventually I tried a square radiant and made the line I created go from the upper left hand corner to the lower right hand corner… this one worked the best for this image…

Which will give you something like this…

don’t forget to change the blend mode to overlay…

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial!  Lots of ‘tricks’ here that can be used in other ways, I hope you experiment with these concepts!

Until next time…
~nic

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* GIMP is Open Source software that is available for all platforms (Linux, Mac, and Windows), it is a photo editor that does many (if not all) of the things you can do in Photoshop. You can download it for free here. The GIMP online manual can be found here.

Like Wilber? You can get him here.

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I have joined a month-long photo post-processing challenge called One Four Challenge, hosted by Robyn at Captivate Me. “This challenge is about processing １ image in 4 different ways over 4 weeks.” Every Monday Robyn posts a new version of her photo and challenges us to do the same each week.

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