In this tutorials, we are going to craete photo scary effect using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. But before you need set up your dramatical portrait picture using a few light in the corner and take some shoot of your friend, or you can make it alone by dressing and shot yourself (Read prev article about Photographing low light portraits).
Ok lets get starsted.
There are 10 step, and every step need about 1 minute to create this photo scary effect.
1. Open your image in adobe camera raw
>This will give you all the same non-destructive photo adjustments that you have available for processing raw files-- white balance, exposure, fill light, brightness, contrast, sharpening, noise reduction, red eye removal, straightening, and so on.
2. Adjust the tone and Color Temperature:
In a main “Basic” tab set color slider temperature to 2700 (if ordinal was shot with flash then set it to about 3500) adjust other settings look like diagram below. Please note that settings may vary a bit depending on original image. Adjust the “Exposure” slider last, for desired look.
3. Set Dramatical ”Vignetting”:
Click on “Lens Corrections" tab and adjust Vignetting. This is the first time I actually find a use for this feature. It helps to make the image more dramatical looking. Just follow the settings diagram below.
4. Always Duplicate the Background Layer.
This is a back up: If you mess something up you will always have the original layer. To do so: in layers window Right-Click on desired layer and select “Duplicate Layer….”5. Sharpen out of Your Shot:
For this image we really want to sharpen the edges by creating a high pass. To do so Duplicate the layer, select the new layer – in top menu go Filters > Other > High Pass > set the number so you can see the edges of the ghost image. The number is different depending on image size. For 8mp image it’s about 3.5 while for 18MP image it would be around 9. Hit OK. It should look all gray with little detail.
6. Blending the High Pass:
In layers window , select the new “gray” layer and change blending mode of this layer to “Hard Light” (if the image gets too sharp you can change blending mode to “Soft Light” Then merge both layers together (high pass one and the one under): to do so - select both layers and hit command-e (or control-e on PC)
7. Change the Eyes Color:
In tools: Chose “Color Replacing Tool" brush. Set setting according to screen shot below. Choose desired color for your brush mine was “ad3029” and paint over each eye detail should stay the same but the color will change.
8. Liquify the Face.
To do this stuff: select final top Layer and in top menu go Filter > Liquify a new window will open. I used the “Forward Warp Tool” to pull the ears out and bring the sides of the mouth down and to lift up the nose. You can really play around there.
9. Flatten your image. And Save.
Layers > Flatten Image10. Share your Shot:
To post your images here. Change Image > Size to 500px width and save as a jpeg. Use “share your shot” feature in comments to post it from your computer. Or upload your shot on flickr and insert “grab html” code into image url window.Final Result:
