The following techniques will teach you to create a moody and ominous fantasy landscape. The world of Tolkien (author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit) easily provides inspirational context for countless images of this sort. The only things you’ll need are Photoshop and the opportunity to take your own stock photos. Third party images almost work as well as your own photos, but might limit your possibilities in certain situations.
Before you start with your image, think about the key elements that should be present. Be sure to have enough stock footage for your mountains in order to avoid repetition. By reading this tutorial, you’ll learn how to combine different photos to create new mountainscapes and add that little bit of magic to your scene.
Special focus is given to working with composition and how to create depth of field, using Photoshop gradients and the right cloud and haze effects. Last but not least, you’ll learn how different adjustment layers help to push your image to a whole new level aesthetically.
It’s also beneficial but not absolutely necessary for you to use a drawing tablet when performing this tutorial. It really helps when creating image parts such as fog and clouds, which need to be painted.
Read more in Advanced Photoshop 114, on sale at www.imagineshop.co.uk and www.greatdigitalmags.com from 3rd October 2013.