Step 1
Create a new document sized 1000px * 800px, fill the background layer with Black.
Download the following textures from CG Textures and we will use them later on in this tutorial.
Old Building
Rust
Dusk
Grass
Step 2
Load the "Old Building" image into Photoshop, then use the Move Tool (V) to drag the entire image onto our document, resize it to the centre of the canvas:
Name this layer as "Old House". Use the Eraser Tool (E) with the following settings, remove the sharp edges of the building:
Step 3
Now we can add a bit of lighting contrast to the old house. I would like the upper side of the image to be brighter than the bottom part of the image.
Still on the "old house" layer, apply the following Curves Adjustments (Ctrl + M):
Then apply the following Levels Adjustment settings (Ctrl + L):
Then apply the following Black and White Adjusments (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + B):
The effect so far will look like this:
Step 4
Now we can give this old house some angle and perspectives so it looks not so boring and still.
I used the Free Transformation Tool (Ctrl + T) and apply Distort, Perspecitve and Scale techniques and make the image looks like this:
By doing so you can also expend the depth of the image so later on you will have greater flexibility to add more stuff onto it.
Step 5
Load the "Rust" image into Photoshop, select the centre portion of the image as shown below:
Copy and paste the selection back to our document, this will automatically create a new layer. Name it as "rust texture" and free transform it until it cover the old building:
Then apply the following Curves Adjustments (Ctrl + M) on this layer:
Then change the layer blending mode to "Soft Light" and you will have the following effect:
Step 6
The is an Optional Step: To further enhance the rusty effect, duplicate the "rust texture" once and go to Filter > Brush Storkes > Dark Stroke and apply the following settings:
Reduce the opacity of the duplicated layer to 60% and you will have the following effect:
Step 7
It still look a bit boring if there is just a building ono the canvas, then I thought: why not add some sky and cloud texture on top of building?
Load the "Dusk" image into Photoshop, select the centre portion of the image as shown below:
Copy and paste the selection to our document and name the layer as "dusk sky" and rotate and position the image as shown below:
Then apply the following Levels Adjustments settings:
And you the effect so far will look like this:
Step 8
We can now add some freshness into the image and it will somehow balance the feel of the image a bit so it won't look too dark.
Load the "Grass" image into Photoshop. Select a random portion of it as show below:
Copy and paste the selection onto our document and name the layer as "grass texture". Resize and position it as shown below:
Use the Eraser Tool with a big round brush, set the flow and opacity to 60% and 0% hardness, gently erase the centre portion of the grass texture so it reveal the old house:
I also duplicated the grass layer a couple of times and used the Clone Stamp Tool on the duplicated layer just to increase the density of the grass:
Step 9
To further enhance the lighting contrast and create some dynamic light for the image, we can create a new layer and use the Lasso Tool with a 40px feather, draw a few joint selection and fill them with Black and render some cloud:
Then apply the following Lens Flare Settings:
Then Apply the following Levels Adjustments:
Then change the layer blending of this layer to "soft light" and you will have the following image:
Then you can duplicate the lighting layer a few times and drag it to different positition where you want to add more light:
Ok that's it for this tutorial! The rest is left upon your own creativity :)
Below is my final image for this tutorial: (I added some more lighting effect and used some brushes I downloaded from qbrushes.com)
Hope you enjoy this tutorial and find it useful and inspirationa!
If you have any questions, just drop me a comment :)
Cheers and have a nice day!
