The Making of "A Walk in the Woods"

Jim Fenton had asked me how I made this image, so I decided to do a step-by-step walkthrough of my workflow and the techniques that I used for it.

Before starting, I want to point out that with these "enchanted forest" images, as I like to call them, it's all about the light and the mood it gives to the image. So as I work, I am constantly thinking how I want the lighting to look in the final image.

I use photoshop for all my processing. I also don't flatten any of the layers as I work so that I can go back and adjust the underlying layers if necessary.

The five main techniques that I used, each of which I will describe below in more detail, are:

1. Vignette
2. Orton effect
3. Light rays
4. Texture overlays
5. Blur overlay

Here is the original image. This is just one of a bunch of images I made that day, but I chose this one to process because it has the trail leading into the image with a logical space in the center for the light to shine through.

1. My first step was to add a curves layer to lower the brightness of the highlights and increase the contrast slightly.

2. I then added a vignette using the following steps.

(1) Select > All
(2) Select > Modify > Border - I think I set the width to about 50px.
(3) Select > Modify > Expand - I'm not sure I used this step on this image, but it's a good way to make the vignette larger if desired.
(4) Select > Feather - I think I used a radius of 200-250px.
(5) Repeated step 4 to make the selection even softer.
(6) Created a new color fill layer selecting black as the color and 100% opacity.

I wanted the top and bottom of the vignette darker, so I duplicated the vignette layer, lowered its opacity to 86%, and masked it off the left and right sides.

3. Next, I applied the Orton effect.

(1) Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E to duplicate the image onto a new layer and set the blend mode to screen.
(2) Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E to duplicate the image again and set the blend mode to multiply.
(3) I blurred the second layer(the one set to multiply) with Gaussian blur at a radius of 30px.
(4) I then created a new group from the two layers and lowered its opacity to 79%.

4. I then wanted to darken the top center portion of the image.

(1) Created a new color fill layer with black as the color and 39% opacity.
(2) Shift > F5 to fill the layer mask for the fill layer with black.
(3) Using a soft brush and a rather low brush opacity, I painted on the layer mask with white on the area I wanted to be darker.
(4) I also added a curves layer with a similar layer mask to darken that area even more.

5. Now for the part that really makes the image come alive, the light rays! The method I use is based on this tutorial, http://www.tutorialwiz.com/rayoflight.

(1) Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E to duplicate the image onto a new layer.
(2) Image > Adjustments > Threshold - I usually set the threshold level somewhere between 100-140. I don't remember exactly what amount I used for this image.
(3) Applied Radial blur with Amount: 100, Method: zoom, and Quality: best. I dragged the blur center to the top right corner because that's where I wanted the light rays to originate from.
(4) Repeated the Radial blur to make the light rays longer.
(5) Set the layer's blend mode to screen at 100% opacity.
(6) I then blurred the light rays slightly with Gaussian blur at a radius of about 5px.
(7) I don't usually do this, but I wanted the light rays a little lower down in the image so I used Transform > Scale to move the top left corner of the layer in a bit.
(8) I then added a layer mask and using a soft brush with black as the color, painted over the areas where I didn't want light rays.

6. Next I converted the image to black and white using Channel Mixer - Red: +30%, Green: +60%, and Blue: +10%.

7. Now for my signature technique, texture overlays. :S3: My old photo tutorial gives even more details on how I use texture overlays.

I first applied one of my own textures using hard light blending mode at 13% opacity(left image).

I then applied two curves layers, one to increase the contrast of the texture layer and one to increase contrast on the whole image after applying the texture, and a channel mixer layer at 34% opacity to mute the colors a bit(right image).

8. I applied the same texture again with soft light blending mode at 57% opacity.

9. I then applied a Selective Color layer using the following settings:

Whites > Yellow: +15
Neutrals > Cyan: -6 , Yellow: +14

I also added another channel mixer layer at 18% opacity to mute the colors a little again.

10. I applied a second texture, FallinApart from Shadowhouse Creations, using hard light blending mode at 48% opacity. I also blurred the texture with Gaussian blur using a radius of 50px(left image).

I then added two last curves layers, one to lower the contrast of the texture layer and the other to darken and increase contrast on the whole image(right image).

11. Last of all, I added a blur overlay, which produces a similar effect to the Orton effect but without increasing the contrast or saturation.

(1) Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E to duplicate the image.
(2) Blurred the layer with Gaussian blur at a radius of 20px.
(3) Lowered the opacity of the layer to 20%.

And that's it! Here's the final image.

Christopher, this is outstanding workflow! Love the transformation and your approach. Thank you so much for sharing.

Christopher, Thank you so much for taking the time to post your workflow. Excellent work and tutorial. The step by step with instructions will be a great help for those of us that want to recreate this look! Maybe we should do a Theme Week with this !!:S3:

This is great, Christopher, thanks for sharing your creative workflow with us. Really shows the thought and care that goes into crafting your artwork.

Denise, I think a theme on this would be a great idea! :S3:

Thanks Christopher for sharing the workflow on this lovely image!

Christopher, an outstanding step-by-step tutorial...THANK YOU!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Christopher Miller

Denise, I think a theme on this would be a great idea! :S3:

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Done, I called it Rays of Light so people could apply your technique to a bunch of different looks.:S3: Should be fun!!

Thanks Chris....wonderful image and awesome tutorial ...thanks again!