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How To Create A Dreamlike Effect In Photoshop For Surreal Imagery – Surrealist photography has been around since the beginning of photography. Between in-camera tricks, special production techniques in the darkroom, and techniques used to crop and retouch photos, many retro effects can be made more easily and quickly using image editing software.
In this article we will look at five different techniques to take an ordinary photo and turn it into something amazing.
How To Create A Dreamlike Effect In Photoshop For Surreal Imagery
I will use Photoshop CC for the examples, but most of the techniques can also be obtained in other software such as GIMP. I should also point out that while I provide a step-by-step guide for each example, I strongly recommend experimenting and modifying how you use the process. What works well for a particular photo does not mean that the same settings and techniques will work for another image.
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For this process we create an image where the original is duplicated, reversed and overlaid on the original. The result can be very strange.
To begin, open your image in Photoshop. I am using Studio Portrait image by ZoeLouisePhotography, which is licensed by CC-BY, modifications are allowed.
Duplicate your background layer. The easiest way to do this is to select the Background layer in the Layers palette, then press the keyboard shortcut.
(Mac). Alternatively, you can click and drag a layer to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.
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Select your new layer in the Layers palette and rotate it 180° so it’s on top. To do this you can click
(Mac). Move the mouse cursor outside the photo so it looks like a double-headed arrow. Then click and drag counter clockwise to change the layer. take it down
Contrast blending mode shows areas that are completely opposite in tone (such as the underlying layer) as white, while areas that are actually in tone (such as the underlying layer) are shown as black. Differences between the two dimensions are shown in shades of gray. The lighter the difference between the two layers, the less dark the difference.
Use the Crop tool to crop the image so that only the area where the two images overlap.
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), and left the picture in color instead of going black and white. As a final step the image doesn’t even change.
A single channel mixer is often used when running false color infrared photos. However, you don’t need to take an infrared photo to create a false color image. You can use the same technique for standard images.
This technique cannot be used in Photoshop Elements, as PSE is missing a channel mixer adjustment. But both Photoshop and the full version of GIMP will work just fine.
If you want to follow along with this tutorial, the image I’m using is a forest by Emily Dupre, licensed under a CC-BY license that allows modification.
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The idea is to get a red forest, so we will alternate the red and green channels. Whatever is green will be red, and whatever is red will be green. By setting the red channel to +100 green and 0 red, we are telling it to use the green channel for reds. But it still doesn’t look like red because the green channel is still used for green, so anything that’s originally green is a combination of green and red.
Converting the green channel to only red +100, green 0, blue 0 gives a brown looking image. By further reducing the green to -50 we allow the red channel to show through the original green area. We added +50 blue to make the image not too dark, because leaves and grass usually don’t have much blue. The total balance of the channels should be 100% to keep the same brightness and avoid showing a color cast on the whole picture.
Finally, add a curve adjustment to brighten the image and increase contrast. Moving the curve up in the brighter midtones and lowering it in the shadows ensures that the brighter tones are brighter without affecting the darker tones.
This process is similar to the first, except instead of using a single copy of the layer we are rotating, we use several copies offset from each other by the same distance.
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This technique is based on recording the activity of repeating the same steps several times in a row. GIMP and Photoshop elements do not allow recording actions, although you can get the same result by repeating the steps yourself.
If you want to follow along, the image I’m using is sabin paul croce by Studio Photo C sabinpaul. Again, this image is licensed CC-BY, allowing modifications.
Open your image. We need to move the layer, but this cannot be done with the priority layer ‘Background’, so we must change it to a normal layer. To do this, double-click the background layer name, then click OK on the Rename Layer box that appears.
Use the Move tool to move the layer to the right side of the canvas where you want the image to start. Then change the blending mode of the layer
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. (The Blending Mode switch will not show any effect at this point because there are no layers behind it).
A box will appear asking for the job name. We will record the work to make sure that we place the image at the same distance if we reproduce the image. So the name of the action doesn’t matter – you probably won’t need the action again because it will be specific to this image. Click the download button.
(Mac). Select the duplicate layer in the Layers palette. Then use the Move tool to offset this layer from the layer below. Adjust this layer so that the face on the right (roughly) overlaps the face on the layer below. Then click the Stop button on the Actions palette to stop recording the activity.
In the Actions palette, select the action you just recorded and click the Play button. This will repeat the process you just noted.
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Finally I put an invert adjustment layer on top of the middle image layer. I then clipped this to the middle layer
Clipping the invert adjustment to the midde image layer means it only affects that layer. But because of our use of a Contrast blend mode on image layers, this change in our center layer also affects how the background and overlay images look.
The use of texture in photography is common and does not necessarily create an unrealistic feeling to the image. Normally a texture will be used as an overlay, more prominent than the main image texture.
However, with this technique, the texture takes on a more important role, especially the sensitive parts of the main image.
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The original image I am using is Landscape by Loïc. This image is licensed under CC-BY-SA, modifications are allowed. The texture image I used is an old baking tray, which you can download here.
Open your base image in Photoshop. Then add the texture as a new layer above the image. The easiest way to do this is by
Another way is to open both images in Photoshop, then arrange the windows so that you can view both documents at the same time. Click and drag the background layer from the texture image to copy it as a new layer.
After adding the texture layer, you may need to scale it to cover the background image. When saving a file, it will be automatically saved with Free Conversion active. While dragging a layer on another image, you can click
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Select the new layer mask in the Layers palette. Make sure your foreground and background colors are black and white (click
This will make the ‘clouds’ in your texture layer mask. A mask shows white and hides black, with shades of gray. So the bright parts of the ‘clouds’ show your texture layer, while the dark parts appear in the image layer below.
(Mac) to run the filter again. The cloud filter is random, so you will get a different result every time.
For this technique we take a black and white image, then offset some color channels to create a two color or three color image. Doing this in GIMP is a little more involved because you can’t move color channels. You can also achieve the same result with a little work: moving the color channels separately in GIMP.
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Similarly, Photoshop Elements does not allow you to adjust color channels separately, but you can work around this. Simply duplicate your image into three grayscale layers, then follow this guide to make the layers work as RGB color channels.
On the keyboard), then click and drag the image to move. Move only a small amount.
Next select the blue or green channel, and move the red channel to the same position as you moved. For instance. If you move the red channel horizontally, move the green channel vertically.
For variations on this technique, try just one move
