Create a Mysterious and Eerie Surreal Image in Photoshop

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create an eerie depiction of a dream through photo-manipulation. We are going to learn how to create a seamless surreal image of a mysterious window-headed man in a haunting, desolate road. We are going to learn the process of creating depth of field using a few Blur tools. We will learn how to create light and darkness to make the background look seamless. We are going to learn how to use textures and give life to our image, and we are going to learn how to create a moody, black and white tone using a few adjustment layers.

Step 1: Create a New Image File

Let’s start, first create a new image file, go to the Menu bar and click File > New, and then input the following values on their respective fields:

Width: 3000px
Height: 3000px
Resolution: 300pixels/inch
Color Mode: RGB Color; 8 bit
Background Contents: Transparent

Step 2: Create the Road

In this step, we will be creating the foreground of our picture which is the road. To begin, open the image “road 5” by night fate stock. Once you have the image is open, remove the watermark by cropping the image. To do that, activate the Crop tool by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + C on your keyboard. See the images below:

Once you’ve cropped it, activate the Move tool by pressing V on your keyboard. After activating it, left-click on the image and drag it to the 3000x3000pixel canvas. Move and position the road on the canvas as shown on the image below:

We positioned it there so it would be easier for us to resize that image into a square. Now, before resizing let’s rename this layer to “road”. To rename a layer, simply double-click on the words: “layer 1” (that is our road image) to prompt a text box to appear. Once that appears, you may now rename the layer.

After that, we will now proceed to resizing. First, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T). Activating this will prompt little squares to appear on each side of the image. Once done, right click on the canvas to bring up the contextual menu and choose “Rotate”. The next step is provided on the image below:

The result should appear like this:

Don’t worry about its uneven sides, we’re going to fix that later.

Now, activate the Transform tool again (Ctrl/Cmd + T) because we’re going to resize the image. Drag the little square on the lower right-hand portion of the image to the bottom to fill the canvas and do the same thing on the top to fill the uneven portion. See image below:

The result should be similar to the image below:

Next, activate the Transform tool again (Ctrl/Cmd +T), and then right click on the canvas to bring up the contextual menu. Once open, click on “Warp”.
When activated follow the instructions below:

The result should be similar to the following:

Now, we would need to adjust the road’s Color Balance to make it blend with the next series of images. Select the image and go to Image > Adjustments

Color Levels: -24, -12, 0
Tone Balance: Midtones
Preserve Luminosity: Check

The result:

Step 3: Create the Sky

Now, we will proceed to creating the sky. First, let’s open the image “Canim Lake 4”. We’re going to use the sky of this image because it blends well with our road. To transfer this sky to our canvas, first activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M).

To use this tool and select the sky, simply point and drag the mouse from one point to another. See image below:

When you’re done, activate the Move tool (V) and drag the selected part of the image to the canvas. Before positioning make sure that this layer is on top of the “road” and Color Balance layer. Position it as shown on the image below:

Finally, rename this layer to “sky”.

Step 4: Create the Background

In this step, we’re going to create light and darken some areas – to make it short we’re going to make our background seamless, like it was just one photo.

First, let’s select the “road” layer and then activate the Burn tool by pressing O on your keyboard. Why did we activate the Burn tool? – Because this tool “burns” or darkens areas in an image.

Brush size: 100px
Hardness: 0%
Range: Midtones
Exposure: 15%

Now, let’s start “burning” the “road” layer.

The result:

Next, let’s create some light! Activate the Brush tool (B) and then make sure that the brushes are the default brushes. To make them the default brushes, simply right-click on the canvas while the Brush tool is activated and then click on the drop-down button to show the contextual menu. Once open – click on “Reset brushes”.

Once that’s done, create a new layer (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N) and once a box appears, input “Light 1” on the Name box. See image below:

Once that’s done, create a new layer (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + N) and once a box appears, input “Light 1” on the Name box. See image below:After that, input the following for the Brush tool (B):

Brush size: 900px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 15%
Flow: 100%
#: ffffff

To change the color of the brush, simply follow the instructions below:

Now, after all that is done, let’s now create the light:

Next, let’s create another layer and name it “Light 2”.
And once that’s done, input the following settings:

Brush size: 900px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 15%
Flow: 100%
#: ffffff

After that, let’s create another layer and name it “Light 3”.

Use the following settings:

Brush size: 900px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 8%
Flow: 100%
#: ffffff

The result:

Next, let’s create another layer and name it “Light 4”.

Use the following settings for it:

Brush size: 200px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 10%
Flow: 100%

The result:

Next, we’re going to darken some parts of the images. To start, let’s create a new layer – name it “Darken 1” and then input the following settings:

Brush size: 2000px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 15%
Flow: 100%
#: 000000

Note: #: 000000 – this is color black.

The result should be similar to the following:

Next, let’s create another layer and this time name it – “Darken 2”.

Once done, input the following for the brushes:

Brush size: 1000px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 15%
Flow: 100%
#: 000000

The result:

Create another layer again and name it – “Darken 3”.
Input the following brush settings:

Brush size: 1000px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 15%
Flow: 100%
#: 000000

The result:

Lastly, let’s create another layer – name this layer: “Darken 4”.

Brush size: 2000px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 25%
Flow: 100%
#: 000000

The result:

Now that we’re finally done, let’s group these layers. To do that, select all the layers that you’ve created and then press Ctrl/Cmd + G. You’d notice that a folder will be created; to see the layers, simply click on the drop-down button. Rename this Group to “Background”.

Note: Renaming a group is similar to renaming a layer.

Step 5: Create the Depth of Field

In this step, we will create the Depth of Field. The depth of field makes it easier for the viewer to focus their attention to the subject of the image/photo by blurring the background of foreground. In this case, we will be blurring the background.

To start, let’s select all the layers (Ctrl/Cmd + Left-click on a layer) from the “Background” group and Merge them. To merge them, simply right click on any of the selected layers and click on the “Merge Layers” from the contextual menu.

After merging them, the result would be similar to this:

Now, let’s start creating the depth of field. Let’s start by selecting parts of the sky and the road. To start, activate the Polygonal Lasso Tool by pressing L on your keyboard.

Once activated, follow the instructions shown on the image below:

Next, we would need to save this selection for later use. To do that, go to Select > Save Selection and just press OK once the box opens.

After that, let’s use a mask, so Enter Quick Mask mode by pressing Q on your keyboard. You’d notice a red field on the region which isn’t selected.

Now, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and input the following:

Radius: 16.0 pixels

Now that you’re done, exit Quick Mask mode by pressing Q again and then Load your selection by going to Select > Load Selection (the selection we made earlier will be automatically loaded).

Now, let’s go now to the process of blurring the background. To start, go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur. Once it’s open, input the following:

Now, take a look at the image – depth of field has been created.

But if you’d notice this depth of field looks fake, so we would need to blur some parts, manually.

To do that, activate the Blur tool (R) and then input the following Blur tool settings:

Brush size: 250px
Hardness: 0%
Mode: Normal
Strength: 100%

Blur the following parts:

The result:

Step 6: Create the Hanging Window

Now we will begin adding the subjects to our artwork. First, open “Window” by Mehrunnisa stock and then activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M).

Select the window:

Once you’ve made the selection area, activate the Move tool (V) and drag the selected window to our canvas. Once on the layer, rename it to “Window”.

Next, we will create the ropes as to where the window will be hanging from. Open “Swing Stock 2” by Shoofly Stock. Once open, activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M).

When you’ve created the selection area, activate the Move tool (V) and drag the selected swing to our canvas.

Once in the canvas, rename this layer to “swing”, also, remember to put this layer below the “window” layer.

Now, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T) and then resize the swing as shown below:

Now, we’re going to cut the swing from its ropes. To do that, simply follow the instructions shown below:

The result:

Step 7: Create the Scene inside the Window

Now that we’ve created the window and the rope, let’s now take a peek on what’s inside this window! First, let’s remove the white part of this window. We can do that by selecting it using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and pressing Delete. See image below:

Next, let’s create the scene! Open Cliff type 2_2 by the Strawberry Tree. Once open, simply move the image to our canvas using the Move tool (V) and then after moving it, rename it to “Cliff”. Take note that you should put this layer below the swing and the window.

Position the cliff on the region shown below:

Next, activate the Transform tool (Ctrl/Cmd + T); we would need to resize this image. Resize it as shown below:

After that, activate the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) once again and create a selection area as shown below:

Next, press Ctrl/Cmd + J on your keyboard to duplicate the selected layer – once that’s done, just deleted the original “Cliff” layer.

The result should be like this:

Step 8: Create the Mysterious Man

Now, let’s create the man. Open “Suit Stock 2” by rhyfelwr stock and activate the Polygonal Lasso tool (L). Use the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) to remove him from his background. See image below:

Once you’ve created a selection area over the man, activate the Move tool (V) and drag the selected man to our canvas. Once on the layer, rename this layer to “Man” and position this layer below the “cliff” layer. See image below:

Next, let’s create “man’s” shadow. First, create a new layer and name it “Shadow 1”. Put this layer below the man’s layer and then activate the Brush tool (B) and then input the following brush settings:

Brush size: 80px
Hardness: 0%
Opacity: 15%
Flow: 100%
#: 000000

Now, let’s paint!

The result should be similar to the following:

Once you’re done, select all the layers – window, swing, cliff, man and create a group. Name this group, “objects”.

Step 9: Create the textures

Now, let’s begin adding paper and metal textures to give our image a surreal feel. To start, let’s open “Metal texture 15” by wojtar stock. Once open, activate the Move tool (V) and drag it on to our canvas and place it on top of all the layers that we created.

Next, transform this texture as shown below:

Now that it covers the whole image, let’s change its Blending mode to Multiply and Opacity to 40%. See image below on how to change these two:

After changing the Blending Mode and Opacity, the texture would give the image this effect:

Next, let’s open “Paper Texture 1” by Wojtar Stock. Once open, activate the Move tool (V) and drag it on to our canvas and place it on top of all the layers that we created. Transform it so it would cover the whole image (like what we did with the metal texture). Next, change its Blending Mode to Soft Light, Opacity: 40%.

The result should be similar to the image below:

Step 10: Retouch the image

Now it is time we retouched our image to give it a more surreal feel.
To start, let’s create a Solid Color adjustment layer from the Create New Fill/Adjustment layer button located on the Layer Window.