Day to Night

[GreenKing]

Had a go at changing an image from day to night.

 

This is the original daylight image.

 

 

This is the night image from the above

 

 

Has it worked?

 

John

 

 

[geodar]

I like it, looks more like a painting. not sure about the lighter bricks on the bridge wall under the lamp post though.

geoff

[Guest]

Yes, very effective but I think you could lose the lightness on the wall at the left as there is no evident source.

I have tried this myself but prefer true night shots on the whole.

[annie]

I love it....how on earth is it done?

[JMRead]

Hello John,

 

I like this unreservedly it's got a surreal and romantic look about it.

 

Cheers - Jim

 

Just my personal take on it, I would add a figure in a dance pose underneath the lamp, someone who loves to pose in the night just for the love of being there and doing it.

[NannyFerret]

I really have to be different, as I love the lighting. It really adds to the effects.

In fact I love everything about it!

[ChrisLumix]

I think it's 95% there - fantastic! My only criticism is the white window frames - in the nighttime shot they look like luminous paint.

 

How did you do it?

[Korky]

I like it too - it's obviously not a genuine night shot, but the effect is very well done.

 

I'm inclined to agree with the others re the bits and bobs, but a simple job to put right.

 

And..... it's not just your PS twiddling that makes it work so well, the composition of the shot is also spot on - the lamp is perfectly placed in the frame.

 

Korky

[heyitsdiggy]

I like this. I agree that it looks like a painting. I think it has a fairly ethereal look to it which really suits the image.

[Black Pearl]

Interesting post and a fun thing to have a go at.

 

Is that Berwick?

[GreenKing]

Thank you all for your constructive comments.

There are plenty of tutorials available online, the only problem I found is that seem to be particularly targetted at  the particular image they are using, consequently you can get some odd results using your own images. The only way to do it I found is to develop your own techniques. I have produced an action which does part of the basic work, thereafter further work is dependent on the image used.

 

 

 

Is that Berwick?

 

You're absolutely right, it is Berwick.

 

John

[ChrisLumix]

Thanks for that John. I went onto Google to have a look and weirdly enough, the first tutorial I saw was very good, and probably says all you need to know : http://www.adobe.com/inspire/2014/01/day-night-photoshop.html

 

The only problem is that CS2 probably doesn't have Colour Range that includes Shads/Mids/Highs like CC does, but there will be another way to do it - longer for sure, but will achieve the same thing in the end. I found his use of the lasso strangely counter intuitive; I NEVER use the bog standard lasso, I alternate between Magnetic and Polygonal (I find the standard lasso worse than useless, as why would you ever use that rather than the polygonal??). But otherwise it was a great tutorial and well worth bookmarking.

[GreenKing]

Hi Chris,
I have had a look at that tutorial and it is not the way I do it.
"Select colour range" is to me a bit of a hit and miss method. I do the the opposite by turning the whole the scene into a night-time photo and then paint back the highlights. To create the night-time scene, increase the contrast of the original layer by +50 and copy  to a new layer. on the copy layer, goto "image"  "adjustments" "hue/saturation" and reduce the master channel saturation to about -50. Do the same for red and yellow channels. Click ok. It will need more contrast so use "image" "adjustment" "curves" with the output about 40 and input about 90. click ok. To add the night effect goto "image" "adjustments" "Photo filter", click on the Color and enter RGB 15,105,150 move the density upto 80/90%. You should now have a layer that looks as if it may have been taken at night. Increase or decrease the lightness to a level acceptable to you..

For the highlights take a copy of the original, drag it to the top of the stack add a mask (black) and with a soft brush paint in the highlights (make sure the flow is no more than 10%). Note if you are adding highlights from a lightsource that did not exist in the original you will need to change the hue and saturation of the copy to simulate the correct lighting.
 Hope this helps.

John

[ChrisLumix]

Hi Chris,

I have had a look at that tutorial and it is not the way I do it.

"Select colour range" is to me a bit of a hit and miss method. I do the the opposite by turning the whole the scene into a night-time photo and then paint back the highlights. To create the night-time scene, increase the contrast of the original layer by +50 and copy  to a new layer. on the copy layer, goto "image"  "adjustments" "hue/saturation" and reduce the master channel saturation to about -50. Do the same for red and yellow channels. Click ok. It will need more contrast so use "image" "adjustment" "curves" with the output about 40 and input about 90. click ok. To add the night effect goto "image" "adjustments" "Photo filter", click on the Color and enter RGB 15,105,150 move the density upto 80/90%. You should now have a layer that looks as if it may have been taken at night. Increase or decrease the lightness to a level acceptable to you..

For the highlights take a copy of the original, drag it to the top of the stack add a mask (black) and with a soft brush paint in the highlights (make sure the flow is no more than 10%). Note if you are adding highlights from a lightsource that did not exist in the original you will need to change the hue and saturation of the copy to simulate the correct lighting.

 Hope this helps.

John

 

I've tried your method John. I've got a stage where the buildings look more 'nighttime' (though one section is still perfectly 'visible', and there are still black shadows in the road which are cast by the bright sun in the original) - but the sky is still light!! How do I get a dark sky following your method? (I could 'magic wand' it and then use Levels, but I'm trying to follow your method step by step).

[NannyFerret]

It would make a brilliant back drop for another pic to be placed on.

[colinb]

an interesting picture and rather well done, I'm not going to suggest do this or that because I know you can spend hours tweaking here and there and sometime you just have to say 'that'll do'  - nice 

[GreenKing]

Hi Chris,

 

Getting rid of the shadows should be fairly easy. This is how I do it.  Take a copy of your nightscene into a new layer. Increase the lightness until detail returns to the shadows. The rest of the picture will probably be burnt out. Now create a layer mask, fill it with black and with a soft brush paint out the shadows. Make sure the flow of the brush is about 5% so that you can control the removal of the shadow bit by bit. It can be a slow process but if you have the flow too high and go too far you end up having to start again. When you are satisfied that the area where the shadow was, blends in nicely with the ajoining area then the job is done. At this point I would merge the 2 layers, but before doing so I would make a copy of both layers and turn off their visibility. I do this as the copies will serve as a reminder in the future of the actions I have taken. I also amend the name of the night layer to indicate that 2 layers have been merged. I suppose it is just housekeeping on my part.

 

If you have a building that is too light, use the same procedure as above, but darken a copy of the nightscene in a new layer.

 

Remember that after brushing in the areas, if you switch from the mask to the layer (the mask layer) you can adjust contrast, colour etc of the brushed in area so you can be fairly accurate with your matching.

 

The sky is a separate issue and I will detail the procedure to you shortly.

 

John

 

 

[ChrisLumix]

Hi Chris,

 

Getting rid of the shadows should be fairly easy. This is how I do it.  Take a copy of your nightscene into a new layer. Increase the lightness until detail returns to the shadows. The rest of the picture will probably be burnt out. Now create a layer mask, fill it with black and with a soft brush paint out the shadows. Make sure the flow of the brush is about 5% so that you can control the removal of the shadow bit by bit. It can be a slow process but if you have the flow too high and go too far you end up having to start again. When you are satisfied that the area where the shadow was, blends in nicely with the ajoining area then the job is done. At this point I would merge the 2 layers, but before doing so I would make a copy of both layers and turn off their visibility. I do this as the copies will serve as a reminder in the future of the actions I have taken. I also amend the name of the night layer to indicate that 2 layers have been merged. I suppose it is just housekeeping on my part.

 

If you have a building that is too light, use the same procedure as above, but darken a copy of the nightscene in a new layer.

 

Remember that after brushing in the areas, if you switch from the mask to the layer (the mask layer) you can adjust contrast, colour etc of the brushed in area so you can be fairly accurate with your matching.

 

The sky is a separate issue and I will detail the procedure to you shortly.

 

John

 

Thanks John. Instead of using a layer mask on the shadows, might it work if I used blending mode on a duplicate layer set to Darken (or Lighten? I always get those two mixed up!) ? Then the opposite blending mode on the building that's too light?

[GreenKing]

Thanks John. Instead of using a layer mask on the shadows, might it work if I used blending mode on a duplicate layer set to Darken (or Lighten? I always get those two mixed up!) ? Then the opposite blending mode on the building that's too light?

 

I don't see how it would work, but you could try if you would be more comfortable doing it that way. If you look at the original daylight shot of mine you will see that there is a shadow behind the wall which has been removed perfectly using the method I described. There are some many different ways of achieving the same results in photoshop, it is really down to personal preference.

This is how I did the  sky. First isolate the sky in the night scene and copy it to 2 new layers. Mark the top layer "Stars" and the underneath layer "night sky". For the moment turn off the visibility of the "Stars" layer. Select the sky in the "night sky" and fill it with black. deselect the sky area in the layer. Click the mask button. Select the gradient tool and the black to white gradient making sure that linear gradient is selected. From a position just below the skyline in your picture press shift as you click and drag upto the top. If your nightscene is turned on, the sky should now be dark at the top and lighten as it approaches the skyline therefore blending in with the rest of the picture.

Now turn on and select the "Stars" layer. Select the area of the sky in the layer. Fill the area with black. Goto  Filter, Noise, Add Noise. Goto to Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur making the radius 0.25 pixels. Goto Image, Adjustments, Levels and amend the shadows to 215 and highlights to 230. Change the blending mode to screen. You should now have a dark starry sky. If the stars are overpowering  you can reduce the opacity. I have mine set at 45%.  

Hopefully I haven't missed anything and the above works ok.

John