How To Turn Your Photo Into The 300 Movie-like Effect

Have you seen the 300 movie ? Do you like its fantastic effect ? If the answer is yes, this tutorial is for you. It will show you how to implement amazing things to your photos.


What you need to have: Adobe Photoshop
What you will learn: colour mood adjustments + depth of field effect + film effect
PS: ⌘ key for Mac users / CTRL key for Windows users
Colour mood adjustments
1. Adjust the Hue/Saturation: ⌘U/CTRL-U


2. Adjust the brightness and contrast: Menu > Image > Adjustments > Exposure…


Depth of field effect
3. Duplicate current active layer by dragging it to the ‘create a new layer’ button located at the bottom of Layer window.


4. Apply lens blur on the new layer on top: Menu > Filter > Blur > Lens Blur…
Adjust according to your own preference.


5. Click on the ‘add layer mask’ button at the bottom of Layer window. Then click and select the ‘Layer mask thumbnail’ (the white rectangle).


6. Select brush tool(b), set the master diameter to 400px. Then choose the focus point in the photo and click on it.



Film effect
7. Create a new layer by clicking the ‘create a new layer’ button located at the bottom of Layer window.

8. Fill the new layer with black colour: reset colour to default black & white (d), switch black colour to background (x), fill the layer (⌘-del/CTRL-backspace)
9. Set the opacity of the black layer to 70% by pressing ‘7′

10. Use erase tool(e), set the master diameter to 400px. Then start erase the center of the photo.


11. Flatten the image: Menu > Layer > Flatten Image and add noise: Menu > Filter > Noise > Add Noise…


Cinemascope (optional)
12. Add black bars on top and bottom of photo and it’s done!
Use Rectangular Marquee Tool(m) to select (drag) upper part of photo, hold the shift key and select the bottom part, fill with black colour (⌘-del/CTRL-backspace)


You can also add an extra step to twist the colour into this mood by using ‘Color Balance’(⌘B/CTRL-B). Drag the slider towards cyan and blue for Shadows, Midtones & Highlights.

Samara 'The Ring' Horror Movie Effect

		Set up the canvas size first:
		Then let`s take Samara`s picture:
		We gonna use a background now for her:
		So now will have:
		In order to get a cool efect let`s create some frames. Frame #1 will be exactly the image you got first page:
		Frame #2: For this frame, take Samara`s layer and duplicate it (Layer -> Duplicate Layer)
		Then aply Motion Blur of 5 px (Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur). Move Samara`s layer before duplicate with 2 pixels left and then move the duplicated layer 7 pixels to the left. Move the background with 2 pixels to the left. Now you should have: So far we have 2 frames: #1 samara and the background and #2 with Samara`s layer moved 2 px left and then Samara`s duplicated layer (also blurry this time) moved left with 7 px
		We wont stop here, we move next to the frame #3
		What you need to do here is to duplicate the blurry layer and mirror it, i mean move it to the right having the exact 7 pixels to the right. Move the background with 2 pixels to the left.
		Ok, next frame, move the left blurry image with 2 more pixels to the left. Move the background with 2 pixels to the left.
		Frame #5: Deselect the left blurry layer,
		move the original Samara image layer to the right with 2 pixels. Also, move the background with 2 pixels to the left.
		Frame #6: The last layer will be the result of deselecting every layer and having just the original Samara layer, i mean you`ll have just the first layer with her and move the background with 2 pixels to the left
		Using ImageReady: And the final will be Samara effect:

Transform a Daylight Photo into a Sin-City Inspired Night-Scene Image

Step 1

Download a copy of the following image. Load it into Photoshop.
This is a photo I took while holidaying in London, you can use it freely anywhere.

Step 2

Use a big black brush with the following settings to gentle brush over the image, you should pay attention to the sky in particular.

Step 3

Use another big brush with a hard-mix mode, brush over the other left hand side of the buidling with red roof, this will create some extra contrast and kill some day lights. See below for detailed settings:

Step 4

Go to Image > adjustments > level and alter the RGB level of the image a bit. See below for detailed settings:

Step 5

Double click the background layer to unlock it, duplicate this background layer once, click on the duplicated layer and go to image > adjustment > curve to adjustment the colour contrast a bit, see below for details:

then set the layer blending option to “color-dodge” by right-click on the layer and choose “blending options”. See below for detailed setting:

Step 6

Duplicate the background layer once more and put it on top of the previously duplicated layer, change the layer blending option to “lighten” (See below) and apply some Dodge and Burn tool effects (use a big brush for overall effect, a smaller brush for fine-tune details).


You should now have the following image (or similar):

Step 7

Go to image > adjustment > channel mixer and apply the following settings:

This is the image so far:

Ok, that’s it for this tutorial, you can use your own imaginatios from here and add some street lighting and further adjust the existing lighting condition. Have a try!
Here is my finished work:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial! Any comment or feedback, just drop me a comment!
Thanks and have a great day!