This gonk is for life, not just for Christmas

We’re always looking for unique post-processing techniques that transform mediocre images into money shots with an eye-catching and totally unexpected effect. This Photoshop tutorial begins with a concise question that gives the technique away: “Do you want to transform a bright, sunny day into a dramatic night scene?”

The lesson comes to us from the Photoshop PixelFie YouTube channel, a popular resource for learning the concepts behind powerful-image-editing methods “so you can visually translate your imagination.” If you’re familiar with Francoise Truffaut’s iconic film Day for Night you likely have a good idea of what to expect.

In barely two minutes today’s unnamed instructor demonstrates how to master this stunning effect in just a few steps, and he walks you through the straightforward procedure.  Be sure to download the sample image with a link beneath the video, so you can follow along and make the changes yourself as they’re explained.

This approach is valuable for all sorts of subjects, from landscapes and wildlife photos to street scenes and even environmental portraits. You’ll begin by clicking on the Adjustment Layer icon and selecting Hue/Saturation. Then drag the Saturation slider to the left, setting the value at -65 to tone down the colors.

Next head back to the Adjustment Layer icon where you began and choose Color Lookup. Now open the 3D Lut option from the dropdown in the Properties panel and choose NightFromDay.cube. At this point you can make the image even more moody if need be.

Return to the Adjustment Layer icon again and this time select Levels—dragging the slider to a value of about 115 to further darken the highlights. Then adjust the top slider to  0.85 to soften brightness a bit more.

Now for the magic part: Click on the Background Layer, grab the Quick Selection tool, carefully select the sky, and click on the Layer Mask icon. By doing so the nighttime sky appears over your photo. Just like that, the transformation is complete.

There’s much more of interest on the Photoshop PixelFie YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look when you have time to explore.

We also suggest watching the tutorial we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates how to use Photoshop’s Color Balance adjustments to refine colors in photographs to create spectacular landscape images with a realistic look.

The Color Wheel is a simple but oft-ignored tool that that enables photographers to visualize the interplay between various tones and how be they can be combined to increase the impact of an image. If you don’t understand this important concept and how it works, today’s video will get you up to speed.

In less than five minutes Instructor Anthony Crothers explains how this tool enables you create a unique style of your own by employing color combinations that set your work apart. You’ll learn how to create harmonious effects, capture photos with more depth and dimension, and imbue your images with a wide range of emotions from power and energy to calm, peace and serenity.

As you’ll see, the Color Wheel is comprised of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors that can be manipulated to tell a story and create dramatic high-contrast images and other attention-grabbing effects. He illustrates the power of this approach with several different types of photos.

Crothers explains the principle like this: “Most of us use color in our photography without too much thought, but by thinking about what shades you use and how you match colors together you’ll see a massive improvement in your images.” In fact, he insists that the simple Color Wheel is the most useful tool for experimenting with various tonal palettes.

He explains that “the primary colors (red, blue and yellow) are evenly spced around the graphic circle, with the secondary colors (green, orange and violet) falling in between.” Then there are the intermediate tones known as tertiary colors; namely shades between primary and secondary colors.

He notes that secondary colors are made by mixing primary colors together, and tertiary colors by mixing primary and secondary colors. So what are the practical applications of all this theory and how can you put it to work to create compelling images of whatever you shoot.

Crothers provides such a succinct explanation in the last three minutes of the lesson that we won’t bother to summarizing it here. Suffice to say that there are various scenarios in which the Color Wheel is so helpful that it should become your new best friend.

After watching this episode head over to Crothers’ instructional YouTube channel, where you can find other game-changing tips and techniques that you may have missed in the past.

We also recommend watching the tutorial we posted earlier from another top expert who demonstrates how to bring dull landscapes photographs to life with a transformative Lightroom Color Range Mask technique

Over the years, I’ve received some criticism on my photography, and I think that’s a good thing. I’ve appreciated all of it, because on the whole it has made me a better photographer. After all, I have so many blind spots where I just don’t see problems. But there is one interesting piece of criticism that I’ve gotten many times, which was also part of a comment in one of my recent articles: Jason, your birds aren’t doing anything interesting! What do I think about that?