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Happy Halloween Everyone!

We hope to scare the hell out of you with this tutorial. And we hope that you will, in turn, will scare hell out of many people after you try it out.

I remember back in school when we were working on a project that involved creating a realistic looking self-portrait mask. One of the students (a smart-ass) asked out loud: “What are we suppose to do with the final piece?”.My sculpture professor, Karin Guisti, replied, “Well, you can wear it for Halloween and be something really scary.”

If you are attending or hosting a costume party this year it might be a great idea to set up a few lights in the corner and take some shots of your friends. If you are planning to spend this day alone you can still dress up and take some really scary shots of yourself. Robert’s video, above, will show you the set up, step by step. You can make your images even more horrific in Photoshop by following these steps. It only takes about 10 minutes:

10 Steps in Under 10 minutes:

Make a Scary Image Even Scarier using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop.

1. Open your image in adobe camera raw.

If you don’t know how to open files in Adobe Raw look at our previous tut: How to Open and Edit Images in Adobe Camera Raw

2. Adjust the Color Temperature and Tone:

In a main “Basic” tab set color temperature to 2700 (if ordinal was shot with flash then set it to about 3500) adjust other settings as per diagram below. Please note that settings may vary a bit depending on original image. Adjust the “Exposure” slider last, for desired look.

3. Set desired ”Vignetting”:

Click on “Lens Corrections” tab and adjust Vignetting. This is the first time I actually find a use for this feature. It helps to make the image more mysteries looking. Just follow the settings below.

Once you are done hit: “Open Image” button. The image should open in Photoshop.

4. Always Duplicate the Background Layer.

This is a back up: If you mess something up you will always have the original layer. To do so: in layers window Right-Click on desired layer and select “Duplicate Layer….”

5. Sharpen the Hell out of Your Shot:

For this image we really want to sharpen the edges by creating a high pass. To do so Duplicate the layer, select the new layer – in top menu go Filters > Other > High Pass > set the number so you can see the edges of the ghost image. The number is different depending on image size. For 8mp image it’s about 3.5 while for 18MP image it would be around 9. Hit OK. It should look all gray with little detail.

6. Blend the High Pass:

In layers window , select the new “gray” layer and change blending mode of this layer to “Hard Light” (if the image gets too sharp you can change blending mode to “Soft Light” Then merge both layers together (high pass one and the one under): to do so – select both layers and hit command-e (or control-e on PC)

7. Change the Color of the Eyes:

In tools: Chose “Color Replacing Tool” brush. Set setting according to screen shot below. Choose desired color for your brush mine was “ad3029” and paint over each eye detail should stay the same but the color will change.

8. Liquify the Face.

I gifted Robert with elf ears, nose and a cute smile. To do this stuff: select final top Layer and in top menu go Filter > Liquify a new window will open. I used the “Forward Warp Tool” to pull the ears out and bring the sides of the mouth down and to lift up the nose. You can really play around there.

Click “OK” when you are done.

9. Flatten your image. And Save.

Layers > Flatten Image

10. Share your Shot:

To post your images here. Change Image > Size to 500px width and save as a jpeg. Use “share your shot” feature in comments to post it from your computer. Or upload your shot on flickr and insert “grab html” code into image url window.

Final Image:

Give this tutorial a try and SHARE your Shot with our community.