JUMP TO TUTORUAL
You wouldn’t know it from looking through my blog, since all of my photos are very light, but I love a dark, moody photo. Especially if they have twinkly lights in the background. That gets me every time. The problem with dark photos is that they don’t always seem to work out for me. They’re difficult to get with just a camera. Not to mention, the subject can be incredibly difficult to see if you’re not being intentional with your lighting.

So this is something I’ve been attempting to practice. The photos themselves are…getting better. But to push them into what I want, I’ve been using some of my favorite Photoshop tactics. I love the way they turn out, so I’m going to share the tutorial with you!

Setting up the photos

First, you’ll want to carefully choose the backdrop for your photos. I went with black foam board. I used a second black foam board to block out a lot of the light. This way, a lot of the ukulele is in shadow.

For the angle, I’m really liking the head-on view. So you’re at eye-level with the subject. But do whatever you think works!

Once you have your photos, you’re ready to start the tutorial!

When it comes to a lot of these settings, you’ll want to adjust them to match your own photo. I’ll include some other examples of photos I’ve used this on at the bottom of this post. Many of them needed adjustment for the settings to work. Because no photo is the same!

The Secret to Getting Dark Moody Photos with Photoshop

1. Photo Settings

Open the RAW photo. Camera RAW 9.10 opens for me. Go to the Detail tab. Input these numbers:

• Sharpening:
  • Amount: 150
  • Radius: 3.0
• Noise
  • Luminance: 80

Save and open in Photoshop. I’m using Photoshop CC 2017.

2. Getting rid of imperfections

My photo had a lot of dust particles in it, so I used the Spot Healing tool to get rid of them. Just select the tool that looks like a band-aid and click on the area you want to fix.

Be careful with this tool, because it’s easy to go overboard (especially with people’s faces). Only get rid of distracting blemishes and try to avoid over-correction. Remember to size your brush according to the size of the blemish. If you need to correct a spot that’s in a shadow (I had a bit of trouble with the shadows produced by the strings), go smaller.

3. Sharpen

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Put in these settings:

• Amount: 40
• Radius: 250
• Threshold: 0

Duplicate that layer (CTRL+Shift+N, if you’re on PC).

4. De-saturate

Go to Image > Adjustments> Hue and Saturation. Input these settings:

• Hue: 0
• Saturation: -80
• Lightness: 0

Set the layer to Overlay and set the opacity to 25%.

Go to Layer and Merge Visible (CTRL+Shift+E).

Add another layer like this. Go to Image > Adjustments> Hue and Saturation. Input these settings:

• Hue: 0
• Saturation: 10
• Layer: 0

5. Sharpen Again

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Put in these settings:

• Amount: 85
• Radius: 1
• Threshold: 5

Flatten image.

6. Emboss

Go to Filter > Stylize > Emboss.

Set the Angle to -177. Click OK.

Set this layer to Hardlight 100%.

7. Levels

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. Input these numbers in the three boxes: 12, 1.05, and 255.

8. Black and White

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black and White. Click OK. Set that layer to Normal 40%.

Duplicate the layer. Set the new B&W layer to Soft Light 30%.

Flatten image, then duplicate the layer.

9. Learn to DODGE!

Go to your Toolbar and click on the Dodge tool (it looks like a magnifying glass). Pick a light brush and set it to the size you need. Mine was somewhere near 500 pixels.

Then go to town! Run this brush along all the areas you’d like to brighten. I chose the left side of the ukelele, where the light was hitting it. As with the spot healing brush, try not to go overboard.

I set my opacity for this layer to 40%.

10. Color balance

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance. Input these numbers:

• Cyan/Red: 0
• Magenta/Green: 0
• Yellow/Blue: -10

And you’re done! Flatten your image and save. If you want, you can take your blur tool and try to make the surface look soften. I left it as is.

Here are some other examples where I used this tutorial:

Remember to pin this post!