Modify a landscape by adding a distressing, creepy ambience.

For each step of the matte painting, useless to remind you to create a new layer so that the work will be easier and mistakes avoided!

1. First of all choose a photograph of good resolution. A good image source is ShutterStock.I found the photograph of “St-Joseph Oratory” (in Montréal).

2. Here is a perfect sky, found on the internet, which will go very well for
what I want to make.

3. First of all, start by isolating the castle by putting it in a layer and by erasing the original sky. Here I used the tool polygonal lasso for the building, and a soft gum for the foliages.

4. Now one will erase all that should not be there a few centuries ago, i.e. the cars, the tourists, the standard lamps and the barriers. For that, use the tool Clone Stamp. It is not very complicated, nor very long with this example.

5. I want that this scene occurs in stormy weather, therefore it is necessary to erase the shadows created by the sun. Always with the Clone Stamp erase the shadows on the ground of the shrubs and the trees. With the Dodge tool erase a little the
contrasts of the elements by clearing up the zones of shadows in order to create an ambient light.