Transform day scenes into night with these toning and layer techniques

Transform a daytime scene to night, with starry sky and glowing windows, as James Paterson teaches you new Photoshop toning and layer skills

if you’ve ever thought to yourself ‘I wish this day would just end!’ then this effect will appeal. Using simple Photoshop skills we can transform a sunny daytime scene to deepest, darkest night.

The purist would argue that this is a pointless exercise. Why not just go back after dark with a tripod and capture the scene? Of course, this would be the best thing to do (not only would it be more realistic, it would also probably take less time). But there could be any number of reasons why this wouldn’t be possible. Perhaps the scene is only accessible during the day – a quick stop off, much like the half-day I spent in Cuba’s wonderful town of Trinidad here. Whatever the reasons, shooting at night may not be practical.

Besides, there are plenty of transferable skills demonstrated here that will stand you in good stead for all kinds of Photoshop projects. If you’re new to Photoshop then the techniques described here will introduce you to many fundamental features, such as Layer Masks, Adjustment Layers and toning. We’ll then use masks to drop in a star-studded sky, and then adjust the tones for a night-time hue.

Finally, we’ll add bright highlights to the windows to give them an inviting glow. In this case we’ve changed the time of day, but equally these are all powerful Photoshop tools that you can use to transport your own scenes.