Photoshop Tutorial: Cinematic Effect Tutorial

Creating Cinematic Photo Effect in Photoshop Choose an image you want to put the Cinematic effect. Pick a colored one and that the wider the angle, the better. I got this free stock photo Here.

1. Adjust the Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U): Drag the Saturation down to lessen the color. I did -70 to -80.

2. Adjust the Exposure: Image > Adjustments > Exposure...

Drag the Exposure, Offset and Gamma Corrections up/down until it looks highlighted and contrasty.

This is what I got.

3. Duplicate the layer. On your active layer, right click and choose “Duplicate Layer...”

4. Apply some “Lens Blur” on the new layer (Background copy).

Go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur...

Adjust according to your own preference. I just played around with Radius, Blade Curvature and Rotation.

5. Click on the “Add Layer Mask” button at the bottom of the layers palette.

6. Select the Brush tool (B), adjust the size of it according to the areas in the picture you want the focus on. Make sure that your colors are set to its default setting (Foreground = Black, Background = White), if it's not, simply press “D” to bring it back to its default settings.

Note: In case that there are some specific areas you think that seems overdone, you can still change the opacity of it by fading the intensity. Press Ctrl+Shift+F:

Or you can change the opacity of the whole layer by manually setting it:

7. Flatten the layers (Ctrl+E) and add some Noise: Filter > Noise > Add Noise...

Again, add the amount according to your own preferences and make sure the Monochromatic option at the bottom is checked.

8. Now for more Cinematic look, add black borders at the top and bottom of the image. Widen the Canvas size, press Ctrl+Alt+C:

Click on the drop-down arrow from the Height section and choose “pixels”.

Make sure that the Canvas extension color is set to “Foreground” (which is Black). Add at least 200 pixels more. In this case, from the height's 588 pixels will now become 788 pixels. The amount added to the Height's border are not all the same and that will always depend on the size of your image.

Here's the finish product. Hope you like the tutorial!