Making the interior of a volcano

Step 1

Open the image that you want to convert in camera RAW. Any rocky face works nicely but the inside of a ravine works best.

Ideally you will have shot in a RAW format and it will open in the Camera Raw dialogue box by default, but if you have shot in jpg or some other format, simply select File>Open, select your image, and in the "format" drop down, select "Camera Raw". (not to be confused with "Photoshop Raw")

NOTE: We will crop out the sky and any other un-needed data later but for now try to ignore the sky and focus on the rock face.

Step 2

To begin with we want to make some basic edits to bring out some more color and detail in the rock face.

In this particular image the base coloring was a little dark so I opted to buff up the brightness. This will depend on the image in question and it will be mostly a judgement call on your end.

Buff up the Clarity by about 35 points. This will bring out the jagged edges of the rocks.

Increase the Vibrance by about 40 points. This will help bring out the natural color of the rock face.

Step 3

Go into the curves tab and darken the darks by about 25 points this will help make the shadows more extreme as they would be underground.

Step 4

Next we want to bring out a bit more detail in the rockface. Go into the sharpening tab and increase the amount by between 30 and 50. Make sure the edges are pretty defined but ensure that the over-sharpened halo effect isn't created.

Step 5

Go into the camera settings tab. In the red primary section increase the saturation by 20-40 points until the rock becomes a rich color of red. Then use the hue slider to bring the rocks to a nice warm red.

Step 6

Ok we are done in camera RAW so click the open image button.

Now we want to crop out the rest of the image as volcanoes generally do not have skies. Select the crop tool and drag a box out that covers that area of rock that you want to keep, when you are satisfied with your selected area, hit enter to crop it.

Step 7

Next we want to begin to create the underglow that would be created by the molten lava. Duplicate the bottom layer and hit command-u (control-u on windows) to bring up the hue/saturation box. Move the hue slider until the rocks are a yellow color. Then bump of the saturation by about 30 points.

Step 8

Set the yellow layer's blend mode to soft light.

Create a new layer mask and use the gradient tool to create a white to black gradient that mostly covers the mask in black. The white should be a fringe near the bottom of the mask.

Step 9

Now we want to create the shadow near the top of the rockface that would be caused by the caverns above the volcano. Duplicate the bottom layer and move the newly created layer to the top.

Set it's blend mode to multiply. Then create another layer mask with a black to white gradient just like you did in the previous step but with the white at the top. This will create deeper shadows near the top of the image.

Step 10

Ok now we want to add a more yellow overtone to underside of the rock face. Create a new, empty layer. Set it's blend mode to soft light and it's opacity to 30%.

With a large, soft, bright yellow brush begin to paint over any area with a rock face that faces downwards. This will replicate the yellow glow that bounces off any direct rock face that would be above molten lava.

Step 11

Now we want to finish things up by giving the top to bottom an even more defined and smooth transition from light to dark. Create a new layer, set it's opacity to 20%, and set it's blend mode to Overlay.

Fill the layer with an even black to white gradient with black at the top and white at the bottom.

Final

There you have it, a great base of a scene. The effect itself will vary depending on the original image used. Play with the settings in the above steps to create effects that work best for your particular scene.

In this image, the highlights that were previously left by the sun look quite interesting as they could be the result of strips of light forcing their way through crevasses in the cave ceiling, however if you truly want the effect to appear as if underground simply use the burn tool to get rid of any undesired highlights.

If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to post a comment below.