To demonstrate your ability to use PhotoShop you will be creating a self portrait based on the tutorial below. Using your own portrait add 5 images you have taken (or need to take) this year and add them them to the inside plain of your head. Create consistent lighting and shadows; color and composition; similar POV; with correct scale and proportion “within” the composition you are creating. Talk with each other and Ms. O as you are working on this assignment. Accept discussion/critique to make your work better.
About the images you are using – Everything must be original images taken by you – clear focus. Some variations are understandable – be open to the critique – but you must include different levels (high, medium and low) in your choice of images. Use everything we have learned this semester to create your portrait.
Artist Statement: When you are done with the image write an artist statement explaining why you chose the images you did – why are they “in your head” all the time. add it to your post with a hyperlink.
Though compositing images together is a commonplace task, doing it right when there are a lot of objects to assemble is always tricky, especially when they are all lit differently.
Step: 1 Create an A4 portrait document in Photoshop and add a black background with the Paint Bucket tool (G). (8″ x 10″, 300 dpi)
Step: 2 Have a friend take a close-up portrait (head shot) of you. In PhotoShop eliminate the background. Adjust the portrait so it is excellent! Collect (at least three)additional images of people and/or items important to you. This is to be a portrait showing the viewer what is important to you – what you are thinking about all the time.
Roughly sketch out the piece you want to create. Mask out (eliminate the background using the magic wand >delete and eventual layer via copy) your elements if necessary and place them in different layers in the composition. Scale and place them to match to your sketch.
Step: 3 We’ll need to add shadows to the objects in the composition. To do this for any particular element,Cmd/Ctrl + click on the layer thumbnail of the element to select the element. Create a new layer and fill the selection with black using the Paint Bucket tool. Then move the layer beneath the original element’s layer and use Edit > Free Transform (Cmd/Ctrl + T) to shape, size and position your shadow. Reduce its opacity to 85%.
Step: 4 As a first step towards the cold feel that we want, add a Gradient Map adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack. Select the black to white gradient in the Adjustments panel.
Step: 5 Now add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the Gradient Map adjustment layer. Check the Colorize tickbox, then set the Hue to 225 and the Saturation to 50 to give a blue/purple tinge.
Step: 6 This gives us a good sense of the overall composition and whether it needs more elements. I chose to added a few more details – some spotlights on the ‘ground’ and make-up on the clown’s face, for example. Ensure you add some spotlights or other lighting devices as they will play a role in steps 8 to 10.
Step: 7 To get an even better match between the objects, adjust the Curves on each. As before, to select the element to work on, Cmd/Ctrl + click on the layer thumbnail of its layer. Then add a Curves adjustment layer. Here you have to adjust every object until it simply looks right in the context of the other objects.
Step: 8 Add light beams to the spotlights by creating a new layer beneath the Spotlight layer, then making a selection with the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) where you want the beam to shine (from the spotlight up into the air). Fill the selection with white using the Paint Bucket tool.
Step: 9 Use a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to make the beam edges a lot smoother. Set the radius to 25 pixels, press OK, and set the layer opacity to 10%.
Step: 10 To make the light beam fade out, use the Eraser tool (E) in brush mode – make the brush large (1100px) and smooth (Hardness 0), and set the brush’s opacity to 50%. Apply it at the end of the beam furthest from the spotlight. Repeat steps 8 to 10 for all the lights you added.
Step: 11 Now we’ll create a background light effect. Make a new layer beneath the object furthest down in the layer stack. Paint with a large (1300px) and smooth (Hardness 0) white brush outwards from where the effect will be centred – for me, it’s where the clown’s forehead ends.
Step: 12 We’ll also do a magenta background light effect by adding a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack. In the Adjustments panel, choose a colour that is equivalent what you’re striving for (I set Hue to 110 and Saturation to 75).
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By Erik Herrström
Contact erikherrstrom.com
