Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Before & After, Episode 5 | WESLEY CHAPEL PHOTOSHOP RETOUCH

This episode is dedicated to all the folks out there who have scratched their heads in wonderment trying to reverse-engineer my profile picture on Facebook. I've had a ton of people ask me to explain how I made it, and although everyone correctly assumes that it involves Photoshop trickery, few have been able to really latch on to the process as I explained it to them.

In short, all I really did was: 1) take a picture of myself sitting Indian-style on a bench, 2) take another picture of just the bare wall behind me, 3) combine the two in Photoshop, and 4) "mask out" the bench to reveal the wall behind it, and 5) add a fake shadow behind me to create the illusion that I was really floating. Take a look at the unedited versions over to the right and you'll quickly see how it was done (click each picture to enlarge it).

Enjoy, and please share the love by leaving me a comment! :-)









5 comments:

Manny said...

Great work Russ! I thought maybe some very thing strong wires, then I figured that would be pretty expensive cuz you'd need a crew to hold you up in the air - ok too much "Magic Secrets Revealed" TV lol. Nicely done.
Manny

Anonymous said...

hey kudos!! masking is a very cool thing. I became good friends with it in my digital photo class, but its so tedious! I wish I had more patience, but really orginal photo and i so enjoyed the behind the scenes!
-Alyse Figueredo

Rachel and Joshua said...

Photoshop rocks! Also, isn't it Native-American style? :) I'm just messing with you. :)

Tampa Band Photos said...

@ Manny- "very thin strong wires". Ewwww! I don't know why, but that reminds me of those folks who suspend themselves by piercing their skin with big hooks. :-x

@ Alyse- Masking can be very tedious indeed. But as you already know, you've gotta get a solid grasp of it, along with layers, to have any shot at mastering Photoshop. Not that I've mastered Photoshop by any stretch....what an absolute BEAST of a program!

@ Rachel and Joshua- lol, at least I didn't draw on my country roots and say "Injun-style" 8^)

gasburner said...

Thats cool. I like seeing how you made that picture.

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Tampa, FL, United States
I'm a commercial photographer in Tampa, FL specializing in band & musician promos, CD covers, press kits, posters, and the like. Please feel free to check out my website/blog using the link below, and give me a shout if I can be of service to you!

http://TampaBandPhotos.com

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