building up layers and changing layer effects also adding filters.

 I took this image and created several images from it. i did this by using several layers and effects.

I have created these images by using various layers and filters within Photoshop. Here is the original image so you can see the development i have made.  

I started to develop the original image by duplicating the image. The main reason for duplicating the original image is if I don’t like the look of a particular effect I can easily delete the layer and start again. On the duplicated layer I changed the type of layer to luminosity. This effect looked awesome in the background but I wasn’t happy with the way his face looked. The next thing I did was duplicate the background layer again and changed the layer type from normal to multiply. I then used the polygonal lasso tool on a feather of 3px to cut out the background of the layer so I could delete the background revealing the background with the luminosity layer type behind. I then decided to add on a filter to create texture on Anthony’s face. I did this by going into filter and selecting artistic. I then sifted through the options when the box came up until I found the effect I wanted to use in this case it was the brush strokes and I selected angled brush option. Because I set the layer to multiply it allowed me to see the detail of the original image through the filter adding texture to his face and nothing else. I think this image was a great start into exploring what different effects I can use on Photoshop to develop my images. After seeing how well this came out I have decided to develop the same image again using different layer types and filters.

I started editing this image by duplicating the original image as before; I then changed the duplicated image to overlay in the layer types. I then duplicated the background layer again and changed the layer type to colour burn. These effects over the top of each other made Anthony’s skin appear flawless and pale. I rather liked this effect. I then decided to try blurring the background to add some detail to the image and draw the eye to Anthony’s face and not what’s going on in the background. I think this worked but having looked at it once the image is completed I have noticed that I have lost some important detail within Anthony’s face. In particular his eyes seem to look washed out which is something I could have avoided and will take more care on future images to avoid this. Overall I think that the background worked out better than the main focus of the image but I have learned from my mistakes and I know where I went wrong  and how I can improve on my next image. The only thing I am happy about on his face is the slight hint of colour in his hair and the smoothness of his skin which did work out as I intended it to. Given the time I spent on this edit I am rather disappointed in the outcome. 

I decided to take a break from editing the same image and turned my attention to this image. I am rather happy with this outcome considering it took me a lot less time to complete than some of my other images. I started to edit this image in the same way as my other ones by duplicating the background layer before adding an effect to it and chopping at it with the polygonal lasso tool. The effects I used on the first layer of this image was hard mix this made his face white with the pink and blue areas you can see on the image. However it lost the rest of his body. So I duplicated the background again but this time I changed the layer type to linear dodge this made brought back the body. I then went back to the first layer and deleted the background and the body with the polygonal lasso tool leaving just the face on this layer revealing the body under it. I then duplicated another background later and added a filter to it this time I chose the stained glass effect this created the effect that can be seen in the background. When I was happy with the result I flattened the image and saved it. Overall considering the short time it took to create the final outcome is rather good. 

Reverting back to this image again, I started to edit this in much the same way as the others by duplicating the background layer etcetera. On this image I took more time and care in what layer types I selected. I also added more layers than I have done in any of my images previously. I started off by adding the overlay layer type to get the basic smooth skin effect then I added another duplicated background layer and selected the lighter layer type. This smoothed the skin even more but made his eyes too light so I simply erased them from that layer to reveal the slightly darker eyes underneath I think this made his eyes stand out and look amazing. The next layer I added I decided to focus on the hair. To get his hair to have the blue tint that I have managed I chose the vivid light layer type this gave his hair the colour tones that the final image has. All I needed to do next was cut out his face and the background so that his hair would remain blue/red. I did this by again using the polygonal lasso tool with a feather 3px which softens the edges and makes it blend into the background better. The only thing left to turn my attention to was the background. This time I wanted to keep some of the detail within the background so that the main focus would be on the face and not an over complicated background. To create the background I simply duplicated the background image one last time and selected the exclusion layer type. I then added a filter onto this. The filter I added was the neon glow I simply changed the colour of the glow to purple. I chose purple because it is a colour that complements the blue and red tones within his hair without blending into them. If I’d have used another colour it would have drawn too much attention to the background and take away from the main subject matter of the image which is something I didn’t want to do. The final thing I did was re arrange the layers to insure that the background layer was at the back of all the other layers. When I was happy with the order of the layers I flattened the image and saved as a high quality jpeg.   

This image took me a rather long time to complete. I took inspiration from an image I saw in my book ‘gothic art’ in it I saw the work of Melanie Delon on one of her images she has managed to overlay the Celtic cross on top of a face. I knew that Anthony likes the Celtic cross designs so I chose to give it a go. I started this edit by opening the edited image above and I decided to work on top of that image. I just duplicated the image and altered the hue and saturation until the hair colour was darker. I then altered the colour balance because the hue and saturation couldn’t quite get the image the way I wanted it to. Once I had the face the way I wanted it to look like I took an image from Google of a Celtic cross (if I was to do this effect again I would draw my own design out and scan it in but given it was my first attempt and I didn’t know how it would turn out I didn’t want to waste my time on something that may or may not work out). I opened the image and copied it as a new layer. I removed the background of the image by changing the layer type to multiply this automatically removed the white background of the Celtic cross and made Anthony’s face visible within the gaps. All I needed to do from there is re position the image to where I wanted it to be. This was done by using the move tool. I needed to rescale the image this is done by using crtl +T this brought up the guides that allowed me to re size the image. Once I was happy with the size of the Celtic cross I pressed enter to alter the image. The next thing I needed to do was remove the areas of cross that covered the eyes and mouth and hair this was simply done by using the eraser tool. I then needed to fade the image out a bit so it blended in with the skin layer underneath. This was done by altering the opacity of the Celtic cross layer this was easy to so as it is just a slider bar that I needed to move. Once I was happy with the opacity of the cross image I then turned my attention to the background for this I created a blank layer and added the background this was done by using the gradient tool I just selected the colours that I wanted and dragged the tool from the top corner to half way into the image and the tool filled the background in from there. All I needed to do was delete the background from every layer I had open by this point the layer count was something like 17 given all the amount once I removed the background from all the layers I simply made sure the gradient background layer was at the back of the image before I flattened the image and saved. Having spent considerable amount of time on this image I am more than pleased with the outcome of this edit. It may not look exactly like Melanie’s image but I still think it looks rather good. The only thing I would change is I would take more care when cutting out the images on each layer to create smoother outlines. I also would draw my own cross design if I had more time to complete pieces but as my first attempt at this particular method of photo-manipulation I couldn’t have wanted it to turn out any better. 

For the next development of this image see my post of magazine covers.