Removing Eye, Darkening Eyebrows

Using-Masks, Blend Modes, Render-Fibres, Hue/Saturation

The changes I have made to this since the last time is I have darkened the eyebrows to make it fit with the dark effect and colouring I have use throughout the image. There are patches that haven’t been darkened but this is fine because I will darken the image to make this less obvious.

Another change I have made to the image is I have coloured the eye black using the Quick Selection Tool and the Paint Bucket Tool to colour this in black because this was quick and more precise rather than using the brush tool where I it would go outside the line. However I found this left a light line around the eye but I can make this fade using the Burn Tool set of Shadows which recognises the colour so black in this case and colours in it. As it was dark I turned the Exposure low. I then changed the Blend Mode of just this layer, I called this layer Eyecolour. It went from Normal to Colourburn, I was amazed at the results because this was exactly where I wanted to take my image appearance wise. It made the eye look as if it was red and I wouldn't have received the same results if I had simply painted the eye red. I altered the opacity and fill settings because to begin with it looked too dark and the rim didn't sit with the eyeline so I turned the settings on both down a little.
Another change I said I would which I have was to apply the same kind of bruise look to under the eye using the same process I used in the previous blog post which I have done so. You may notice it is a little darker, using more black tones but you can see the purple undertone a little. As I went along this I repeatedly changed the Photoshop settings like of the brush, brightness, opacity and fill until I had the desired look I wanted from my image.

I like everything I have done with this picture. I particularly like the dark haunting look of the eye. As this image was taken under the light, I liked the reflection which the light gave in the eye. I also like how the eye is ghostly red this gives an impression of anger or haunt which was the look I was going for.

The eye when it was painted in black, before changing of blend mode

(Results)

What I will do next:

- Change background of image to fit image

- Use more red shades as this is colour theme

Creating Bruise, Colouring Face Grey

Using Blend Modes, Blurs

I have created a bruise near the cheek area, using a brush tool with a hardness of 0% and having selected a Mohgony Red colour. My brush size was also very small to create this line. I then changed the blend mode to something dark because this was on a different layer it only affected what on the that layer (which was the red line), I also used the Gaussian Blur which I spoke about in a Practice post. This is a really great tool, it made the harsh line which I created into a more blurred into the skin like the effect a bruise would leave on the skin.
Once I got the desired look, I hid that layer and coloured the skin a Grey colour. I changed the blend mode into hue so it becomes the colour of the skin. When I coloured the skin grey it painted over the face and as soon as I changed the Blend Mode it become the colour of the skin.
With all these effects and changes I made I changed the opacity and the fill settings until I felt it looked right.

(Results)

The first image was my initial bruise, I used the Mohgony colour and also a Black, this is why its dark. The picture in the middle is of the skin after I coloured it and changed the blend mode.
The final image, you can see I have used more colours which ressemble a bruise, so dark blue, purple and a red. I kept repeating steps I talked about before because it didn't yet look like a bruise, by changing the blend modes and the level of the Gaussian Blur until I was happy with the way it looked.
As I liked the idea of bruise I wanted to used this again but under the eye this time, I wanted to make it look like a black eye almost. I used the same technique, colours etc.

What I will do next:
- To recreate the bruise look I have near the cheek under the eye
- To darken inside eye
- To darken eyebrows



 



 

 

Getting Started: Retouching Face

Using Retouch Tools

Once I got my picture I went straight to work with it.
My first steps which were not necessary but I wanted to make my image look good and make use of the tools that I had available. So I started to retouch the image I had, using the retouching tools such as the Spot Healing Tools and Healing Brush Tool to make the skin look more smooth and this gave the image a more eary look.

 

As you can see from the before and after, the skin look smoother, I didn't retouch it majorly so it doesn't look too fake. I have also darken some areas on the eyebrow to make it more neat and sharp.

Final Image

I have taken the image which I am happy because it meets my specification, which was to show the face or part of the face. I have took this image myself so this means that I do not need to have for permission to use this picture from anywhere.
Below is the image with no effects applied or retouching of the image. This image was taken on a Iphone 4, no high end cameras were used, for that reason the quality is not perfect but this doesn't matter right now.

Practice

I have been working and tweaking a picture of Jack Nicholson, my plan was to zombify him using textures, incorporating images of cuts and bruises and using the general tools that photoshop provided me with, to make him look just like a zombie would. I will not be using this for my final submission however this will be of great benefit to me with all the skills and tricks I can take away from this and because I spent a while doing this.

Here was the picture that I started with, this is obviously recognisable as Jack Nicholson. I like this photo of him because it is a head shot picture with all his face and stops at the neckline.
The first thing that I did was to find textures/pictures I wanted to incorporate into my picture. For the texture of the skin I went for a cracked earth style and I applied this to 3/4 of the face and not to one of the cheeks. For the raw meat picture I used a selection of it using the quick selection tool to pick out the part I wanted to use. I applied this around the right eye. Another picture I used (this was not used as a texture) was a this picture of some teeth with blood around them. Again using the selection tool I drew around the lip to just get the mouth area

On the layer with the original image, I changed the blending mode from normal to Darker Colour to make features look darker and more intensified and it was in the theme of darken the picture to make it look more eerie. I have used different layers so I was able to apply mode only to this player. I used different layers so I was allowed to do this, it meant that this effect only affected on layer and not the whole image. The cracked earth texture was also on a different layer and I changed the blend mode of this also from normal to a Soft Light because I didn't want the texture to be so sharp, it made it look more natural.
I have also changed the filter Liquify of the image, you may be able to notice a little I made the right under eye look more droopy and saggy and did  the same effect to the corner of the mouth. This gave his a more zombie like look. I also decided the change the blend of the image of the mouth and teeth to Difference because I played around using all of the different blends and found that this one was the best, it didn't look too fake like others did.

I have also used a number of layer to create the finishing image, I did this because I wanted to apply different effects to different aspects of the image without affecting the whole of the image so I created a number of layers, for example the differnet blend modes, like the blend mode for the image of the mouth, meat and of jack are all different.

I filtered the image and blurred this, the type of blur I used was the Gaussian Blur. I used the brush tool and used a combination of blacks and reds in the nostil, under the eye and around the mouth to make it look like bruises. The before and after below shows the difference.  

The first image is where I simply applied the texture and played around with the different blend modes to get the desired look. The second image I used the Gaussian Blur and the final picture I used a number of tools such as the Dodge Tool, Blur Tool, Smudge Tool, on the areas where the tools were needed.



FINAL PICTURE:                                       

I'm happy with the overall image and it looks how I wanted it to, my DVD cover will be quite similar to this.

 Sources:
Jack Nicholson picture: http://anacastrosix.buzznet.com/photos/closeupcelebritiesby/?id=68279863
Cracked earth: http://www.surrealpsd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/crackedearth3small.jpg
Raw meat: http://www.pearshapedthoughts.com/2011/07/garnishing-raw-meat-i-need-you.html 
Bloody tooth: http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?p=1068887

Initial Ideas

After doing my research and thinking of all the things which I could create, I am certain I would like to do a horror/thiller themed DVD package.
Looking at the DVD cover images I found, there is theme in which most of the cover images have is it is usually the face and eye which is the dominating thing. The research has made me aware that I should continue with this convention without creating an exact replica.
What I will be working on will be the image which goes on the DVD cover, it will be the first image that the person sees.

To do:
To take a picture for my movie dvd package, looking back at the research I did for inspiration. The person in the picture I want to be a girl, I may use myself for this or a volunteer. I will take a few pictures until I am satisfied with a particular photo that I want to use for my final work. I should have this photo taken soon and will post the original picture until then I will be practising my skills on something I am working on. Which is to zomify Jack Nicholson, just so I can be familar with the tools on photoshop so I know what to do when I use the same tools for my actual finished piece. When this is complete I will also post this.

Research

I have decided that the genre in which my dvd case cover and promotional video will be is horror. I think with the horror genre you can manipulate images and be creative.

I have created a montage of horror movie covers which I have found interesting and want to recreate something similar to. There is a recurring feature with these DVD covers, is that with all of these the main focus is either the eye(s) or the face. In particular I like the image used for the movie "THE EYE" where it takes an ordinary picture of an eye and made it more sinister with the shadowing of the eyelid and the fingers placed around the lower eye lid which is given the affect that the eye/person is being captured by something within which is what the film is about.

Colour

These movies all have used blacks, dark grey, light grey and a near white. The contrast of the white against the black looks very eye catching.

Title

The colour red is frequently used for the title in horror movies, this colour makes the title stand out against the darker colour of the image, it is just enough so it doesnt take the focus from the picture. Also the colour red represents blood.
I have also noticed that in collection I have been looking at, all of the text in the titles are in capitals to make it stand out more and catch the attention on the viewer/target audience.

Links to images(from left to right -top row)
The Eye :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_(2008_film)
Shutter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_(2008_film)
The collection key: http://etaitchs.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/conventions-of-horror-film-posters/
Grudge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grudge_2
Bottom row
The return: http://www.designthatsticks.com/35-horror-movie-posters-that-will-give-you-the-creeps/
Click: http://movie-posters.feedio.net/bollywood-movie-click-poster/wallpaper110.com*wp-content*uploads*2010*02*bollywood-movie-click-poster.jpg/
Mirrors: http://www.beyondhollywood.com/horror-movie-mirrors-gets-a-generic-horror-movie-poster/



Test Run

 
This image was changed to alter the colour of the flowers by using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. I applied a mask to the layer so only the flowers were affected in the change in hue. There is also a change in the colour constrast of the sky.

I also used a render lens flare filter to add a light source to the image to make this look like a sun glare when there wasn't one to begin with.

I saved the image as a JPEG image with a size of 210KB


This was the unedited image, the sky is clear and the flowers are just a yellow colour.