How to Create a Surreal, Conceptual Head Photo Manipulation with Photoshop

Step 18

Make a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above this fill layer and set it as Clipping Mask. Lower the Saturation values down to -59:

Step 19

Create a new layer, change the mode to Overlay 100% and fill it with 50% gray.

Activate the Dodge and Burn Tool (O) with Midtones Range, Exposure about 15-20% to paint light on the contour of this head hole and shadow on the lower area to fit the light from the background.

Step 20

Make a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the head’s layer (set as Clipping Mask) and reduce the Saturation values to -51:

Step 21

Create a Color Balance adjustment layer and change the Midtones settings:

Step 22

Add a Color Fill adjustment layer and pick the color #95949b to reduce the contrast of the head. Lower the opacity of this layer to 20%.

Step 23

Make a Curves adjustment layer to darken the front of the face a bit. Paint on the contour of the head, the middle of the forehead and corners of the lips so they won’t be affected by this adjustment layer.

Step 24

Add another Curves adjustment layer to darken the upper of the face. The selected areas show where to paint on the layer mask.

Step 25

Make a new layer, change the mode to Overlay 100% and fill with 50% gray. Use the Dodge and Burn Tool to refine the light and shadow on the head. You can see how I did it with Normal mode and the result with Overlay mode.

Step 26

Create a new layer below the head fill one and set the foreground to #161616 . Activate the Line Tool (U) and draw several lines from the ceiling to the ground , remember to pick the tool mode as Shape. Vary the width of the lines following the rule: the further line from the viewer the smaller. Make one come down directly to the middle of the head’s hole.

Step 27

Apply a Gaussian Blur of 8 px to the biggest line near the foreground. This step is to increase the depth of the scene.

Step 28

Make a group for the lines and create a Curves adjustment layer to make the side of the lines which comes towards the light brighter. Paint on the rest so they won’t be affected by this adjustment layer.

Step 29

Cut out the lamp and add it to the our working document. Duplicate it several times and place them below the lines and two on the ground. Vary the lamp’s sizes to fit the size of the lines.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5