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Photomanipulation - Disfigure and Distortion in Adobe Photoshop


This is a relatively easy tutorial, and as with pretty much anything, I am sure there are better ways to go about this. However, this is how I do "thangs" so if you are interested in how to manipulate an image as I have in my gallery, please keep reading.

First you will need an image. It is best to use an image you have taken yourself or an image that you have permission to use. The following image was grabbed from Photobox.ru (free stock image site). Why on earth would I want to disfigure a baby? Well, it is the first image I grabbed when I opened Photoshop so quit complaining. ;-) Plus, if you plan on disfiguring something, better make it stand out...

image 1

So now we want to severly disfigure this image. To do so, the main tools I typically use are the selection, move, rubber stamp, and eraser tools. Sounds simple, eh?

To begin, place the image of the baby in it's own layer. Name that layer "base". Next, lets start by moving the right eye up a little on the baby's head. Using the rectangular marquee tool on the base layer, select an area around the right eye. Press Ctrl + J to copy your selection into a new layer. Now, turn the visibilty of this layer off as you do not need it right away. Go back to the base layer and select the rubber stamp tool. Zoom in (I zoomed in about 300%) on the image, and using the rubber stamp tool, cover up the area where the right eye is. You image should look similar to the image below:

image 2

Now, go back to the promoted eye layer. Using the move tool, position the eye up a tad on the head of the baby. For a more disfiguring effect, rotate the layer (Edit > Transform > Rotate). Once you have the eye placed where you would like it, use the eraser tool to trim it up so that it appears to blend naturally (or as naturally as possible) into the head.

image 3

If you are satisfied with the result, merge your layers down by pressing Ctrl + E. I try to do this when I plan to manipulate an image as it keeps the layers down to a minimum.

Next, we want to distort the head. We are going to follow the same steps to distort the head as we did to move the eye. Using the rectangular marquee tool, select the top portion of the head. Press Ctrl + J to promote the selection into a new layer. Proceed with the same steps as mentioned above - move, rotate, and trim. Below is a quick example after minor adjustments to the forehead and chin:

image 4

The next step into disfiguring the image, is to replace the eye with a cut/slash mark. The image (which is actually a closeup of carpet glue) I used to create this was obtained from Free-Image. Free-Image has a great texture gallery available for download. If Free-Image is not available, click here to download one of the carpet images I used. Open the image and select a portion of the seem. Copy that portion onto the baby image.

image 5

Trim up the edges as close as possible using the eraser tool. Now obviously, it will not look very natural if you leave the "cut" in a straight line. Use the rectangular marquee tool & rotate portions of the carpet glue layer so that the "cut" conforms more to the shape of the head. Once you are satisfied, change the layer mode to Soft Light. You can change the blendimg modes & adjust the brightness/contrast of the "cut" layer to achieve different effects. You should have something similar to the below image:

Photomanipulation - Disfigure and Distortion in Adobe Photoshop Tutorial: Final Result

As I said, this should be a relatively simple tutorial to follow. There are obviously plenty of options when taking on a manipulation/disfiguring project. Hopefully I have given you a good start.



Author's URL: Jason Morrison
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