selfportrait, making nothing into something

[Alex168]

Well its going to be a long thread! alot of PS in this one to explain!

here is the orginal shot:



As you can see there is too much going on for this to be somehow a portrait shot i was thinking what can i do to make i better. A lets go black and white, always seems to add mood to the shot!

And here is the final product:




Now how did i get here:
-Copied background
-Destaured the image and created a bunch of new layer adjustments till i liked the outcome with layer mask + shadow/higlights. Till i was really happy with it the results, this was more of a trial and error then anything else
-Now that i have adjusted the shadow the lightning a bit more, and did what i could do the best its time to blur the background so me (the main subject) would stand out a bit more amongs the crappy background that i decide to go for dont really knw why, ohh yeah the sun it was because of the sun
-I used a blur (any will do as long as it blurs the image) blured it on a new layer and added a layer mask to paint the blur away from myself, to add more detail,
-Sharpend the image just a tad, just got create a bit more of contrast
-Still i wasnt really happy about the image now, there was just too much going on in the soroudings for my likning, plus i was already holding a skatebaord in my hand!
-So grabed the brush tool and painted in the black that you can see on the image, now this added alot of drama and a focal point in my oppinion to the photograph, it made the make the eye walking right into the subject, me one more time!

thats about it, i m still learnig how to use CS3 and i m just modeling my way there. I thought it would be worthwhile to share this and i hope at least some one apreciate it

p.s got the bandiwith fixed back to big ass photos now EXIF is on flickr like always feel free to check it out, looks really awsome on a black background, call me vein but i have this as my screensaver

[redthedunns]

Nice Job!!! I like everything except the black circle around you. It just looks weird. Maybe because it isn't a straight line? But I really like what you did with the picture! Kudos!

[Mefistofeles]

holly dog ****!!!

COOOOL!! It looks like if the arms were outside the screen... Amazing effect. A lot of "attitude".

[Alex168]

I realised i look kinda buff on that post processed image! hehe

Kudos! that crakced my up but thanks for the kinds words! i wanted to give the image some attitude, and i whent for the black cirlce because i wante to give it some mood! now i m not a prefect type of guy so having a cirlce aorund the shot wouldnt be sutiing! :P

[FocalFrenzy]

Nice work. Looks like a "Rocker" portrait. Lots of attitude. Thanks for the tutorial.

[richardpsic]

Good job! I like a lot the texture you got over the arms, I don't like the black circle though, Maybe you can use a vignette instead that circle?.

[Pshorten]

Nice post processing - thanks for the lesson!

[britblogger]

give me a straight vertical b&w crop, and I'm in heaven.

p.s. may I use your photo and tweak a little and repost? with your permission?

[amy-rose]

looks good! great job

[Alex168]

Originally Posted by britblogger

give me a straight vertical b&w crop, and I'm in heaven.

p.s. may I use your photo and tweak a little nd repost? with your permission?

sure as long as the watermark remains