Manipulations: A How To

Manipulations tend to strike fear into the hearts of most artists, and they can be rather intimidating. If you are looking for a 'Perfect Manipulations in 3 easy steps' guide, you pretty much came to the wrong place. However, I do have a simplistic method that has worked pretty well for me thus far and now I am sharing it with you. Am a whiz? No, far from. Is this the absolute right way of doing it? No clue. This is just my way. Go to 5 other sites and you will probably find 5 different methods. So just browse through them and see what works best for you.

Now, let me begin by saying two things. 1.) I absolutely, without a doubt, have to be one of the laziest fanartists out there. I always look for the paths of least resistance...and though I like near perfect, I am not a perfectionist. 2.) I HATE dealing with hair unless I absolutely have to. It's tedious and time consuming and violates rule number 1...LAZY!

Now you are probably scared of me. That's a good first sign. So moving right along. For this tutorial I am going to be using an image of Emmy Rossum. Mainly because I like her coloring and clothing here, as well as her haird...it's very Bella-ish. So, I know what base I am going to use. When looking for the image to manipulate on top of it, I need to look for several things. One being quality. You cannot (or should not) use a LQ image on a HQ base. The end result takes ages to clean and unless it's very important to you. Next, look for the same angles of lighting and shadows...sometimes I tend to ignore this, simply because I like a particular expression, but it does make a difference...unless like me you chose not to think about it! And lastly, look for the samefacial position, or close to it. If the face is sloping downward or upward, left or right, try and match those contours or else it can be a complete nightmare!



From there I tend to just use the circular crop tool of the facial area and copy>paste it onto the base image. I then lay it over the facial area, and as a little guide I set the face to Lighten and try to line up the eyes. This gives a pretty good indication of both porportion and positioning so you don't have to worry about things not being balanced.



Now to get you image to start looking like something else. For this always, always ALWAYS use a layer mask. Otherwise you will kick yourself. On the mask, use a soft edged circular brush and start removing the pieces you don't need. Be sure that if a hair runs through her face, that you erase the face where it flows, otherwise you will have a mighty strange manip. Basically, this step is easy, like a coloring book. Just keep everything within the lines, where it belongs. Also, don't get gung-ho and erase the contours of the face you are building. Don't erase, say the chin for example. It is important to preserve as much facial integrity as possible or else no one will have any clue who it is.



Now this part will vary everytime, getting the tones to match. Here you will need to expirement with many factors...and believe me practice is key. For this particular image I had to alter (on the facial layer only) the curves adjustment layer and the color balance adjustment layer. But you might have to alter the brightness/contrast, the lightness/saturation, or any combination. Every image is differnt, thus the problem.



Now a handy trick if the coloring isn't working out for you, Copy Merge the entire piece and paste it onto a new layer on top. Use the smudge tool and go in circular motions around the worst bits...normally on the forehead. Then reduce the opacity of that layer until you strike a happy balance between overly smooth and normal.