Manipulations: Simplistic to the Intricate
Manipulations. They can range from the simplistic to the intricate. I have previously done a manipulation overview, however, going into deeper detail allows you to get an idea of how far you can go and the different processes involved. For this tutorial you will need slightly more advanced knowledge of Photoshop, because I will not go into great detail about the tools or the adjustment layers, simply the steps, otherwise this could turn out to be a novel, not a tutorail.
So, to begin on a more detailed manipulation, you really have to have an idea of what you want from it. This will help you find images that fit not only the idea, but the body types of the characters you wish to work with. For this tutorial's purpose, I will be using a base of a woman on a throne like chair, much like that of Eric's chair at Fangtasia, and an image of Eric.
Now, to begin I start with the Sookie manipulation, finding an image that is suitable to work with the base image. For this process you need to look for angles, lighting, shadows. Basically you normally get as close to the base image's facial position as possible. However, sometimes life isn't so simple and you have to work with what you have, as I do in this case. The angels are wrong, as is the tilt of the head, but still I persist. I begin by sizing the image and getting as close porportionatly as possible and then I apply a layer mask and remove all the areas that I don't want.
Next, I mask away some of the hair I don't want and that doesn't fit. I do this by using the paint brush and selecting the colors around her hair. I also lighten the darker strands of her hair to pick up a little bit more of a blonde hue. This doesn't have to be perfect, just a rough and dirty fix that will get cleaned up later.
Now, since the color tones aren't perfect between the facial tone and the body's skin tone, I go back below all my layers and apply a Color Balance adjustment layer. This allows me to preview the tones so I can get as close as possible.
And now we proceed to the more difficult task, placing Eric under her. Now, for this I begin by putting him in roughly the area that I think he belongs. This is where porportions sort of get a little dodgey since he is sitting. However, since Eric is a lot taller then Sookie, I know he will be somewhat larger in width, therefore I have a little bit of an idea what he should look like. Also, it's hard to tell where he belongs. To help with this I set the layer to Lighten, that allows me to see what's beneath so I can get more of a bird's eye view. After I am content with placement, I add a layer mask and remove all the areas that I don't want to show.
I then try to fill in the missing areas using the paint brush tool, again selecting the colors from the areas I am looking to match.
Now, another tricky part because without his over-hanging arm there is nothing realistic about this piece. So, I begin by disabling the mask, so I can see the full image. I then use the pen tool to crop out his arm. I copy this and paste it into a new layer and then enable the layer mask of his body once more.
I then go back and add in a few more adjustment layers to balance out Brightness/Contrast, Color Balanace, and Curves. This brings the lighting, the color, and the shadows into ranges that are consistent between the images.
And lastly, I always like to add a couple of filters to the manipulation before I ever start building a wall around it. I begin by duplicating the entire piece, posting it into a new layer and going to Filter>Stylize>Diffuse. This slightly blurs and softens the image. I set that layer to 50% opacity. Next, I duplicate the piece again, and paste it into a new layer. This time I go to Filter>Artistic>Paint Duabs. I set the Brush Size to 1, as well as the Sharpness. And finally I go in with the smudge tool and clean up the areas around her hair, making it blend a bit better. Again, those areas don't have to be picture perfect because you will use this image with gradients, textures and stocks which will help fill it out a bit more. So what I end up with is this:
