It's kind of creepy, actually. I was sitting there looking at it, when I suddenly had a picture idea. It was totally crazy and it took a minute for me to figure out how to do it, but I finally got it. First, I needed a background.
I found this picture on my friend's Facebook page(she had gotten it from deviantArt.com) and I decided that if I just tweaked it up a bit, it would work perfectly for my picture idea.
I went into the kitchen and I got 2 kitchen chairs and brought them into my room. I put on a dress that I've been waiting to use for a picture, let my hair down, and I then laid myself on the chairs and pretended to be unconscious.
I wasn't sure if it would work, but it turns out it worked well enough, as you'll soon see. I set my camera to 4 shots in 20 seconds, then placed it on top of 4 board game boxes, which were laid on my bed. It made for a pretty nice little tripod. After I took about 12 pictures like this(each one a bit different), I needed the second part of my picture; Me dressed up in a fancy jacket while wearing that creepy mask.
Maybe now you can see where I'm going with this. If not, I'll just let you find out at your own speed.
After I was done taking those pictures, the magic really started to come alive. First, I used the Lasso Tool on PhotoImpact 8 to trace me out of both pictures. After I completed my tracing, I right clicked on the outlined image and clicked "Convert To Object". Once that was done, I dragged the object of me standing to the background image, then resized myself. Once I felt as though I had the right size, I drug the laying down version of me into the picture as well. When that was done, this is what I had for a rough draft...
Pretty rough, but it was a start. The next step was to get rid of the white that was around the newly added images and change my skirt up a bit. I had to make a new arm for the standing me so that I would look like I was holding myself instead of me just floating. I used the Clone Paintbrush to fix my skirt and the white edges and then I used the Lasso Tool once again to make another arm.
Ahh, MUCH better! The skirt and my hair was still bugging me, as was the red on my white undershirt on the standing me. I used the Clone Paintbrush to make my skirt and hair more full, and I also used it to get rid of that annoying red on my shirt. To make the picture more dramatic(which is what I was going for), I went into the Creative Lighting tab and used the Lens Flair options. I adjusted the settings for that and made the light brighter.
By now, I felt like I was almost done, except that the picture still wasn't giving off the vibe that I wanted it to. I wanted it to look slightly darker, more frightening, and more realistic. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 to get the canvas effect I wanted. I really wanted it to look like a painting, and I was overjoyed with the final result.
So far I've gotten good comments about it. It reminds me and a few others of Phantom At the Opera, which I didn't even realize until I had finished the picture.
(background image: "Far Away" by ssilence on deviantArt.com)
I found this picture on my friend's Facebook page(she had gotten it from deviantArt.com) and I decided that if I just tweaked it up a bit, it would work perfectly for my picture idea.I went into the kitchen and I got 2 kitchen chairs and brought them into my room. I put on a dress that I've been waiting to use for a picture, let my hair down, and I then laid myself on the chairs and pretended to be unconscious.
I wasn't sure if it would work, but it turns out it worked well enough, as you'll soon see. I set my camera to 4 shots in 20 seconds, then placed it on top of 4 board game boxes, which were laid on my bed. It made for a pretty nice little tripod. After I took about 12 pictures like this(each one a bit different), I needed the second part of my picture; Me dressed up in a fancy jacket while wearing that creepy mask.
Maybe now you can see where I'm going with this. If not, I'll just let you find out at your own speed.After I was done taking those pictures, the magic really started to come alive. First, I used the Lasso Tool on PhotoImpact 8 to trace me out of both pictures. After I completed my tracing, I right clicked on the outlined image and clicked "Convert To Object". Once that was done, I dragged the object of me standing to the background image, then resized myself. Once I felt as though I had the right size, I drug the laying down version of me into the picture as well. When that was done, this is what I had for a rough draft...
Pretty rough, but it was a start. The next step was to get rid of the white that was around the newly added images and change my skirt up a bit. I had to make a new arm for the standing me so that I would look like I was holding myself instead of me just floating. I used the Clone Paintbrush to fix my skirt and the white edges and then I used the Lasso Tool once again to make another arm.
Ahh, MUCH better! The skirt and my hair was still bugging me, as was the red on my white undershirt on the standing me. I used the Clone Paintbrush to make my skirt and hair more full, and I also used it to get rid of that annoying red on my shirt. To make the picture more dramatic(which is what I was going for), I went into the Creative Lighting tab and used the Lens Flair options. I adjusted the settings for that and made the light brighter.
By now, I felt like I was almost done, except that the picture still wasn't giving off the vibe that I wanted it to. I wanted it to look slightly darker, more frightening, and more realistic. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 to get the canvas effect I wanted. I really wanted it to look like a painting, and I was overjoyed with the final result.
So far I've gotten good comments about it. It reminds me and a few others of Phantom At the Opera, which I didn't even realize until I had finished the picture.
(background image: "Far Away" by ssilence on deviantArt.com)
Even though this isn't very good, I'm still quite proud of it because I made it using just the simple "Paint" program. I took a picture of my on a see-saw and spent probably a good hour and a half working on it. I even made the iPod and my thumb around it myself. Not bad for a first time, I think.
Aha, now we have a better iPod picture! I tried another picture a few months later, this time of my cousin Brittany doing the splits. I used PhotoImpact's lasso tool to trace out Brittany's body, then I converted the traced image to an object. I dragged the object onto a new document, then used the paintbrush to turn it completely black. I then softened the edges(probably to about 2 or 3, I can't remember on this one) and added a funky light behind. I used Comic Sans MS font and typed out "iBrittany". Merge all objects and there you have it! These only take about 30 minutes to make, an hour if you really want it nice. 
The one of Tonya & Kirstin is kind of cool because you can tell some small detail even though you can't see their faces. For example, you can tell that Tonya's hair is long, Kirstin is looking up, Tonya has on jeans, Kirstin has on capris... In the original picture, Kirsitn is holding a water bottle, so that made it easy to place an iPod in the picture.
Is it an old boot? Or is it Yoda & Obi Wan staring at each other? Really, if it didn't say "iForce" at the bottom, it would probably be hard to tell. I didn't even see the shape of a boot until I sent the picture to my brother, and he asked me why I sent him a picture of a green boot.
