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Shooting Beauty Series

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Big Chill
The theme here was tragicomic: an adult with a child’s problem - a dropped ice cream cone. Again, the lighting was a flat, lightly overcast sky and swimming pool surrounded on three sides by high walls. No artificial light was used. The exposure was 1/350, f/8 at ISO 100. The Canon EF 24-85mm zoom lens was set to 50mm.



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 Original image.
The French doors offered a strong, interesting background and implied a home setting - a place where one might use a tricycle.




Click to view a larger image 		Cropping and cleaning up the image.
Using the crop tool, tighten the image while retaining the French doors.
Use the clone stamp tool to remove the light fixture on the right.
Again, use the brush tool set at soft (airbrush), 100 pixel diameter, 20% opacity and 100% flow to blend any artifacts left by the cloning.



Click to view a larger image 		Skin smoothing.
Using the same airbrush settings, remove the hair from her face. Then, with a healing brush tool set at 12 pixels, remove freckles, marks, etc. Use the airbrush, at the previously noted settings, to smooth the sun tan peeling and some variations on the elbows and ankles from an earlier liquid tan.

Then apply the Kodak GEM Airbrush Pro filter, blend set to 40, to smooth the skin overall.



Click to view a larger image 		Peeling paint overlay.
This overlay is a macro photograph of peeling paint from a railroad train that GW took at the museum of Transportation in St Louis.

Select the rectangular marquee tool and draw a rectangle around 75% of the image, using a feather value of 200. Invert this selection to form the framework that will overlay the main image.


Click to view a larger image 		Applying the overlay.
Next, copy the paint framework and paste it over the main image. Drop the paint layer to 90% opacity.

Then, from the original edited photo, use the lasso tool to select the bottom of the tricycle, her feet, and the door frame. Copy and paste this selection over the framed image (feather value 3) to remove any of the frame bleeding over the main image. Again, this can also be done by selecting the frame (paint) layer in the Layer box and, using the eraser tool, selectively erasing any undesirable intrusions of the frame onto the image.

Next, copy the paint framework and paste it over the main image. Drop the paint layer to 90% opacity.

Then, from the original edited photo, use the lasso tool to select the bottom of the tricycle, her feet, and the door frame. Copy and paste this selection over the framed image (feather value 3) to remove any of the frame bleeding over the main image. Again, this can also be done by selecting the frame (paint) layer in the Layer box and, using the eraser tool, selectively erasing any undesirable intrusions of the frame onto the image.


Click to view a larger image 		Editing the scoops.
Not wanting to freeze the model, a plastic sponge took the place of ice cream during the shoot. GW then took a picture of some strawberry ice cream scoops. Ideally a dark towel would not have been the background, but that was the darkest thing available.

Using the image resize command (image/image size), resize the ice cream so that, when copied and pasted, it just covers the plastic sponge in her lap.


Click to view a larger image 		Inserting the ice cream overlay.
Using a feather value of 3, copy/paste the ice cream scoops over the plastic sponge.

Select all layers of the image (select/all) and, using the a cloning stamp tool of 15 pixels, with an opacity of 90%, a flow of 100% and brush hardness of 80%, go over the seams between the main image and the ice cream scoops layer. Pulling the hardness of the brush down to 80% reduces the edge-to-edge contrast when bringing two images together.

Then airbrush, using the earlier settings, to soften the transition around the scoops. Also, using the alt key (eyedropper), select a darker color from the side of her stomach and airbrush some shadows behind the ice cream scoops to make them fit the lighting on Nell’s body.

Download the full-sized original, paint layer, ice cream, and final image here
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