I know it’s strange to post a picture of a pretty bird one day and then an ultra bizarre portrait the next, but I am drawn to most genres of photography and this is an example. I started with a simple portrait of model Lauren Isabella against a beige wall. A makeup artist had applied some color to Lauren’s arms and shoulders. This is something Lauren wanted, and I took some pictures for her even though the added color didn’t appeal to me. However it turned out those colors worked out well in this composite. The first thing I did was use a blend mode to apply a rose to Lauren’s face -- twice on her forehead and twice on her cheeks. I then selected her torso and neck and pasted an elegant gown from another model within that selection and lowered the opacity to 60%. This allowed us to see the expensive fabric of the dress as well as Lauren’s body. I then added the stormy sky. Using the Liquify tool in Photoshop, I enlarged the eyes, moved them further apart, and replaced the irises and pupils with the eyes of a gecko that I had photographed during one of my frog and reptile workshops. To embellish the composite with bold contrast, I brought the image into Adobe Camera Raw and added clarity. Finally, I used the dodge tool to lighten a portion of the face to make the eyes even more dramatic.
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