This is the original photo I chose to be the photo of my band on the contents page.
I first started by making the yellow brick wall background greyscale. This was both because the yellow does not suit the colour palette of my magazine and also makes the models blend into the backdrop slightly. I did this by using a hue/saturation adjustment layer.
As this made the entire image greyscale I then added a mask to the adjustment layer and painted with a black brush over the models on the mask layer, this excludes the painted area from the greyscale adjustment layer and brings them back into colour.
I then added a second saturation adjustment layer and decreased it only slightly so that the colour was depleted but not completely removed. This gives the image an edgy, cold effect perfect for the sombre image of the band. I then copied the mask layer from the greyscale background onto this layer and inverted it using Ctrl+I so that rather than the models being excluded from the saturation adjustment, the background was.
I then increased the exposure on the image to bring the models into light and make their silhouettes stronger as it increases the highlights but leaves the strong shadows intact.
I then made a drastic edit with the addition of black lipstick. I did this by making a new layer on top of everything and painting over the shape of the models lips using a black-purple colour eye-dropped from the models hair so that it blends in colour-wise with the photo. I then changed the blend mode of this layer to Multiply.
This blending mode works by multiplying the luminance levels of the current layer’s pixels with the pixels in the layers below, creating an darkening effect whilst maintaining the original image information underneath as if transparent. I then blurred the layer to make the edges of the edit more seamless and realistic.
