This is a self-portrait I shot against a blank wall in my house. When I took this photo, I accidentally shot it with the wrong exposure setting on my digital camera. As you can see, the lighting left a lot to be desired, but fortunately I was able to fix that after I took the photo. Once again, this digital art work was done completely in Adobe Photoshop Elements.
For a better, larger view of this portrait, please visit my website, www.Ginismagic.com.
To get the finished portrait, my first step was to adjust the contrast, shadows, and highlights. Then I placed a lavender gradient behind the subject to give the effect of a studio-portrait and complement the blue blouse and green eyes. Next, I smoothed a few areas of skin that had some blemishes on them, though these are nearly impossible to see on these photos because there were very light. I also used a mild softening filter to give the skin and hair a smooth, healthy glow. Next came hair highlights, eyeliner, teeth whitening and faux eyelashes.
If you look closely, you’ll notice that the catch lights in the eyes are different than in the original. This is easier to see in the larger version on my website. The catch lights are different because in the original photo they were different sizes in each eye and they were awkwardly positioned, so I removed them and put in nicer, more attractive catch lights to bring attention to the eyes.
Once all of that was done, I experimented with different lights and sparkles and chose wound up choosing these.
What do you think?
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