5-minute Photoshop Face Wayne Rodgers

I get requests every so often to put Indigio employee faces on funny pictures. It’s really a simple process once you learn the steps. I can crank them out in about 5 minutes (finding good source photos can take much longer).

The first step is to find the source photos. The face of the Indigian has to be turned in a very similar direction to the photo on which it will be placed, otherwise it won’t look right.

The first thing I do is erase the face of the photo which will be replaced. I do this because I can’t always count on the Indigian’s face to cover everything up perfectly, so it’s best to start with a blank canvas. I just select the facial features and then use the patch tool to select skin from another part of the face and it usually covers it up pretty well.

The next step is to highlight and copy the face of the Indigian. I carefully select along the jawline, around chin, and go slightly over the eyebrows.

Then I copy (control-c) and paste (control-v) and end up with only the selected part of the face on a new layer. I drag the face over to the new body and rotate or resize (both control-t) it until it looks about right.

At this point I hide the replacement face layer and carefully select the outlines of the new face area. I will be deleting anything on the replacement face that is outside of these boundaries. Usually what I’ll do is select the area, fill it in with a color on a new layer, and then hide it for later use.

The next step is to get the colors of the skin to match up. Simply adjusting the levels (image->adjustments->levels) of the face will usually get it pretty close. Occasionally I’ll also have to adjust the brightness/contrast as well depending on the photo.

Now I control-left click the hidden black layer which selects the outline. Once it is selected, I click control-I to invert it and then I delete (control-x). This deletes everything on the new face outside of the new face area.

Once the face is cut into shape, it looks pretty good, but you can see that it is just a cut out face on a new picture. This is where the magic happens.

I control-left click the layer of the new face to show me its outline. Then I click on select-> feather, at the top of the screen. I leave this set at about 5 pixels and then I click OK to run the feathering.

Once the feathering is done, I invert it (control-I) and then delete (control-x). This feathers the face into the new photo so you don’t see any lines. I generally repeat the feathering process about 2-3 times until the face is seamless.

This one turned out pretty well. It could use some blending where the hair covers the face to ease that line a little bit, but I only have 5 minutes, so give me a break!

So this is what Tom looked like in high school I guess. Despite the smile on his face, this is a depressing image.

• Posted In Client Services