'Sad Girl Fix'

Directions for Sad Girl Fix
Original photo found here: [link]

Reasons for Fix: The biggest challenge of this photo was the soft focus and the distracting background. There were also dust specks and very dark contrast. These things all drew away from the nature beauty of the model and the elegant pose. I wanted to reduce the negative and support the positive.

Fixed for the club:

Directions for Sad Girl Fix in Photoshop CS

1) Magnet Lasso Tool---slowly click and drag around girl---once fully selected---right click and select inverse---double click background layer to make it a layer---push delete button to erase background leaving transparent around girl
2) Right click---Feather---5px---click OK---push delete button again
3) Use erase tool to soften edge more around girl by removing pixelated hard edge
4) File---New Canvas large enough to have room to play I used 20x20 inches
5) Drag girl onto new canvas naming layer girl--- create three more layers, which I simply named Frame, Strings, & Nail
6) Download frame brushes from deviant art member synthexstock found here [link] and install in CS
7) Use the brush frame 1014 and fit around girl on the frame layer
8) Click girl layer---window---filter---artistic---watercolor---detail 14---shadow 0---texture 2
9) Download and open texture picture from deviantart member yana-stock found here [link] #10---Drag onto canvas---adjust size---name layer texture
10) Girl layer---image---hue/saturation---saturation -25
11) Texture layer---window---filter---artistic---watercolor---detail 14---shadow 0---texture 2
12) Add dropshadow to girl layer---opacity 60%---distance 16px---spread 15%---size 29px
13) Texture layer---Channel Mixer---increase red tone
14) Frame layer---desaturate---channel mixer---increase brown tones
15) Nail layer---use circle selection tool---make small circle above frame---fill with gray color---using paintbucket---add dropshadow---then bevel & emboss
16) Download and open background graphic from deviant art member roxstock found here [link]
---smoke background---drag onto background layer---opacity 75%
17) String layer---new brush tool---draw strings in from nail to frame
18) Lock texture, strings, frame, girl, and nail layers together---free transform---tilt
19) Crop into square format---flatten image---canvas size add 0.25 black---then 0.25 brown---then 0.50 black
20) Save and you are done!!!