Cracked Skin Made Easy

Cracked Skin Made Easy

I feel a bit like Narrator talking to Tyler Durden in Fight Club in this episode when he says” I felt like destroying something beautiful.” This is a special episode dedicated to John who asked if I could make someone have cracked skin. Wish granted. We are combining a photo of a cracked desert with a portrait of a pretty girl together to make it look as though her face is cracking apart. I have some rules when making images like these. First, it is important to start off with a nice looking image. If you do not, you are going to wind up with something totally messed up that no one wants to look at, no matter what kind of photoshop job you did to it. Second, make sure if you are going to pull of a complex concept like this, make the rest of the image simple, so it does not distract from your focal point.

We start off by sizing the texture correctly for the face, and then warping it roughly into shape. We then go into our Liquify tool to sculpt it a bit better and to make it appear as though the texture really is wrapping around her face. From there we make a few copies of the layer and go through multiple blending options to help the cracks look as though they are more a part of her face. We make a copy of the cracks and apply a Bevel and Emboss on it yo help the cracks follow the laws of lightfall.

Question of the Day
What tips do you have for people starting out in Photography? What have you learned along the way?