'Manipulative Couple'
Here's a fun picture I made in Photoshop.
Technically it's quite simple, I'm sure I don't really
need to explain how to do it. I simply sandwiched
the two shots together using layer masks (for
an explanation of using layer masks have a look here)
to get rid of the bits I didn't want in each photo,
then drew in the 'strings' using the pencil tool.
In order to try to make the strings look as realistic
as possible, I first drew black lines then made a
duplicate layer. Using the 'invert' choice on the
image menu to make the black lines into white lines.
I now had two layers with the same lines on them,
one with black lines and one with white lines. I then
moved one layer a tiny bit to make both layers visilbe
but slightly overlapping. I put the black layer above
the white layer then changed the opacity of the white
layer to about half. In the full size 'print' version
of this picture the lines look quite realistic, but
the anti-aliasing doesn't work too well on the screen
size version.
The thing I like about this picture is the idea,
a cynical one I know, but you do see a lot of couples
who seem to be 'pulling each other's strings' all
the time.
Having an idea in your head and being able to get
it all down on paper exactly as you saw it can be
quite difficult. Most of the time the idea gets watered
down or changed along the way due to the practicalities
of the real world. So it's nice when you end up with
more or less exactly what you set out to achieve.
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