After Before Forum Wk 77; Self Portrait 2016

The After Before Forum is a place where photographers of all levels can show how they get the wow in their photography. It is easy and fun to take part, you can check out how here.

PSA; next week is One Photo Focus with Stacy at Visual Venturing if you want to take part you can find more information and the picture being edited here. The After before forum will be back on March the 11th with submissions by the 9th.

I may have commented in passing on here that I have a new job, which I actually start on Tuesday. With new jobs comes lots of forms, medical check ups, nervousness and of course the ID picture. Although I greatly enjoy taking pictures I have not been a big fan of having my picture taken. I was asked by new employer to send an ID picture of me to them. The last time I had my ID picture taken I ended up looking like some kind of drug dealer, not pretty. So I decided to take the picture myself, with the help of my wife. The picture was up to scratch for my ID badge but not something I was really happy with; as I still feel as if I look like a criminal, although not a drug dealer. With my photoshop knowledge I decided to make something else out of this picture.

I was thinking first about vector art portrait. Browsing the net though I saw a few images with different elements I liked and started to concoct an idea in my head.

I first took my portrait and duplicated it a few times playing around with the threshold to create a silhouette of my main features.

I actually took the jpeg file and opened it in notepad to get a load of computer code. I then pasted this code into a few new layers. this part took a bit of experimentation. I ctrl clicked on my portrait to make a selection and used that selection to create a mask. This process created my face made from computer code.

I added some colour to the background by using a gradient going from a light red to a darker red.

I thought the image was still quite plain. I added a texture just to add some depth.

Still seeing some plain areas I added a tiled pattern to the background with quite a low opacity.

The final image is for me quite interesting. The code although is strange links nicely to my new job, the texture adds a worn feel like when the toner on the printer has run low. I am still not sure about the red but it is a striking colour for the image.

Week 77 Entries For The After Before Friday Forum

Benjamin Rowe Aperture64

After

Before

Amy World Is A Book

After

Before

Please check out the links to the other members posts to see how they make their image pop.

If you wish to take part in the forum next week check out the forum guide here.

I would love to here what you think and you can let me know in the comment box below.

Remember if you liked this post to; like, share and subscribe.

If you wish to get notifications when I post on my blog, you can follow me on Twitter@apertureF64, on Facebook.com/aperturesixtyfour or alternatively be emailed by subscribing below. All images are the Copyright of Benjamin Rowe , ALL RIGHTS Reserved unless credited to another photographer. For more information please read my Copyright Statement