Fade to Black. & White. | Creative Portraits

Being a photographer is fun. Having a vision and following it is even more fun. What you are about to see is a composite of two images "fading" in a small series to bring you to the final black and white. I hope you like it and that it inspires you to try new things out with your work. As i am already thinking of a follow up to it! For those interested in the "shop work" i'll post a general summary at the bottom for you. 

Ok. For the photoshop-curious. After editing the initial image of katie to the black and white how i liked it, i proceeded with my theme of blacked out eyes-being careful to not be too careful. soft brush, separate layer opacity around 60% brush half the size of her eye. Then i "cut" her out so i could move her to the green weeds and leaves layer. I I used the method of going into the channels portion of the image and picking the most contrasty (yes i know that isn't an official word-but if twerking is, this should be!) and duplicating it then pushing the levels then painting the mask on to officially mask her off. Need a tutorial on how to mask hair? let me help you with that, and post said masking hair tutorial here for you. After that, the rest was playing with the opacity of the 3 main layers (the white background layer she was originally on, katie herself, and the leaves layer. Please note i tend to merge down on things that don't change while working. and there is always an extra curves layer or dodge adn burn layer involved. I know it's a brief "tutorial" of sorts, but you should get the gist of it, and if you have further questions, feel free to comment below or send me an email! 

So there you go. What are your thoughts? I had fun playing with this. you will find more of katie's fun shoot closer to Halloween...ok, more like at some point in October because i am not sure if i can wait to share.

Always with Love!

Lady J