Photoshop Tutorial - "Zombifiying" a Photo

How I Achieved This

I have started with my original photo. I have cleared up any flaws using the Patch Tool Brush and the Clone Stamp. I have erased some scratches and any harsh colour changes in the background and have also smoothed out my skin, covering any spots or red patches I had. I have done this so my photo is completely clean to start off with so that at the end, I wont have to go around correcting little things like spots, etc.

I start to add in a background. I went on www.deviantart.com and searched 'grunge texture' until I found a texture that I liked and would want to use as a background to my image. After downloading one I liked the look of, I pasted it as a new layer on top of my image. I then duplicated my background layer and placed it on top of the layer with my background on, creating a 'layer sandwich'. I did this because I thought it would be far easier to edit in my background this way, instead of cutting around the image and pasting it onto the background in a different window. I took my Eraser Tool to the top image, the duplicated version of the background, and started to rub away where the white was. As you can see from the image above, the image from the layer underneath, is starting to come through. I continue to work my way around the image until all of the white is gone and the background is now the texture I previously downloaded.

After I completed filling in the background, I worked on adjusting the colours, brightness and contrast. The first thing I did was select the layer that had the background on and went to Hue and Saturation to turn the saturation down, so the colours weren't as bright. After this, I went to Brightness and Contrast so I could get the lightness just how I wanted it. I then switched to the top layer, which had the main image in, and did the same. I also went to Colour Balance and turned up the green colour a little more so that I could get a kind of green tinge to the image, making it slightly more zombie-ish. After I got the colours and brightness correct, I moved onto whiting out my eyes. All I did was take the Clone Stamp, clone the white corner of my eye, and slowly bring it into the middle, over my iris. To make it look more real, I took the white from both corners and brought them to the middle to meet. After doing this, I selected the Smudge Tool and smudged the colours together, once more, to make it look more authentic. I repeated this process with the other eye. Because of smudging the colours together, the eyes looked a little bit blurred, so I decided to add a tiny bit of Noise to make them look slightly more grainy than blurry.

I went back to www.deviantart.com and searched for 'cracked brushes' to create the peeling and cracking effect on my skin. I downloaded and installed a brush pack (http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=crack+brushes#/dzozc9) that had a few different brushes in. I created a new layer and began to place the cracks where I wanted them.

After putting the cracks where I wanted them, I then changed the layer value to 'overlay'. This made the brushes look far more real and blended in nicely with my skin. I then selected the Eraser and began to erase the parts of the brush that overlapped the image onto the background, or overlapped my facial features. I went back to www.deviantart.com and searched 'blood splatter brush'. I downloaded a set I liked (http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=blood+splatter+brush#/djag0r) and chose a dripping effect one, and placed it on the left hand corner of my lip.

To finish off my image, I went onto www.google.com and search 'upside down cross' and selected one. I placed in onto my image in a new layer and deleted the white around the image. I placed it over my forehead and selected Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and blurred the cross a little bit to add a 'demonic' effect. After this, I went to Filter > Distort > Lens Correction > Vignette and added a vignette to my image, to give it some depth. Finally, I went to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and made my image a little more sharper as I feel it give it a more professional finish. And, I am done!