How to do a Levitation Photo

A levitation photo can add a bit of magic to your repertoire! For me, a bit of fine art photography is a nice break from doing regular clean portraits.  This is how I started out doing photography! And it is fun to experiment with.  For this example, I went out early in the morning (which is just a terrible idea for a night person like myself) and took a photo rather quickly.  Since I knew what I wanted to do with this photo it was easy to set up.  I wanted to do a dream like image where I was sleeping and levitating. So, I set up my 3 chairs with my pillow on one end.  I used live view on my camera, set my focus and set the self-timer.  Then I took about 4 photos at a time. Here is my original photo with the chairs:

Then I took a photo of my pillow.  And then I took a photo of the scene without the chairs.  I made my basic edits in light room and cleaned up things like my shoes sitting off to the side.  Then I brought my three pictures into Photoshop.

I then used the picture without the chairs as my base.  I then selected myself and the chairs and copy and pasted on a new layer. 

Using a hard brush, I removed the chairs by painting black on a white mask for that layer. I was then stuck with the chair cutting into my pillow.  So, I took the pillow from the other picture, selected it and pasted it on a new layer. I then used this layer to cover up the black chair on the pillow.

At this point I needed to make the shadow underneath me.  Without the shadow I just looked weirdly lying on the ground.  This is where you need to take note of your light.  Is it soft or hard? Do you have a hard shadow or a soft one? Is there a multiple light source or just one?  As you can see in my picture with the chairs, I have a very soft faint shadow underneath me and I need to recreate that. So, I then made a duplicate layer of myself (without the chairs) and hit CTRL+M for the curves layer.  I blacked it out by pulling the highlights all the way down.  I then used gaussian blur to blur the shadow even more.  Then by using the short cut CTRL+T to transform (and simultaneously clicking the mouse on a corner square and holding down the CTRL key) I skewed the perspective of my shadow to flatten it a bit more.  I then placed it underneath my floating body and set my opacity to 45%.  (The 45% is just what I thought looked about right).  

At this point it is all artistic license. I enhanced the light to make it a bit hazier. I did this by adding a radial gradient layer. I increased the contrast. I added a texture from I bought from Jessica Drossin. Then I thought it looked a little too yellow and intense and I wanted to give it a more painterly T.C. Steele tone to it.   So I added a hue/saturation layer. 

I then thought it looked a little dark so I added a curves layer adjustment.  Two more texture layers from Jessica Drossin to add that painterly texture and feel. (Sometimes adding a texture can make an image come together).  Then I added another Hue/saturation layer to tone some of the yellow out.  Here is my final image:

If you want to see more fine art images, I highly recommend taking a look at Brooke Shaden.  She does some amazing work! Thanks for reading!    

How I use Frequency Separation for Skin

I love using frequency separation for skin because you can take care of shadows or inconsistent skin tones without over smoothing or over processing. No one wants plastic skin!! This technique separates the color from the texture, allowing you to adjust the tones, and imperfections.  For my example I am using a picture of my nephew.  And while his sweet little baby skin is PERFECT, he does have a little stork bite right in the middle of his forehead, and some tiny tiny bumps.  Using frequency separation is the perfect tool for taking care of this.

Here is my image before:

And here is the final image:

After making my normal adjustments I start by making 2 virtual copies of my image using ctrl+j. I rename one layer high and one layer low.  Put them in a group folder. I then use a Gaussian blur over the lower layer and set the radius around 8. This may vary.  

For my top layer I use  Image>apply Image. Then set the layer to Low, and the channel to RGB. Set the blending to Subtract, and the scale to 2, and the offset to 128. Set this layer to linear light.

For the next part I like to turn off the high layer and look for red patches or inconsistent colors.  I then use the patch tool (the shortcut is j).  I then go around all the places I see inconsistencies and correct them with the patch tool.

I then turn the high layer back on and use the patch tool on it to correct any tiny bumps, or rough skin.

And there you have it! Here is the before:

And the after:

It is subtle adjustments like this that can make a big difference.  Frequency separation works well for acne, undereye circles, birthmarks, weird shadows, basically all skin issues!! Phlearn has an excellent Photoshop action for frequency separation you can purchase here.

Here’s just a few more from this adorable session.

 Thanks for reading!!