Portrait Transformation Reflection

1. The concept behind my portrait transformation builds on the idea of my imagination. I read quite a lot, and some of my favorite books are ones that create different worlds and transport me to places that are so unlike the Earth we currently live on (examples of these include The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia). In recent years, I have found myself more frequently imagining what would happen if I wound up in one of the fictional universes from the books I read. In my transformation, I brought this to life by depicting myself looking into a mirror. Instead of myself being reflected in the mirror, however, the reflection is like my alter-ego- or what I think I would look like in, say, Narnia or Middle Earth. The girl in the mirror is surrounded by a tranquil green setting and is dressed in medieval/woodland garb. I'm more or less trying to convey is that I like to imagine myself in different places and living different lives.  


2. Portrait Title: Hopes Lost and Found (it's kind of a cheesy title, sorry). 

3. I am happy with the results. Figuring out what my concept was going to be proved to be much more of a challenge than I anticipated, and when I chose this idea, I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it work. By that I mean that I was uncertain if it was going to turn out the way that I pictured it in my head. But the final result came pretty close to the original idea I had, which was a relief. I actually really like how it came out! 
4. Photos! (All the photos used in this transformation are ones that I've taken. Yes, that includes the photo in the background of the wall) 

This is the photo I used in
the background of the "mirror".
I wanted to have a photo of some
sort of natural setting in the
background to juxtapose the city
where I live with the forest that
I always imagine myself in.

This is my "alter ego" who appears
in the mirror. I wanted her to look like
someone who you wouldn't typically see
in the world today- hence the cloak and
the flower crown. 

The final result

5. I used five layers in this project. The first one was the blue background that is meant to represent the wall on which the mirror is hanging. In order to achieve the textured effect that at least the walls in my apartment have, I used a oil paint filter. Next, I added in the picture frame, and used the free transform tool to make it larger and tilted (using the perspective free transform tool). I then used a combination of the eraser and magnetic lasso tools to cut out the details in the mirror's frame. The next layer was the photograph of the forest (as seen above on the left). I layered it behind the mirror frame, adjusting the size and perspective accordingly so that it looked like it fit. The next thing I did was use the magnetic lasso tool and a layer mask to transfer the image of the "woodsy" girl (as seen above on the right) into the image within the mirror. After doing all this, I made some image adjustments to the layers containing the girl and the forest so that they had similar lighting and color balances. This was in order to make it seem like one seamless image. To do this, I darkened both images, added a slightly greenish/bluish tinge, and used the spot healing tool to make the image of the girl look more like it was taken in natural lighting rather than under florescent lighting. The last and final layer contains the image of me in the foreground, with my back to the camera looking at the mirror. I used the magnetic lasso tool again on the actual image, and then copied and pasted it into another layer. I adjusted the lighting on this image a little bit as well, but kept the florescent lighting look. I wanted to convey the sense that the "me" in the foreground was stuck in the real world, while the girl in the mirror was in another world- in this sense, the woods.