Transporting Robert Downing Junior to 1886

Technologies used: Photoshop Elements 2.0

Description: After seeing a completed competition over at Worth1000.com where participants were required to put famous celebrities into old paintings I was inspired to have a shot at this myself! Below is a brief overview of how I achieved the result;

1. Sourced two images to work with, one of Robert Downing Junior and a portrait painting, I chose a self-portrait by Eva Bonnier from 1886.
2. Took a rough cut out of RDJ's face and placed it and the painting into the same photoshop file on differing layers.
3. Manipulated RDJ's face over the top of the painting to a position / size I could work with. This was done by lowering the opacity so that I could see the main features of both the face and the painting.
4. Set about blurring / smudging and burning the edges of the face to smooth them out and blend into the painting.
5. Made several duplicates of the face layer and tried to make it fit into the look of the painting, done using numerous filters, median and high pass etc (limited options in Elements).
6. Final step was to add depth and blending, again using the burn / smude and blur tools.

Full Resolution Image | Robert Downing Junior | Eva Bonnier Self Portrait