Photoshop Makeovers: Sourcing the right image

When sourcing a digital image from the internet it’s important that you consider the following points.

Firstly you need to ensure that you have the legal right to use and manipulate the digital image; otherwise you could infringing on someone’s intellectual property rights and consequently face civil action. If you have personally taken the image yourself using a digital camera then you can safely use and edit that image freely, however if you intend to source images from the internet you must do so carefully and preferably with the owners permission as you could encroach on their rights of ownership. Alternatively you could always search and use photos of your friends using Facebook (assuming you have their permission).

Secondly remember when working on digital makeovers you need to be able to zoom into certain features, such as the eyes or a nose so that you can manipulate small sections of the image to gain a better finish. I would suggest working with images that are high resolution at 300dpi or greater although the makeover can still be done with low resolution image (usually the images from a digital camera are already high resolution).

Lastly make sure the lighting on the image is good and all features of the face are clear. Magazines use lots of different techniques such as chroma screens and special cameras to gain good lighting, which in turn makes the image easier to work with and gives a better finish.