In this little look into how I approach and execute my work, I’m going to show how I created the photo manipulation you see to the side here.

First off, the goal. I wanted an image of me sporting the uniforms of the Gem City Aviators that I designed. There were three things in the real world holding me back. I am rarely photographed, especially while playing hockey, I needed something high res, and I had no physical version of the uniforms (no jersey, matching gloves, matching pants, and socks). So, I had to think about how I could manipulate an existing photo to be a photo of me. Most people would just slap their face on a player photo and edit the uniform to look like whatever they wanted, but I wanted it to match very closely to me by having the same equipment that I used in real life.

The first order of business would be finding a suitable photo to work with. I figured that the New York Islanders uniforms had a somewhat similar design scheme to the one I made for the Aviators, so I started looking for photos of Islanders players (don’t start fellow Ranger fans :p) that I thought had good poses for me to work with.

I found a photo of Sean Bergenheim that I thought would work. Even though he shoots left and I shoot right, it wouldn’t be a big deal. However, all of his equipment was different. He used a NikeBauer 4500 Helmet, One90 gloves, a Vapor XXXX stick, and Vapor XXXX skates, while I used a Reebok 4K Helmet, Easton Synergy 800 gloves, a NikeBauer One95 stick, and One95 skates. So, the next step was for me to take photos of my stuff in positions that matched the photo.

I had my brother put my gloves on so I could pose him and make sure it was right since they had to not only line up with the player but also with the stick. I then took photos of my skates and stick, and then capped it off with my head in helmet with a fan blowing in my face so my hair would be in “skating action”.

Now that I had all the components ready, it was time to get started on putting them all together! 1) I got things going by cutting the player out and flipping him horizontally. I then got rid of all of the logos and numbers via brushing and cloning, and took his head out.

2) You can see below how I started to color correct certain areas, and got started on the socks.

3) I got going on the jersey design, changed colors and put in the different striping. I put the socks on the backburner and tried to tackle one area at a time instead of little parts all over.

4) I finished the jersey design and threw on the chest and shoulder logos. I also put the Easton logo on the pants where the Islanders logo once was.

5) This was the first point that I inserted any of the photos that I took of my own equipment. I put the skates in place of the old ones, and put the new gloves in, which had to be altered to match the colors of the uniform. I also inserted my number.

6) I inserted the stick and made it interact properly with the hands, changed the skates a little to blend in better, and finished off the other sock.

7) The last step was to get my noggin in there, and everything was in place! I had to fix the glare on the visor and I changed the logo on the helmet to reflect the newer style Reebok helmets.

The manipulation was complete, and all that was left was to give it some kind of background, which I ended up making a simple foggy icy environment which I thought wouldn’t take too much attention away from the manipulation work.

Thanks for checking this out, and I hope it gave a good look into the process of creation that I go through!