Contact Sheet:

Final images:

Edited in: Photoshop + Lightroom

For this image I wanted to show a confusion and inevitable lack of identity, I did this by using multiple exposures in Photoshop and then using a large eraser (2500 px or so) with around a 20-35% brush hardness. Along with this, I used different opacity levels for many of the different layers, to make the image seem almost dream-like or as if it was happening inside the head of the subject, with the intention of the face furthest to the left to have different personalities or emotions. I wanted the image to have a different look than most other portraits in plain white/yellow light, and the pink hue added by the neon sign only adds to the image as it helps it look slightly unnatural/artificial.  There were a total of 9 different images used to add depth into the many faces, along with most of them using layer masks and using gradients to eliminate the edges, and then if an image was moved up or down, I used the eraser to eliminate any hard lines from either the top or bottom of the image.

Edited in: Photoshop

While I originally played around with the idea of digitally erasing parts of a subject like the mouth and eyes, however I found that this didn’t work in the way that I wanted it to, so I decided to use the lasso tool instead. For this image I used the Polygonal Lasso tool in Photoshop to select areas of the subjects face, then copied these areas and pasted them back into the image as a new layer, I did this several times on many different areas of the face as you can see above. I wanted to make the subject seem like a broken mirror, hence all of the layers are triangular and, for the most part, facing inwards like a smashed mirror. I did this to show the feeling of not knowing who you really are, similar to the first image, but this one is more about all of the ways we represent ourselves depending on who we are around, and how at a certain point you lose yourself when trying to put on these different faces for other people. To me, this image represents being lost and not really knowing who you, because you are trying to act differently around different people in your life, where as the first image represents a more internal struggle, and lack of identity because of focusing on too many things inside your own head.

Unsuccessful Images

Edited in: Photoshop

I also experimented with the idea of using mirrors but personally don’t really like how it turned out. I think that this idea could have worked better if I had found a larger, more open space, so you could see the depth of the image. I also think a different mirror would have enhanced the image as from this angle the mirror used doesn’t have and large edges; meaning it doesn’t look as much like a mirror compared to Laura Williams’ work, on which this image is based.