DESIGN Inspired by comic books and pop art, I thought it would be fun to use patterns to create my own version.
PHOTOSHOP My first step was removing the woman from the background. I knew I was going to crop the image so I did not worry too much about places I knew would not be in the final image. After cutting her out, I went ahead and cropped to bring the focus to her face. I used the golden spiral to determine how far to rotate the picture and how to crop it. After this, applied poster edges in the filter gallery to get the comic book effect on the woman. This thickened the outline of her features and especially added interest to her hair. I also applied a levels adjustment to the layer to brighten the image and increase contrast. After I finished the editing of the subject, I applied a smaller halftone pattern clipped to the woman and changed the blending mode to divide.
As far as the background, I first applied a halftone pattern. I then set the blending mode to multiply. I played with several gradients until I found one I liked with the colors of the model. When I was finished editing the woman and the background, there was not enough contrast. To combat this, I added an outer glow to separate the two.