Easy Arm Amputation
To amputate a friends arm all you need is a camera, a raw chicken thigh, Photoshop and this straight-forward tutorial.
To begin you will need 3 separate photo’s all of which are taken at a similar time, with the same camera.
In the first photo the arm is resting on a bed with the camera focused on the elbow.
The second photo is taken from the same position but without the arm. So ask the subject to move out of frame, taking care not to disturb any of the creases on the sheets.
In the third photo we have an uncooked chicken thigh placed on a light-coloured plate. A knife has been used to rough up the skin around the end a little, and the camera is focused on this area.
(Remember to wash your hands TWICE after handling raw poultry!)
Now, in Photoshop open up the first image of the arm, then place the ‘no arm’ image on top. Reduce it’s opacity to around 50% and line it up with the image beneath, adjusting the scale if necessary.
Add a layer mask to this layer.
With the layer mask selected use a large black brush to mask out one side of the layer.
Now adjust the brightness/contrast so that it matches the layer beneath. When you have finished, delete the layer mask.
Use the crop tool to resize the image, leaving only the area where the arm will be.
Now open up your chicken image.
Use the Quick Selection tool to make a selection around the chicken thigh.
Take more care around the front area, the area towards the back will not be used.
Now paste your chicken into a new layer above your arm layer, and adjust the scale so it matches the arm.
Select your arm layer and create a layer mask.
In the layer mask use a large 0% hard black brush to mask out the rest of the body above the elbow, revealing the layer below.
Now move the arm layer so that it’s positioned above the chicken layer.
Go back to the arm layer mask and this time alternate between a small soft eraser and small soft black brush to blend the area where the chicken joins the arm.
Next click on the button shown above and choose Brightness/Contrast to create an adjustment layer above the chicken layer.
We only want these adjustments to affect the chicken layer, so right click on the adjustment layer and choose ‘Add clipping mask’.
Now you can adjust the brightness and contrast of the chicken.
By bringing the contrast up and the brightness down the chicken will appear a little redder.
Next add a color balance adjustment layer, again with a clipping mask.
Adjust the sliders so that the skin of the chicken is a similar colour to the skin of the arm.
Now your arm and chicken should be blended seamlessly together.
Next we need to add some shading to the sheet below the chicken. Select the bottom layer and choose the Dodge tool.
Use the Dodge tool set to Midtones and 15% Exposure to darken the area where the chicken rests on the bed.
Finally we will add two more adjustment layers above all the other layers.
First a Levels adjustment layer.
In the Levels dialog box use the black colour picker to choose the darkest part of your image, the grey one to choose an area of grey in your image, and the white colour picker to choose the lightest part of your image.
And then add a Black and White adjustment layer.
The default settings should work fine.
Change the layer’s blending mode to Overlay, and reduce its opacity to 50%.
