Editing photo for front cover

Here is the original photo taken for my front cover.  I chose to take a MCU because it's quite conventional for magazines to use this kind of shot on the front cover of a magazine.
I left a blank space at the top of the image, keeping in mind that i would later need to fit the Masthead in.  However, I didn't make the space so big that the image would need cropping, as this would reduce the quality of the image.
I'm going to give the models coloured hair, darker makeup and tattoos to give them a more rock-inspired look.









Hair

Here is the image opened in PhotoShop CS6, the software I'm using to create my media product alongside PhotoShop CS5.
I've zoomed into the area I'm editing and created a new layer ready to start colouring over the hair.

I've roughtly painted using the brush tool over the hair in a lilac colour and used the mask effect 'Soft Light' to make it look natural.
Because I've only painted it on roughly, there is a halo of colour around her head.  Because the coloured layer is seperate to the image, I'll be able to remove the using the eraser tool without it affecting the image.

Because there were parts of the hair which were thinly covering the skin e.g. over the ear, I've reduced the opacity of the eraser tool to 50%.  This gives the appearance that the hair is still coloured but it looks natural because that part of the hair should appear less bright than the rest, with it being a thinner piece of hair.

I've repreated the same steps with a different colour on a different layer mask to give the second model pink hair.






Makeup

Dark red lipstick is something of an icon among female rockstars.
To apply red lipstick I used the brush tool to apply a red colour and used 'colour burn' mask effect.

To darken the colour, I duplicated the layer and reduced the opacity of the duplicated one until I achieved the desired colour.

I've added dark eye makeup using the brush tool and using the layer mask effect multiply












Tattoos

Employing the techniques in the YouTube tutorial I posted, I've used an image with a white background and copied it into the image

The 'multiply' layer mask effect removes the white background.
I've transformed the image to be around the correct size

I've warped the image to give it a more 3D shape to make it look like it follows the curve of the arm.

Here I've erased the rest of the image

I'll use the same technique to add the other tattoo











General Editing/Finishing Touches

I've adjusted the levels to brighten the image and correct the contrast

I've also adjusted the colour balance - giving the highlights a cyan hint, the midtones a magenta hint and the shadows a purple hint.  This helps the image match the colour scheme and makes the image generally more appealing to the eyes.



















Before and after