Lipstick on a Pit Bull continued

PLEASE READ THE PREVIOUS POST BEFORE THIS ONE.

Let's pick up where we left off.  Everything is ready, the dog's been walked, he's quietly chewing on a rawhide bone, so here we go.  The first thing we have to do is take the bone away from him so we can get the image we're looking for.  He thinks he just came over for a chew, so taking his bone away will come as a surprise.






Of course, now that bone chewing time is over then it must be time for belly rubs, right?  Trying to get a dog upright from this position is lot's of fun for them, frustrating for you.







Ok, what is this thing you're sticking in my face? I must come check it out.  Now, we have a depth of field problem.  We need to back off so that we can get both the nose and the ears in focus.




Ok, now we're getting somewhere.  The focus is better, but we still have the tongue to deal with and we need the face more straight on.  Perhaps if I shift around a bit we can get the shot.







I think we're getting someplace.  The tongue is better, but the head is still not quite right.  He's actually doing pretty well.  What you don't see is how many times he has come over to say, "Hi" and sent me rolling backward.



Yes, this is it.  He's leaning into the shot like he's making a comment.  He is looking right into the lens, the ears are up and I can live with the tongue.  Now, for the lipstick.  As I look at our "lips" from the previous post I realize that the shape of the upper lip doesn't work for Mr. Bones, however I think I have a solution.




Turn the lips upside down and the bottom lip pretty well matches Bonesys' upper lip.  Let's get rid of the part we don't need.


We're going to use Layers in Photoshop to put the two together.  I've found this to be a pretty simple way to combine images.  The first thing you need to do (pretty much trial and error) is get the red lip the right size for Mr. Bones.  Guess at the size, move it over and if it is wrong then delete the layer and try again.  Once you have the size right, move it into position.  Add a Layer Mask.  Adjust the opacity so that you can see where you're going and carefully use the paintbrush in black mode (black reveals, white conceals) to reveal only the red lip.  Once this is done, reset the opacity to 100%.  If you're happy with the results then flatten the image and save the file.  Now you have an image to work with and you can build your poster.

Let me know if you like Mr. Bones' poster.  As you can see from this post, Pit Bulls are very dangerous dogs with no sense of humor.  If you'd like to try this technique I'd suggest you start with something like a beagle.