Civil War Vampire Photo

The latest rage is finding an old U.S. Civil War era photo and seeing that the subject bears a remarkable resemblance to some famous person alive today.  

Well, I submit to you this concrete evidence that the Chief Executive Ibler,  Autodeskible Director of Community is indeed a vampire...

I don't think you can take pictures of vampires but that doesn't explain that they live forever...

I was posessed to do this ible for some unknown reason...oh yeah, the awesome swag you can win in contests.

click on the little [i] icon on the images to select an enlarged photo

The only thing you need is some base photos and some photo-editing software.  

I used GIMP as it was "free" and I sorta worked with it before.  Other packages will have similar commands or functions.

I am sure there are more advanced techniques to do what I am going to do but essentially I will cut and paste a face and superimpose it on a new photo.  Blend it in to fit and give it the old photo look with a built in "old photo" filter script.

Select the photos you will use.

The base photo is black and white.  I just pulled a photo from the internet.  Honest Abe is always a willing subject.

Find another photo to use for the face.  It should be the same pose so it will be easier to match the subject.  Look for the face looking in the same direction and maybe the same lighting.

Pull both the pictures into GIMP.

If one of the photos is color, change it to greyscale (menu-image mode, greyscale).

Use the magic lasso to create a selection area around the face.  Select points around to outline the face.
You can also use the fuzzy select but that takes more effort to have it select the right regions based on color/contrast.

You want to exclude the harsh shadows or distinct edges if there are any to make it easier to fit and blend in on the base photo.

Copy the selected region and paste on the base photo.

The face should now be a new layer on your base photo.

I then adjusted the brightness/contrast (menu- colors, brightness-contrast) to match the base photo.

Use the perspective tool to stretch your face to fit over the base image.

You can get it the right size/shape and then move it  into final position.

Change the opacity of the layer (layer dialog box)  to help you see where to manipulate the face to match the mouth/eyes.

Once the face is in final position, you may need to flatten or combine all the layers (menu- image, flatten image).

Use the various tools to blend in the edges.

Use the eraser tool to expose the base image if your face has covered up any details like the beard.  I think there are more advanced ways of doing a "mask" for this.

Use the blur tool to soften some of the edges of the face to blend in with the base photo.

Use the smudge tool to further blend in the hard edges of the face with the base photo.

I know there are other techniques such as using a filter blur to do the edges and merge but  that might be an advance Photoshop technique.

Once you have the face blended in to the base photo, apply the "old photo" filter ( menu- filters, decor, old photo)

Let it rip.

It will produce an image with the old photo sepia tone look.

See who else you can find as a Civil War vampire.

Happy hunting!