Monday, June 18, 2007

Race [white to black]


Having previously conducted an experiment where I digitally changed the ethnicity of a black woman, I decided to do the same with a famous Caucasian celebrity. Naturally I chose Paris Hilton.

Drastically changing someone's skin color is more challenging than you might think. Different shades of skin effect light differently so in order to acquire a semi-convincing shade of brown I had to use multiple skin color layers, each one having a unique layer effect -- one effecting color, one focusing on the tone of the shadows, one for highlights, etc... It's not perfect but I think it's fairly believable.

The hardest part was actually changing Paris' hair -- painting out her original blond hair -- and then adding a more convincing quaffer, taken from a Tira Banks photo.