How to Edit Photos to Look Dead
- 1). Open the image containing the person you want to appear dead in your photo editor.
- 2). Create a selection around one of the person's eye sockets using your photo editor's selection tools. Use brush and burn tools from your "Tools" panel to add a darkened, hollowed out appearance to the eye sockets. You can do this by setting your brush to a dark color and a low opacity and clicking and dragging over the eye socket areas. If your photo editor allows layers and layer styles, create a new layer for your brush strokes and experiment with different layer styles to achieve the most realistic effect. With the burn tool, clicking and dragging over the eye sockets will convert the current eye socket color to a darker shade each time you go over it. Repeat this process until you have the look you want. If your photo editor has one, add a noise or texture filter and apply it generously around the eye sockets using masks or a selection tool. Filters are generally located in the "Effects" or "Filters" menu bar across the top of your screen. Repeat this process with the other eye. Be sure to experiment with different shades, filters and other effects to get the best dead look for your picture.
- 3). Make a selection of any exposed skin and apply a pale to green or bluish hue to it to give the appearance of pallor. You can make selections by using tools such as your editor's marquee tool, magic wand, pick or quick selection, and clicking and dragging over the area you want to affect changes upon. Again, experiment with this effect and you can apply it selectively to different parts of the body to suggest uneven decomposition.
- 4). Use a brownish-red grunge brush, pattern or texture filter and apply it over the discolored skin areas to give the appearance of bruises, wounds and other flesh decomposition. Grunge brushes appear as a scattered, asymmetrical shape or streak and can be selected by accessing your brushes library. Lower the opacity of the brush layer or set the layer blending to overlay to keep the wounds subtle and more realistic. You can adjust layer opacity and set blending modes for your layer from your layer palette or menu.
- 5). Add other flourishes, such as color fills set to low opacity, over clothing to create a grimy, aged effect on shirts and pants. Experiment with combining elements from other images. You can use selection tools to export the dead person in your photograph into a graveyard or zombie chase scene.
- 6). Save your work.
