How to replace someone's face using Adobe Photoshop

One of the interesting and easy to learn from Photoshop is changing someone’s face (from their photo) by another one. If you are still new to the program and discovered for yourself you’ve learned the stuff, it’s really fun and I’ll bet you’ll enjoy it very much. Actually, once you know already what this tutorial is, you can replace any part of an image or photo you like; edit colors and shades, change backgrounds; remove or replace anything you like; and other more you’d like to imagine. And then, you can amaze your friends of your new-found trick by posting your creation to top social media websites or right to their emails! That’s really fun eh?

Just follow these simple steps to know how:

STEP 1

Open Photoshop (CS2 and later). By the way, I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 here.

STEP 2

Go to File menu>Open. Select a photo from your computer which you want to be edited/manipulated. In this case, mine is a photo of Osama Bin Laden.
*The selected photo should be on your screen now.

STEP 3

Open another photo by doing the same step as above (e.g., File>Open). You can put the photo beside the first by dragging down the link, like the one below.

STEP 4

With the second photo being the active layer (should be the one visible in your layer dialog box), click Lasso Tool and select the face by drawing the line around it. When done, go to Edit>Copy.
*With the face already copied, it is now ready to be pasted onto the first photo.

STEP 5

Click the first photo now to activate it, then go to Edit>Paste. The selected face from your second photo should now be visible on your first photo, but most likely too large or small to fit the face. Don’t worry, that’s what we will do next…

STEP 6

Click Ctrl T (or Edit>Free Transform), scale it right, and then put it properly to the face to cover and replace the old one. Hit Enter if done. By now, don’t bother yet about the color, rough edges, and other parts to be fixed or enhanced. We’ll do that next…

STEP 7

Go to Image>Adjustments>Color Balance. Adjust the 3 sliders on the dialog box until the color matches (or nearly matches) the subject’s color. If in case the desired color is not yet met, use the other adjustment tools (Image>Adjustments>Exposure, Color Levels, Color Curves, etc.).

STEP 8

To fix the rough edges, select Eraser Tool (soft) and erase carefully around the face. You can blur a bit by selecting the Blur Tool to smoothen sharp edges.

STEP 9

More finishing touches… Other than the Blur Tool to smoothen edges and parts of the face (note: avoid to overdo it), can also use the Healing Tool and Clone Tool, if necessary. Try it freely. You can always undo every step you don’t like to appear (Edit>Undo).

STEP 10

If satisfied already with the outcome, go to Layer>Flatten Image. Delete inactive layers, if any. Then, finally, save your work by going to File>Save As…!

Here’s the final result:

That’s it! Enjoy!