Let me mess with your face for free
September 25, 2017 8:24 PM   Subscribe

How do I find people who would be into letting me photoshop their selfies and then post the results to my Instagram account? People who might be willing to take custom selfies (of their face -- no nudity or anything suggestive)? Or even, my highest dream, a band that would let me make them some free cover art?

I like to photoshop real people into pictures -- old paintings (1,2), human-animal hybrids (1,2), weird portraits (1,2). I always do everything I can to make sure the subjects look their best -- I would never make a picture unflattering on purpose. I also always ask permission, and would immediately take a picture down if the subject didn't like it for whatever reason (that happened twice). And I am not a slave to my muse; if someone wants something specific, I'll do my best to give them what they want. I never want any money out of this; I have a day job.

All I want is grist for my mill -- people who'd let my photoshop their pics, people who would dig that. But though I am lucky to have a 8-10 people who I can 'shop from time to time I want more subjects. Surely there are people out there who would get a kick out of that. It's like cosplay for the lazy! But how do I reach such people? I've tried running "ads" on my Instagram and Facebook, and that has found me a few people, but... never enough.

And what about musical artists who might want to collaborate on a cover? How do I find them?

Thanks for any ideas!
posted by pH Indicating Socks to Media & Arts (15 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I think this is something you start doing and it just takes off. What's your social media game like? If you could ask your friends to repost and tag you, do you think it would spread out?

PS - I'm not super interesting but you could photoshop me! PM me!
posted by ancient star at 8:34 PM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


Very neat! One thing that stuck out to me, re: the social media/viral aspect - I think your 'shops would be an effective self-advertisement, as it were, if you put them side-by-side with the originals (with permission from the subjects, of course). That way it's clear you're starting with submissions of pictures from ordinary people and not magazine cutouts or models or something. This detail would not have been clear to me if your question had not contextualized the images. Pair with some sort of text like "Want to submit your photo? Message me!" and I think you'd get some hits. (I did notice later on that you describe what the deal is in your IG profile, but lbr, most people would open the picture, go "oh, neat!" and close it.)
posted by btfreek at 8:47 PM on September 25, 2017 [6 favorites]


I would donate my face to the cause. Memail me if you feel like it.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:47 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


You can probably find some people on the Gigs section of Craigslist but would risk some creepers sending you nudes as well. You could set up a throwaway Google Voice (or similar) phone number as the point of contact and only open links that were to someone's Instagram and then DM there to get confirmation that it's really them.

Bulletin boards at local colleges and art centers.

If you're willing to put some legwork into showing your art in the physical world, you could probably find coffeeshops etc. that would let you post a few pieces along with contact info for people that wanted to contribute photos.

Contact the local burlesque community, as some of your stuff fits the feel of that scene. They might also work well as posters for concerts so you could contact some local venues to see if they'd be interested in some design work, but at that point you'd really want to make sure that you have a model release from the humans and that anything you use in the background is clearly public domain. That might be more effort than you're looking to put into it, but it could open doors with musicians.

As btfreek said, add some text or tags to your posts soliciting photos from viewers.

a band that would let me make them some free cover art?

Contact some local groups and see if they're interested. If you approach a national group out of the blue, you'll probably get turned down but if you have a portfolio of work for regional musicians, you might catch someone's eye.
posted by Candleman at 9:04 PM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


If I were you, I'd set up social media accounts purely for this. Call it something obvious related to what you are doing (Weird Selfies or Portrait-o-matic or something). Then just post the ones you've done and say "submit me your photo and I'll turn it into something weird". I think you'll probably get more submissions than you know what to do with. The only thing would be managing expectations around turn-around time, especially if it's weeks or months rather than days.

(I would participate. Memail me if you want selfies).
posted by lollusc at 9:58 PM on September 25, 2017 [9 favorites]


Pixabay and DeviantArt both have tons of free photos of people that can be used for artwork and photobashes. But I think setting up social media accounts JUST for this is a great idea.
posted by xyzzy at 10:38 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


I think a twitter account just for this would be the way to go. The photoshops look excellent, and it’s the sort of thing people like.

PS. I would also participate - I really like this sort of thing. Memail me for my face!
posted by Gilgongo at 11:18 PM on September 25, 2017 [3 favorites]


Oh I would love to be a subject for this. Please send me a memail if so inclined.
posted by tapir-whorf at 11:31 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Tumblr Tumblr Tumblr. It may have strayed from its original purpose as an imageblogging platform, but never all that far. There's far more of a norm of interaction with tumblr than with something like instagram. You can open your inbox to submissions and people will be able to send you photos directly.
You could also do this as an etsy - I bet people would pay to have this done for other people as a gift.
I too volunteer as tribute. Memail me.
posted by Acheman at 12:03 AM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank so much, all of you! Both for the suggestions and the kind offers of pics!!!
My Instagram is strictly for photoshops, and I have some followers there, but my Twitter I barely use -- I don't know how to get eyeballs on Twitter. No Tumblr yet, but I will remedy that pronto! Any tips for getting eyeballs on Tumblr? I don't like using pics of celebrities (except Snoop Dogg, whom I love) or stock photo models because I like some "real" quality of regular people, and I like to imagine the person seeing my photoshop and hopefully liking it. I have thought about before-and-after but I don't know -- often I'll cover a zit or something, even out somebody's skin texture maybe, and having the before-and-after throws that in relief, and might make the real un-retouched photo look bad? First do no harm! Thanks again!
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 12:31 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I love your work!

1. Flyers where the Hip Young people hang out - coffee shops, cafes, hookah lounges, etc. An intriguing flyer has a picture with your instagram handle
1b. CSULB?
2. Old folks home? I bet they'd get a kick out of seeing themselves computer magick-ed. Especially good if you want fewer Hip Young People.
3. Flyers at local music venues and record might get you into the music community. They might not be successful bands, but...
4. Craigslist has a ton of sections beyond gigs. You might try:
-community > artists
-community > musicians
-personals

On the social media note. . . Your instagram handle is long and hard to remember which makes it less searchable. You may or may not be interested in changing it or using something else for tumblr.

I would also love to submit my face. I guess we're memailing you? I'll DM you on instagram too.
posted by meemzi at 12:45 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


I would sign up! I love this stuff.
posted by emkelley at 4:06 AM on September 26, 2017


Consider searching Flickr for photos that are licensed under a Creative Commons non-commercial that allows people to build on the existing photo. You may have to contact folks there and it's certainly polite to let them know you've built on their stuff, but lots of people are open to having things built on.
posted by bile and syntax at 4:52 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


This is neat! I know some twitter people who'd dig your work. Not like I or they are anyone important, but just to say, yes, this is cool. And I also would volunteer to be shopped - I have a favorite silly selfie I think you could do something neat with. Get your social media on and people will come to you!
posted by dust.wind.dude at 8:30 AM on September 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Tumblr is really different to Instagram in the way it works socially - it's much more mutual in ethos and there's less of a creator vs consumer dynamic. Basically you can drop things in the tags (I suggest probably "artists on tumblr" as the "X on tumblr" family is generally where people go to for original content) but if you want to get noticed you probably want to start following people and ideally interacting with their posts. You might want to make up some compilation photosets as well as posting individual images; people seem to like those a lot, even if they do clog up one's dash something awful. The only really important thing is to remember that tags go in the tag area, not in the image caption - a lot of people crossposting from Instagram get this wrong and it's frightfully gauche ;)
Don't sign up with a username with dashes in it or you'll never be able to get @-mentioned because the tumblr code is terrible. (I've found in general that the constant low-level crappiness of the platform generates a certain friendly camaraderie, like London in the Blitz.)
posted by Acheman at 8:53 AM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


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