How well do you cope with stress? We were recently given the challenge to create a cover for NorthBay Healthcare's magazine, "Wellspring", illustrating how stress affects people differently. We decided to represent "stress" as a roller coaster ride. Two riders demonstrate the range of coping responses; one sitting back and enjoying herself, the other apparently panicked out of his mind. The final result illustrates the concept with striking immediacy and an engaging since of whimsey. 

Here's how I put it together. (Click on the photos to enlarge them)

I chose a blue sky with clouds for the background for two reasons. The sky creates an exaggerated sense of height reinforcing the "stress" of the situation. I also wanted to eliminate any "ground clutter" to keep the focus on the two people.

Next I brought in a photo of two people on a roller coaster.

I cut away most of the background of the inserted photo integrating the riders into the sky image.

The legs of the two riders are cut off in the original photo, and I knew I'd replacing the man's arms and needed to cover up the old ones so I added the front of a roller coaster car. This one was provided by the client and came from one of those amusement park rides where your photo is taken on the last steep drop and you have the option of purchasing a print. 

The image was blurry and not high enough quality to use unaltered. So a little radial blur not only masks the imperfections, but adds considerably to the feeling of speed and motion in the image enhancing the story-telling.

The man in the original photo is not stressed out nearly enough to illustrate the concept, so I brought in this poor fellow who's obviously not having a very good day.

Now I had to attach the man's hands to his body by giving him a new set of arms. I took a sleeve from the original photo (now covered by the front of the coaster car) and distorted and stretched it into position. I borrowed texture from the man's sweater, and airbrushed in the rest of the missing parts.

The woman's head had to be enlarged to stay in proportion with the man's, and to further the feeling of exaggerated perspective and scale. I lightened her skin tones to harmonize with the man's face. I also added some motion blur to the coaster trailing off behind the main couple to create a sense of motion and minimize distracting detail.

I pulled in this roller coaster image to provide some lofty rails for our subjects to ride on. 

I cut out the background, then faded parts of the coaster into the sky. The goal was to create a fanciful sense of a sky-high coaster without being too literal. The emphasis still needed to remain focused on the two faces.

Finally, an energetic type treatment ads the final splash of "stress" and finishes the composition.