Magazine stage 1 - photo manipulation

I have a pretty good idea on how I want my magazine to look, luckily a bit more decisive then my poster! so I'm going to start on the picture first.

Ive selected a photo of Ben that was taken by the group that I was debating about using for my poster at one point.

I choose this image because its nice and clean and Ben is looking directly to the camera which is perfect for what I need.

I then cut most of him out from his surroundings, I didn't do the whole image as I was after a closeup of his face.

I then played around with the black and white filter until i felt that I got the right balance, I am really happy on how this turned out.

I then created a background using the gradient tool, again because I was focusing on this head I only sorted out the top half of the page, so I was trying to come up with the correct balance just to give some texture to the surround area of his hood.

Photoshop was great during this procedure as I was able to create and change the different layers which was crucial to the success of my photo.

Ill now start putting together my magazine and transport the photo over.