Digital Photography & Imaging
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28/08/19-25/09/19 (Week 1-Week 5)
Natalie Leong Yuin May (0334127)
Digital Photography & Imaging
Exercises & Projects
INSTRUCTIONS:
Assignment brief
Lecture 1
For the first lecture, Mr. Martin went through the Module Information Booklet. Then he moved on and taught us the basics of using Photoshop. He told us to download some pictures from a Google Drive link he posted in Google Classroom which consisted of a picture of Shazam (Figure 1.1) and a hearst mansion background (Figure 1.2).
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| Fig. 1.1: Shazam |
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| Fig. 1.2: Hearst mansion background |
Firstly, Mr. Martin taught us how to crop Shazam out of the photo by using the quick selection tool (Figure 1.3) and a cropping filter (Figure 1.4), thus leaving the background behind and then I can put Shazam into the hearst mansion background.
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| Fig. 1.3: Quick selection tool. |
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| Fig. 1.4: Cropping tool. |
Next, I had to resize the cropped image of Shazam. The resize tool can be accessed by pressing Ctrl + T. Then, Mr. Martin stated that to make it look more realistic, I had to match the color and hue of Shazam to the background of the hearst mansion. To do this, I used the 'Match Color' and 'Hue/Saturation' which is under the 'Image' tab and then under the 'Adjustments' tab. After that, I can make further adjustments to Shazam by adding a reflection into the hearst mansion by copying and pasting the Shazam layer which can be done by pressing Ctrl + C and then Ctrl + V. Then, I flipped Shazam upside down and darken it by toggling with the 'Brightness/Contrast' setting under Image > Adjustments. Additionally, Mr. Martin told us that since the reflection was in the water, we had to create a slight ripple effect. As the water was calm, Mr. Martin advised us to not have a strong ripple.
Mr. Martin then also instructed us to create a shadow of Shazam by creating a new layer and then using the a brush to color around Shazam's feet. Then to make the shadow blend into the background slightly, I used Gaussian Blur. Then, as Shazam was less blurry than the hearst mansion, Mr. Martin stated that we had to add noise to Shazam. Finally, the work is done.
Figure 1.5: Exercise 1; Cropping Shazam into the hearst mansion.
Next, using the same tools taught by Mr. Martin, we were tasked with photoshopping ourselves into the hearst mansion.
Figure 1.6: Assignment 1; Cropping myself into the hearst mansion.
Lecture 2
For the second exercise, we had to create a ghost house using the pictures below: a wooden kampung house (Fig. 2.1), a dark eerie cloudy scenery (Fig. 2.2) and a ghostly lady (Fig. 2.3).
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| Fig. 2.1: A wooden kampung house. |
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| Fig. 2.2: A dark eerie cloudy scenery |
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| Fig. 2.3: A ghostly lady |
Tools used:
- quick selection tool
- Color matching
- Brightness/Contrast
- Brush tool
Below is the finished product of the in-class exercise (Fig. 2.4).
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| Fig. 2.4: Ghost house. |
Exercise
For the exercise, we were to photoshop the house into a background. I decided to go with the sunset background (Fig. 2.5).
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| Fig. 2.5: Sunset background with a mini island. |
At first, I created a shadow of the house but Mr. Jeffrey gave me some feedback, saying that if i look at the rest of the shadows in the picture, it isn't very 'clear'. As in, there were no shadows/reflections of the tree itself, but rather small shadows. So I took in his feedback and made changes (Fig. 2.6).
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| Fig. 2.6: Final product. |
Bonus Exercise
Mr. Martin said that this was an extra exercise where the top 3(?) would be given additional 5 marks (I think). He said that we had to photoshop the cat in Fig. 2.7 into any picture of our choice. I thought the idea was really funny so I just tried doing it.
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| Fig. 2.7: Cat in outer space. |
My idea was to photoshop the cat into a serious scene, so it seemed a bit comical that the cat would appear in such a scene. My first thought was to photoshop the cat in a scene from the Avengers because I just found it funny.
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| Fig. 2.8: Black Widow, Thor and Captain Marvel from Avengers: Endgame |
I photoshopped the cat at the corner of the bookshelf so that it was visible but not easy to spot immediately
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| Fig. 2.9: Cat with Black Widow, Thor and Captain Marvel from Avengers: Endgame |
Tools used:
- quick selection tool
- Color matching
- Brightness/Contrast
Lecture 3
Mr. Martin taught us how to 'color' via photoshop. We had to color the image below (Fig. 3.1).
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| Fig. 3.1: Coloring exercise. |
First, we had to do the skin, which was to choose solid color > color picker > mask tool > soft light.
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| Fig. 3.2: Solid color. |
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| Fig. 3.3: Color wheel. |
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| Fig. 3.4: Click mask tool and then click soft light. |
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| Fig. 3.2: Skin color. |
Then create a new layer and use the brush with 'soft light' selected and color the parts of the man's face. Lastly, use the mask tool to remove the parts you don't want.
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| Fig. 3.3: Final. |
Exercise
For our exercise, we had to do the same but we had the freedom to choose any photo we want. So I picked the image below (Fig. 3.4).
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| Fig. 3.4: Black & white photo of a girl. |
Reusing the same techniques that were taught in the lecture, I tried to recolor the photo (Fig. 3.5).
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| Fig. 3.5: Final. |
But the hair was really weird so I tried a different photo.
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| Fig. 3.6: Black and white photo of another girl. |
This time, it turned out better than I expected so I just submitted this picture.
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| Fig. 3.7: Submitted work/ |
Lecture 4
There was no lecture as classes were cancelled by Taylor's management due to the haze. However, Mr. Martin instructed us to watch the videos Mr. Jeffrey uploaded on how to do displacement.
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| Fig. 4.1: Same photo used from the previous lecture. |
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| Fig. 4.2: Snake skin. |
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| Fig. 4.3: Man with snake skin. |
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| Fig. 4.4: Flag of India. |
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| Fig. 4.5: Wrinkled cloth. |
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| Fig. 4.6: Wrinkled flag. |
Exercise
Mr. Martin instructed us to complete the displacement exercise and learn how to do it from watching two videos he uploaded. We were tasked with creating a hybrid animal, using two or more characteristics of different animals.
Tools used:
- Color matching
- Brightness/Contrast
- Masking tool
Lecture 5
For this week, there wasn't really a lecture as Mr. Jeffrey gave us an exercise to do. Mr. Jeffrey talked about the Castle of Pyrenees which inspired a Ghibli movie by the famous director Miyazaki Hayao called 'Laputa in the Sky'. For our exercise, we had to recreate a similar picture to the Castle of Pyrenees.
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| Fig. 5.1: Castle of Pyrenees. |
Exercise
For this exercise, our task was to recreate the masterpiece Castle of Pyrenees. However the twist was we had to find our own image and used our own textures.
Initially, I wanted to use Fig. 5.2 and Fig. 5.3, however I realized I didn't really like the background and the stone head. Furthermore, Mr. Martin and Mr. Jeffrey said it didn't really look like it was floating and I realized it was because of the bottom. I also felt that I was struggling with the color scheme so I googled to look for more options, which I then came across Fig. 5.4.
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| Fig. 5.2: Stone head. |
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| Fig. 5.3: Arctic background. |
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| Fig. 5.4: Failed piece. |
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| Fig. 5.4: Fake cliff. |
I decided to go for some Japanese themes because I really liked the idea of a floating castle amongst cherry blossoms.
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| Fig. 5.5: Cherry blossom scenery in Japan. |
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| Fig. 5.6: Japanese castle. |
I thought the picture looked a bit empty, so I added some fireflies by changing it to overlay and then cutting some fireflies out and pasting it at certain places.
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| Fig. 5.7: Fireflies. |
I got some feedback from my friend and sister, which they said the rock looked too saturated so I turned down the saturation. I also had to manually add some white spots to the rock to show where the light was shining.
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| Fig. 5.8: Submitted piece. |
I thought I should add the reflection of the fireflies, so I added them and then turned the opacity lower so it wouldn't look too vibrant.
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| Fig. 5.9: Edited after submission. |
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| Fig. 5.10: Edited submitted piece. |
Tools used:
- quick selection tool
- Color matching
- Brightness/Contrast
- Brush tool
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