Project 2A: Photoshop exercises + Reflective Writing (Week 4, 5 & 6)

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Week 4 

Week 5 

Week 6 

Week 4 - Digital Imaging Exercise

We are to follow the tutorial video or slides prepared to complete an exercise that teach us about selection tool, layer mask, filters and colour correction. 

Part 1: Hearst Mansion

1. Hearst Mansion with Shazam (Done in week 4)

In the first part, we need to follow the lecture notes or video to do the exercise. We need to add in Shazam to Hearst Mansion environment. First, I need to crop out the image of the Shazam, then, paste it in the hearst mansion. I need to adjust its scale to match the hearst mansion scale. Then, I adjust its colour to match the Hearst Mansion and added noise. 

I add shadow and reflection for it. The below is my product following the tutorial. 

 

Product:

2. Hearst Mansion with My Reflection (Done in week 5)

I will use these two photos for this exercise. Following the same steps, I will add in these two of my pictures into Heart Mansion. I crop them out and paste it into Heart Mansion. I adjust their scale. 

I adjust one of them first, I adjust the colour to match the environment, added noise, adjust the hue/saturation. I found the photo is way too yellow, so I use colour balance to adjust it to more blue. It looks more balance now. 

I add in my shadow. It's very light as there's a lot of light around, the reflection should be a lot blurrier and light because of diffusion. 

I then add in my reflection with just a little ripple effect. Done. 

I do the same thing for the second me. For this, I adjust the contrast a little because it looks too contrast at first. I also added just a little bit of shadow under the foot only, because it situated at a very strong light area, there shouldn't be much shadow. I then added in reflection with ripple effect. Done. 

 

Product:

Part 2: Recoloring Black and White 

1. Recolouring B & W photo - Demo exercise (Done in week 4)

Following the tutorial notes, first, I extracted the colour from the image given. I need skin colour and hair colour. Then I use quick selection tool to select the hair and click 'Select and Mask'. This will lead me into a selection page, where I can use brushes to brush over the edge to refine the edge that I selected. Then, I create a solid colour layer mask and add in my selected layer in. The colour will mask onto the hair like picture shown below. 

I repeat the same steps for the skin and cloth. Then, the lips, earrings, teeth and eye colour. (I adjusted the skin colour after finish most of the masking, because the skin colour was a too greyish). 

Then, I add in eyeshadow, very pale blush colour and background. Done!

Product:

2. Recolouring B & W photo - Extra exercise (Done in week 5)

B&W photo chosen:

Skin and cloth references (Left) & Hair colour reference (Right):

Process:

I first extract the colour out for skin, hair and cloth. 

I use object selection tool to choose the hair and refine it using refine edge brush tool. I mask the layer and got the result below. I use hard light, because its original hair is really dark, using hard light blend can show more colour. 

I then do the same thing for the skin, I left out the ear and right arm because it is more of a darker shad, I want to mask it with another shade. But, after I try it, I found that it is better to use the same colour to create a balance skin tone. 

 

I continue the same steps for eyebrow, lips, eyelashes. Then, the jewelry. 

For cloth, I use selection brush tool to select the leaves pattern on the top, after selecting, I add a solid colour layer and use it to create a clipping mask for it. Then I use quick selection tool for the other part. 

 

Then, I add colour to the background too. Done!!!

Product:

Week 5 - Double Exposure

PART 2: Double Exposure Follow Tutorial

In this project, we will need to follow the tutorial video given to create a double exposure photography, it's like a movie poster. I found it very interesting. These are the photo given to do this practice. 

First, I add in the photo and select the woman only using the quick selection tool. I then go to select and mask to refine the edges. After creating the layer mask, I add a solid colour layer to give it the background colour. I adjust the contrast of the photography by using curves. (The photo below is screenshotted after a lot of progress, so it looks weird.)

I then add in the forest photo and mask it onto the woman. I use the brush tool to clean off the edges so both of the photo looks well blend in together, without any weird edges. I then add in the birds photo. Using darken to blend the images together. I situated the birds near the eye, so it looks like the birds flew from her eyes. 

 

I add in the clouds and use levels tool to adjust its intensity level. Then I add in a gradient map. I choose something from the red, because the colour looks really cool and gives off a haunting vibe, but it looks too dull so I change to another gradient map after a small consultation with lecturer. 

The above looks too dull and cannot see the depth and contrast of it. The below gradients shows the contrast and depth better. 

Product:

Week 6

PART 2: My Own Double Exposure 

In this part, I will be using my own photo and some photo I get in online to create an interesting double exposure photography. I first get some inspiration on Pinterest, but don't really found something inspired me. So, I just look at my photo gallery and decided to take inspiration from my own photo.

I found a photo of myself wearing Kebaya Nyonya, this inspired me to create something about Nyonya. I found some photo online, like flowers, batik pattern and kuih. 

These are the images I will be using:

First, I crop out the part I want to use. 

Then, I mask the flower image onto my selfie. I then add in the the kuih, I want them to surround the portrait like they are floating around it. I mask some of them into the selfie, so they look well-blend in together. I use linear light and lighthen to mask all these together. 

I use curves and add in solid colour layer to darken and add contrast. Then, I add in the whole body portrait in the middle. Finally, I add the gradient map to adjust a perfect balance of colour for them. 

Final Product:

Because my final product looks different from what we do for the exercise and different from the samples given. I try to do other double exposure photography using similar methods. 

Other version:

1. 

Original photo:

 

2. 

Original Photo:

Reflection

Throughout this project 2, I have learned a lot more about Adobe Photoshop. For example, composition, colour, masking, layering and such. I have certain skills to manipulate and edit the photography as I like. I also gain more confidence along the project as I found it very satisfying when I complete my editing. I found it very interesting as mix and match with the colour, using the filter and blending options to manipulate the tone of the photography. More importantly, it helps to express my creativity, exploring more options to express art and visions. I was having a lot of fun while editing the double exposure, especially the Nyonya themed version. I am very thankful for Mr. Fauzi to guide me throughout this project and exercises. I am able to produce better design with the comments and opinions.