Surrealism

Surrealism:

This one was for sure the one i spent the most time on, and the one that i used the most extensive amount of tools on. It started off with the background image of the railroad tracks "layer-blended" with another set of tracks on top, but lightly to the right. next the boy came in. i used a layer mask to get just the body of the guy with the white shirt, none of his background; this lead to him being slightly transparent in places such as his hands and legs. i knew i needed to do something to him, and i couldn't leave him hoe he was, so i erased his head and made a new layer to add the head of the baby. slight rotations and scaling was used along with erasing the background of the baby to get just the head, which was then placed on top of the guy with the white shirt. I ran into a problem here because the previous head that was there was in a different position (looking down) which, when i erased it, left a big chunk taken out of his body; this is where the rat and bird some in. I added the animals to cover up the chunk taken out him; those were both done with new layers. At the same time i added another new layer, to the left, the power box. Basically all i did to that was scale it and add the "plastic wrap" filter. To be honest, i really don't remember how i got the dark, red, hole at the end of the tracks; all i remember is that i had a new layer with a picture that i cut down to size, and was erasing around it. other than that all i rally added were a few adjustment layers and a "lens flare". Problems on this picture were pretty general, such as erasing everything perfectly, cutting it down, and getting it all to piece together how it did. The main problem was finding out something to use to cover up the chunk missing from his shoulder. Overall i was very pleased with this work, as it took my most efforts, and my best quality.

Filtered Selection Picture

Filter selection.

This picture was taken out in Richfield when it was sundown and the sun was setting. I was in the car at the time and decided to capture this just as we were driving by, making sure to get the subject (water tower) in while still following the rule of 3rds. I didn't do much to the picture by means of adjustments; basically i just used the filter (halftone). I decided i wanted to make it look like something was radiating from the tower, and the halftone circles did just that. The best way i knew how to do this was by using color range. I then selected the color of the sky and added the filter. There were a few problems with this because the color range ended up selecting more than i wanted, so i had to adjust it and do it a couple times. oh yeah by the way, all of this was on a new layer. so still on the new layer i carefully erased the filter layer on the edges that i didn't want to have included. Although i don't particularly like the final product, i am happy with it because everything went nice and smoothly with little mistakes.

Text + Image

Text and image.

This assignment was a little different because to create it we were using new technology; and that program was "Adobe Illustrator." I started out by taking a picture i had of an elderly woman walking in the middle of an empty parking lot. I then edited it in photoshop by de-saturating it a little to give it more of a bleak/bland/bare feel to it. Also i used the clone stamp to erase a pole that was getting in the way and was distracting. In illustrator i added words by using both the area type tool and the line type tool. The "words" that i added were lyrics to a song about war; i think this added to the picture because some of the lyrics include statements on homelessness, and the woman just gives off the feeling of a homeless person, which she very well could be. The things that were the most frustrating to deal with were the clone stamp and the line type tool. The clone stamp caused problems because erasing it interfered a lot with the background which lead to much undoing and correcting because of the mistakes made with it. The other main problem was the line type tool because it was hard to draw a correct line, especially around corners, which cause a lot of undoing and frustration. overall, to be honest, i m only semi-satisfied with this work because of the quality, and how many things went wrong.

Composite

Composite.
I did a numerous amount of things to this picture. First i took two pictures, one of a guitar amplifier, and another of an open highway at sundown. The "see-through-ness" of the amp was created by using a "layer mask". i then preceded to add minor adjustments to the color and saturation of the pictures; ending with placing a feathered borer in, around the photo. The layer mask, i would say, cost me the most trouble in this whole procedure. The thing with the layer mask is, that when you use "color range" it does not always select what you want it to. Now, this is obviously no flaw in the technology, its just that it is hard to find the perfect equilibrium where you still get to keep everything you want, while, getting rid of what you don't. This resulted in me having to go back and erase and carefully color-back-in some of the edges. other than that everything else turned out fine and i am happy with the end result.

History Brush

The History brush.
This picture was taken at my friend Jake's house. At his house is where we play music, i play guitar, and these are a few of my effect pedals. I chose to use the low and slanted angle to make it as though you are looking from the foot's point of view. I used the history brush to add color to one of the pedals, located in the middle, to draw attention to that specific pedal. I did this by first putting the whole image in black and white using the option in the adjustments bar, flattening the image, then choosing the history brush and brushing over what i wanted to go back to its original state (color). I thought that this picture turned out well, although i did face a few problems. I did have the camera set right for one; which led to parts of the image to turn out blurry. And the other problem was that it was hard to use the history brush carefully and accurately enough, which lead me to make many mistakes and stray lines that i needed to go back and fix.

Edited Theme Photo from A New Way of Seeing

Edited theme photo
This picture was taken one dismal, dreary day on the railroad tracks by the school. It is actually a combination of two pictures; the other being one of a bird in a tree. i did this by blending them in photoshop using the layer blending options. i used what i know about composition to use leading lines and the rule of 3rds to enhance the visual pleasantness of the photograph. I was pleased with the blending technique i used because it did exactly as i wanted by eliminating all of the sky around the tree and at the same time making it partially transparent. I was also pleased with the composition i created. i think that the composition really adds to this picture, making it more pleasing to look at.

natural lighting
this picture was taken during the natural lighting portion of the portrait assignment. its location was in epac, by the big windows. as i had learned in the studio lighting, you can create a cool lighting effect by having the light source come from behind the subject. i achieved the back-light effect by having the subjects stand up against the window as i lay on the ground to get the right angle. I thought this photo turned out well, as it achieved the effect i was trying to convey. Minimal details if any are displayed on the front of the people, and thats what i wanted, just the silhouette.

studio lighting

The picture of Connor with the blank background was taken during the Studio lighting section of the assignment. The techniques i used were that i had a 3/4 angle, dimmed light (paper filter), and a straight on shot. I also used photoshop to enhance the vibrancy. I think that this turned out to be my best studio lighting because the subject was in the exact frame of the photo i wanted him and the 3/4 angle really brought out all the right details, and i think it turned out looking pretty nice.