Digital Photography & Imaging // Project 1

13/04/20 - 04/05/20 / Week 1 - Week 4

Ibrahim Fazal Ahmad / 0337423

Digital Photography & Imaging / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University / Project 1

Hearst Mansion

So for this exercise we had to edit the superhero "Shazam" into
the Hearst Mansion and then we had to edit ourselves into the Hearst Mansion as well. Firstly we had to load up the picture of Shazam into Photoshop and cut out the background using the Quick Selection Tool.

 Figure 1: The background removed using Quick Selection Tool

Next we had to move him into the Hearst Mansion and shrink him down. After which we used the Match Colour tool to change Shazam into a more suitable colour scheme for the Hearst Mansion. After which we used the brush tool and made a shadow on a new layer and used the Gaussian Blur to make it look more realistic.

Figure 1.1: Match Colour & Drop shadow given to Shazam

Lastly we took Shazam and flipped him vertical to create a refraction in the pool and used the Brightness/Contrast tool to make him darker.

Figure 1.2: My own edited version of Shazam.

Next we had to edit ourselves into the mansion itself, it went okay for me but it was a little hard with the lighting from my picture as it looked a bit too unrealistic.

Figure 1.3: Myself in the Hearst Mansion.

Ghost House

This week we had to edit an old house into a dark night sky, turning it into a "ghost house" Firstly we had to load up the house and use the Polygonal Lasso Tool to remove the background.  After which reduced the size of the house and used the Match Colour Tool to change the house to a more bluish night time tone.

Figure 1.4: House edited and on the background

Next we took the picture of the ghost used the "Screen" blending mode to remove the dark background.

 Figure 1.5: Background removed from ghost bride.

Lastly I added a new layer. I added the gradient tool and turned the opacity down to give ghost a glow to it.

Figure 1.6: Ghost bridge with glow.

1.7: Ghost House

Recolouring:

For this week, we had to recolour a picture given to us in class as well as our own picture that we select from the given images. Firstly, our in class exercise of editing the woman and adding colour to her. We took colour samples from woman of the same race as her and kept it on the canvas as swatches. We had to colour hair first, We had to use the layer mask to outline the hair roughly using white. Next select the layer go to Properties > Select and Mask > Refine Edge Brush Tool. Using the brush you can select the detailed strands in the hair. We repeated these steps and finished the recolouring, we also used the previous techniques learned last week for her skin and lips.

Figure 1.8: Refine Brush Tool.

Figure 1.9: Finished Recolouring.

After doing this exercise we had to do this again but during our own time from one of the pictures that was given to us in the Google Drive. So I chose this picture of Lupita Nyong'o, I thought the picture was very simple and beautiful. Using the same steps I recoloured the picture.

Figure 2: Lupita Nyong'o monotone

Figure 2.1: Lupita Nyong'o recoloured

 Hybrid Animals:

For this task, we have to take a pattern of a certain animal and combine the pattern with another animal. For the pattern, I chose a giraffe and for the animal itself I chose a puma. This involved us using the displacement map knowledge we learned from the exercise Mr Martin had taught us in a recorded tutorial. 

Figure 2.2: Giraffe pattern

Figure 2.3: Puma

I had to make a layer mask for the pattern so I could apply it to only the puma and not the background as well. The giraffe pattern was also displaced so it would be the pumas body shape better.

Figure 2.4: Photoshop file

Figure 2.5: Version 1 of Hybrid Animal

FEEDBACK: Mr Martin said that it was good, but that the pattern was a little too low in contrast and that I should bring it up so you can see it better on the puma which is what I did below: 

Figure 2.6: Final Version

REFLECTION:

Experience: All of these exercises were interesting. I have already used Photoshop for one year and even before that actually but I had only used it for drawing. All of the things I learned in these classes were extremely helpful and allow me to use Photoshop to a fuller potential than I was using previously.

Observation: I realise all of these tasks are actually very simple but all the methods are going help us when we work on our actual assignments and projects, such as for Project 2B a lot of these methods are going to be extremely helpful and will allow us to work better.

Findings: I found that the very simple things can really change the outcome of photo in terms of how real they can look. For instance the hybrid animal, if we had not used the displacement map the pattern would look much more flat and would not follow the pumas body as well. Simple things like that have a large effect on the overall outcome of an image.