Photoshop Experimentation

Photoshop Experimentation 

Photoshop is the most commonly known and used editing software in photography. It can do almost anything that you want to do to your image, including adjusting the hue and saturation, changing the brightness, tracing around it, cropping it, adding things in etc. In the media industry it is used for many different things, for example in the Fashion media industry, it is used to edit pictures of models and celebrities to make them look better and make the image more appropriate for a front cover. In the Photo-journalism area, it is used more to sharpen the image and make it clearer to see what it happening, it's not really used to change anything drastic. The subject of Photoshop is quite a controversial one, with one of the biggest debates coming from the Fashion media area- Should Photoshop be used to edit people so drastically? These has been a debate going for many years as to whether Photoshop should be used sparingly on models and celebrities, and if editors should stop going to such lengths to make the image,and person, look perfect. There is also an argument on the image that all this extreme Photoshopping is sending to younger audiences, as well as the role models it is creating. Photoshop is quite vital to the media industry, as it helps to make the images more polished and effective, it captures peoples attention, which is what the industry is all about.

I will be experimenting with a range of techniques using Photoshop CS, including;
-Layering
-Adjusting Hue/Saturation
-Brightness/Contrast

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jasper James

I researched the photographer Jasper James, who is most famous for his city scape silhouette images. I used Photoshop to create and image inspired by one of Jasper James' pictures.

Out of all the pictures I looked at, these are my two favourites by Jasper James. I'm not too sure why they are my favourites but they stood out to me more than any of the other photos. After researching, I then got to make my own Jasper James inspired image using Photoshop. 

For the city skyline picture, I decided to use a picture of New York, and for the silhouette that was going to be layered on top, I decided to use a picture of my friend.

These were my original images. Once I'd opened them in Photoshop, I used the magnetic lasso tool to cut around the profile of my subject. I then had to change the background of the image so that it was white, and then place it over the top of the city picture. After I'd done that, I just had to change the opacity of my first image so that you were able to see the city outline behind the silhouette.

This was my final image. I was really happy with the way it turned out.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manipulating Images with Photoshop

I was given a Photoshop tutorial that taught you how to get rid of spots and blemishes. We were given an image that we had to edit, and a step-by-step guide on how to go about editing it.

This was the original image. To get rid of any blemishes, I had to use the 'Spot Healing' brush tool. The tool works by taking the skin tone from another part of the face, any part that you want to use, and then you have to click on the actual blemishes and blend them in, to make it look completely blemish free. I found that it was easier to zoom in on the area of the image that you wanted to focus on, as it meant that I could be more thorough and I'd know if I'd missed any spots.

This is the image after editing. I think it looks quite natural and you can't really tell it's been edited. I think this tool is most suited for when you are editing pictures for things like catalogues and magazines, as it makes the image look more polished and professional, which is what you mostly see in glossy magazines.

As part of a different project, I went out and took pictures of Graffiti. After I'd taken them I used Photoshop to edit them and make them look a bit more like I wanted them to.

This was one of my original images before editing. I was really happy with the way it came out, but I just wanted to make the image look a bit more aged. I adjusted the hue and saturation on Photoshop to make the image look a bit older and like it had been taken on a film camera rather than DSLR. I also changed the brightness to make the picture a bit lighter. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------