Photo Editing Tutorials

This tutorial will help you to create a Shadow and Light effect to your photograph. It is a very interesting tool that I would like to share.

Before:

After:

Steps to create effect:

1.   Open your photo into Photoshop.

2.   Find a picture in the public domain (or a picture you own) of a dark cloudy sky. Open the photo into photo shop also.

3.  Go to the opened Sky photo in Photoshop. Select and move your photo to the main photo. Place the Sky photo over the entire sky area. Move Sky photo by Edit > Transform > Scale.

4.   If your sky is not in the entire photo you would have to blend the line that the photo of the Sky leaves. Do this by adding a Layer Mask. Then go to your Brush tool and select the soft brush. Its opacity should be about 40%. Then brush over the line that the Sky photo leaves, in order to blend it within the rest of your photo. (Although, I obviously did not need to use this with my photo)

5.   Stay on your Sky layer and click the down arrow and click Darken (or Multiply, whichever looks best for your photo).

6.   Make your Sky layer invisible by pressing the eye button next to it. Go to Channels and make everything invisible except Blue. Right click onto the Blue and duplicate the channel (make sure original Blue turns invisible & the Blue copy is visible). Stay on the Blue copy, and click Image > Adjustments > Levels. Make input levels however you please (I suggest 16, 1.31, 231).  Then make visible the rest of the channels yet make Blue copy invisible. Then go back to Layers and make your Sky layer visible.

7.   Click Sky and Select > Load Selection. Make sure the Channel is on: Blue copy and that the box next to Invert is checked. (Stay clicked onto the Sky layer) Grab the brush tool and make the color white to then brush over the main object in your photo which you would like to focus on. By doing this, it will make the object lighter and your background darker. Then go to Select > Deselect.

8.  To Darken and Lighten some of the areas of your photo, go to New Adjustment Layer. Set levels to however you please (I suggest 37, 1.00, 255). Make Levels: Midtones Darken. Go the Auto: and change around your RGB, Green, Blue, & Red to make the background scene a mysterious and darker color.

9.   Grab the Brush tool. To lighten areas of photo put the paint brush on the color Black, and to darken areas put the paint brush on the color White.

10.  For final touches, go to Window > Adjustments and change the contrast and brightness of the photo if needed. Grab the paint brush to lighten & darken areas again if needed.

11.  Lastly, Flatten your image and go to File > Save As and make sure to save it as a .JPG.

Ad Design

I created this advertisement through Photoshop with the many editing tools it possesses. I created this poster because I wanted to attract people who enjoy taking photos, purchase cameras at Chuck’s photography with the many professional and affordable cameras that they obtain. My target audience was anyone which is why I created normal, natural colors. I used many tools such as inserting a text and changing the font with the text tool, color with the paint tool, texture of letters in the layer tool, and size of the text with the moving tool. Along with that I changed the color of the background, the size of the photo, and inserted the logo onto the ad. Within many of the tools I used, I used other ones creating the Ad I did to make it look presentable and professional.

Logo

The logo communicates its purpose by the way the second “O” in the word “photography” is a camera lens. This helps state that at this certain company, they have cameras and other photography products to sell. I choose the colors I used because of the way they portray a certain emotion towards the viewers. The background is a light and natural color, which gives a relaxed and welcoming feeling that gets everyone attracted to it because it is not one particular color that just one group of people would like.

I used many design elements in my logo, which are line, shape, emphasis, balance, alignment, and proportion. Line and shape were used by the way I made the shape of the camera, the creative swirls, and text. With emphasis, I put it on the bright swirls coming from the camera to give it the effect of light flashing from the camera and creativity to show that the camera can bring you beautiful photos. I balanced the colors out, making sure they went well together. With alignment, I positioned the words so that they would be centered. Lastly, I created proportion within the logo by putting the focus on the camera in the center and the creative, bright swirls coming from it to draw the audience’s attention.

"Perfect" Body Image

Before:                                                                             After:

I feel really great with the overall transformation because of how much I could warp my face onto the celebrities and edit all of the things I could. This changes my perspective of pictures in magazine ads by the fact that no one looks perfect, and no one is perfect. The way we see beauty is a totally different way than it really is. What this tells you about today’s view of the perfect body image is that it is very inaccurate and mistaken.  I think I did really well on matching my eyes, nose, lips, and cheeks to the celebrity’s, because they were pretty accurate to her face structure. Another thing I think I did well was blending my face color in with her because the photo looks more real with the way our faces blended in together, giving it the effect that it is naturally there. Some things I think I could spend more time on would be, making my eyes more focused, because they look more blurry than the rest of the photo, like you can tell that two different pictures were taken for the face and the celebrity’s body. Another thing could be to angle my nose down because it would make the angle of the photo that was taken look more accurate as if my face is truly on the celebrity’s.

A Day in The Life of a Mercy Student

I used five different Photoshop tools with these pictures by doing basic adjustments to some. These basic adjustments were correcting the brightness and contrast of the photos, balancing out the colors, and fixing the exposures. I did all of these things to basically brighten or darken up the photo to create a more vibrant and noticeable picture. I also used those adjustments above, yet went beyond them with two different edits, using the Black & White tool, and the Tint tool. For one of my photos, by giving it the Black & White tool it made it stand out from the others, creating a smooth picture, helping it focus on the one object in the photo. With the Tint tool, it made it stand out from the rest of the photos also, with the different tint of color to it. While making this collage, I learned how to put photos together into a collage and use different editing tools for the photos. This project helped a ton on getting to know Photoshop and my own photos better.

Elements of Photography

This photo is an example of an element of photography known as, Angle. This shows angle because the photo is taken at a downward position. You can tell by the head of the dog being the biggest, and as you scan your eyes downward, the rest of his body becomes smaller and smaller.    

This photo is an example of, Simplicity. This shows simplicity because there is only one particular object in the photo, and a simple color tint to it (an editing tool called sepia) creating a "simple" and uncomplicated photo.

This photo shows an example of, Lines. This is because it shows linear elements, which is the fence and grass lines, that is photographed diagonally to showing its deminsion more than the objects that are just horizontal.

Copyrighted Podcast

From my experiences I have concluded that downloading music is wrong. It is not fair to the artist nor the composers and editors who work behind the scenes to make the music also. I believe that some copyright laws should exists because, it would help not as many people steal an artists’ work. Piracy is so prevalent in our society due to the fact that many younger people, like to do stupid things, especially if they are against the rules. Since piracy is illegal, and so easy to do and get away with, younger people find it easy pirating music.  Also, music has a large impact on some people’s lives, yet not everyone has the money to buy the music they love, so downloading it illegally is what they turn to. If anyone was using our podcast without our permission I would feel real angry and upset, considering that we spent a lot of time and effort into our work. It would not be fair to my group at all. Just like it would not be fair to an artist and their companions who composed songs which people illegally download, by pirating.

(On the picture below there is a link to my group's podcast.)

Copyright Infringment

I used to think Copyright was a bad thing, when really Copyright means, the right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc. Therefore, it is only bad when you are being charged for Copyright infringement. In this article Disney & Pixar is being accused of infringement of copyright by releasing a movie called Cars, which is a lot alike these screen plays, written by Jake Mandeville-Anthony, a British writer. In Mandeville-Anthony’s screen plays is a story of 46 animated car characters racing around the world. He is believed that Disney & Pixar is using his ideas to make the movie Cars and Cars 2. The punishment was going to be to stop the release of Cars 2 and have Disney & Pixar pay the copyright infringement fees. It would have been a fair punishment if Disney & Pixar did copy this British writer’s work, but the court stated that they had not. The judge said that the two Car showings had nothing to do with one another therefore, they should not be accused of Copyright Infringment.

Technology Autobiography

In the past I have had many experiences with technology & computers. In grade school I have attended computer classes throughout my eight years there.  In high school I have had a class my freshman year and now this year, as a senior, I will be taking the Computer & Tech class. I have had many experiences with camera technology & computer editing because I take great interest in photography. It is one of my main hobbies that I love to do.

I believe technology has a long way to go in the future.  Seeing how much it has grown in the past, makes me feel like it will continue changing within the future. I think people will use it for more activities, programs, work, school, entertainment, science, etc. For examples, people all over the world within school or work programs may use in more to learn or to expand in a business. Also, people may use the technology in their households & public areas more. Technology will help us all travel quicker & easier. It will help expand on the human mind and open it up to many other ideas.