Digital Photography and Imaging / Project 1: Exercises
03.04.23 - 15.05.23 / Week 1 - Week 7
Name: ALYSSA AISYAH BINTI 'ARIEF NASRAN (0364017)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Name: ALYSSA AISYAH BINTI 'ARIEF NASRAN (0364017)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Digital Photography and Imaging (GCD61204) / Section 1
LECTURES
Lectures can be viewed here
INSTRUCTIONS
PRACTICAL
Physical Collage
In each pre-composition for the 3 collages, I decided to use the character zero from drakengard as I did not have access to magazines at the time, so I had to print out my elements (with Mr Fauzi's permission) and this allowed for more artistic freedom as well, thus I chose her as a character as I had lots of dried flowers from leftover projects I planned to use for this task, and zero the character also was quite monochromatic in design + had a flower in one eye, so there was some shared elements (the flowers) that could easily blend in with the materials I had already, and her being more monochromatic in colour allowed for the other elements to be the pop of colour in the design which can make for an interesting contrast in the composition as you usually see the focal points being the most colourful element in a composition. All extra other 3D materials that I have used in this task were recycled materials I had leftovers of from old projects of mine.
Pre Composition #1
Fig 1.0 Pre Composition 1
Explanation: I used dried flowers at the edge of canvas on the top left and bottom right and placed the character there as well to look as if she had bloomed from the flowers, the background is mostly made up of torn wallpaper designs and old collage letters, I also used some white ribbons and cardboard hearts I had from a leftover arts and crafts project I had, while the words come from a book.
Fig 1.1 Pre Composition 2
Explanation: In this design I used more dried flowers I + faux plastic ones + flower stickers, some dried coloured leaves, and a torn watercolour background- the quote is part of some book pages which I had cut out from, and as zero had a flower blooming from her eye in her original character design, I decided to add flowers there too to give emphasis to her original design.
Fig 1.2 Pre Composition 3
Explanation: In this last design, I used more of the dried flowers I had and wanted to explore the idea of having the flowers bloom from her eye as I really liked how it emphasized her original design, thus I arranged the flowers in a way where it looked as if they were also dissipating going from the largest flowers to smaller ones as it gets further away from her eye, I also used some of the same wallpaper/watercolour backgrounds I had printed out and some coloured dried leaves, and lastly, the quote was cut from 2 different book pages.
After evaluation from Mr Fauzi, I have decided to go with the 3rd composition as I liked the way the elements balance each other out on the canvas and emphasize the characters natural design, furthermore the way the subject is placed allows her to stand out much more than the other two.
Once I had my chosen composition, I started to glue/paste my elements down carefully, additionally I have also made some adjustments to the final outcome such as the addition of adding more flowers, gold leaf, and another background piece, as well as altering the original text to actual text from the game itself I have created to match with the theme and concept I had to make the composition more complete and visually captivating to look at.
Final Physical Collage
Fig 1.3 Final Physical Collage JPG
Fig 1.4 Final Physical Collage PDF
Digital Collage
During week 2, one of the exercises was to create a digital collage utilizing the images given, we were allowed to manipulate the images in various ways, such as masking them to create shapes, allowing for more creative freedom, however, it was mentioned as well that we must keep to the aspect ratio of the images and make sure the dimensions were according to the assignment guidelines.
I first started out by cutting/cropping all of the images accordingly, once I had done this, I then arranged my 3 different compositions in Photoshop.
Composition #1
Fig 1.5 Pre Composition 1
Composition #2
Fig 1.6 Pre Composition 2
For the second composition I have used the pattern images on the top and bottom of the composition as the background, then, using the shape tool, I created some flowers and masked the other image patterns available onto it, and added the leaf in as it made sense with the flowers, repeating this on the top and bottom, throughout the whole image, I tried to mirror the top and bottom elements in the opposite direction of each other at the same time only with some different images. As a final step, I then added in the fishes facing towards each other as if there were swimming to each other and in the same tank.
Composition #3
Fig 1.7 Pre Composition 3
For the last composition I have decided to play around with the perspective more by making the street appear from the bottom to the top, having the blue building coming out from the corner, while the projector blends the beige building on the top with the blue building on the bottom acting as a "bridge". The composition still felt a bit empty however, and although I wanted to have some white space, it was too overwhelming, thus I added in the fishes to fill the gap where the background pattern meets the street.
After receiving feedback from Mr Fauzi and having chosen one composition from the 3 digital collages we made, we are then to adjust the image colours accordingly to look visually pleasing. I have chosen the 3rd pre-composite as it was the one Mr Fauzi liked the best since it gave a 'surreal warped dimension look' due to the interesting perspective usage.
I have adjusted the hue and saturation of the buildings, fish, and street. I also applied some colour balance and adjusted hue and saturation as well as the brightness and contrast of the overall design, the aim was to make a more “cooling effect” with winter-esque colours. I learned how to adjust the colours of a picture in photoshop and how to make it look visually appealing, it should not be overwhelming, and the colours should make sense with the design and complement/balance each other out in separate elements for the whole design to look cohesive.
Final Digital Collage
Fig 1.8 Final Digital Collage JPG
Fig 1.9 Final Digital Collage PDF
Hearst Mansion
In Exercise 1 Project 1 of Digital Photography and Imaging, we were instructed to create and edit two images into a picture of the Hearst Mansion, one of 'Shazam' as an exercise, and one with a portrait of ourselves following the tutorial given.
Pt 1: Shazam
First, I used the quick selection tool to select the object (shazam) and then applied the layer mask to isolate the object from the background.
Fig 2.0 Isolated Object + Resizing
I then matched the objects colour to the background by adjusting the image luminance, colour intensity, and fade, and added the noise filter onto the object.
Fig 2.1 Matching Object
After this, I created a new layer for the shadow and used the brush tool to draw a black shadow behind the object, added a gaussian blur onto the shadow, and reduced the shadows opacity to 66%.
Fig 2.2 Creating Shadow
Next, I created a new layer for the reflection by duplicating the shazam layer and flipped it upside down, I then adjusted the hue/saturation of the reflection and applied the rippled filter to the reflection.
Fig 2.3 Creating Reflection
Final Hearst Mansion Shazam
Fig 2.4 Final Hearst Mansion Shazam
Pt 2: My Reflection
Using the instructions from before, I followed and went through the same steps to create the second part of the exercise with my own photo. The Photo is taken at eye-level.
Fig 2.5 Original Photo
Final Hearst Mansion: My Reflection
Fig 2.6 Final Hearst Mansion: My Reflection JPG
2.7 Final Hearst Mansion: Final My Reflection PDF
Recoloring Black & White
Recoloring Pt 1
I first started out by adjusting the brush size and hardness, making it softer so when I brushed the colour on the images, it would appear more feathered around the edges and not so harsh looking.
Fig 2.8 Adjusting Brush Settings
Then, I picked out an appropriate skin colour and started to brush over the skin of the man with the brush tool, I have also made sure to separate different elements such as hair, eyes, lips, and clothes from each other in separate layers and have set the blending mode to 'overlay' so the colour would appear neatly on the image and the brush stroke wouldn't be seen.
Fig 2.9 Colouring Skin
This is then followed by picking colours for the hair, eyes, lips, clothes, and background and then brushing over them carefully using the brush tool, adjusting the size when I need to go over smaller or sharper corners.
Fig 3.0 Colouring Rest of Image
Final Recoloring B&W Pt 1
Fig 3.1 Final Recoloring B&W 1 JPG
Fig 3.2 Final Recoloring B&W 1 JPG
In the second part of the assignment, we are also to recolor a B&W image, however with the alternate process/method demonstrated in the second tutorial utilizing the masking tool and selection tools and colour picking from another image.
To start, I first cropped out the coloured image we are to use for the main colours in recoloring the B&W image from another open tap in Photoshop and pasted it into the tab I will be working on.
Fig 3.3 Cropping Coloured Image
This is then followed by selecting the hair using the magic wand tool and going into select and mask to further refine the selection with the refine brush tool. Additionally, I have also turned on some settings such as smoothing in order for the masking to appear more neat. With this method, I could select the finer hairs present in the image.
Fig 3.4 Masking Hair
Once I was satisfied with the selection, I then output the mask selection into the layer mask, created a new solid layer, and picked the hair colour from the coloured image to be used as the hair colour in the B&W recoloring, and drag & dropped the hair layer mask to the newly created solid layer to replace layer mask so the colour would appear, I have also selected the blending mode 'softlight' so the colour would not look too harsh or fake but rather natural.
Fig 3.5 Blending Hair
I then repeated the steps I used in selecting, masking, and colouring the hair for the skin, eyes, lips, teeth, earrings, clothes, and background.
Fig 3.6 Coloured Skin
Fig 3.7 Selecting Background
Fig 3.8 Selecting Clothes
Fig 3.9 Colouring Lips and Teeth
Fig 4.0 Colouring Earring
Final Recoloring Pt 2
Fig 4.1 Final Recoloring B&W 2 JPG
Fig 4.2 Final Recoloring B&W 2 PDF
REFLECTION
At first, I was quite intimidated by the work that was presented to us we were expected to execute, and although I had some experience prior with using Photoshop, using it extensively the way we have in these assignments was something new to me, thus it was challenging at first to navigate and handle, although throughout the process, I found myself enjoying it much more than I expected and the process being more accessible than I had previously thought as well due to the various tutorials and lectures given which were able to guide me to the right direction.
I enjoyed the creation process of the collages especially, since we were able to have more creative freedom in them, being able to compose whatever we wanted, and seeing my images come to life after editing them in the Hearst Mansion and Recoloring exercises was rewarding.
These first few weeks have been a very eventful semester, and had taught me many technicalities and lessons in not only digital photography but the basis of design as a whole, I am looking forward to the rest of the semester as it goes by.
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