Photography practise and Photoshop research
In preparation for my main production I took several photos and practiced using the different aspects of Photoshop to change and alter them in a way I might do in my main production.
The photos:
I took three photos using the Lumix Lx 7 camera I used for my preliminary task, All three were taken in medium close up as I felt this would be the easiest shot to edit with Photoshop. I liked the final outcome of them but feel they would be vastly improved with a stronger light source to add more contrast to the images, I also noticed that a lot of my model's hair was astray and looked quite messy so decided to make that something I looked into fixing. I also wanted to look at placing the model onto a different background and playing around with lighting and contrast digitally.
The "clone stamp"
The clone stamp is a tool that can be used to fix things like blemishes or astray hair and I had previously used it for such purposes in my preliminary task. Here I was using it to fix the astray hair on my model;
I used the tool on a 100% opacity further away from the model to get a clean cut which didn't disrupt the image but closer to her head I had to take it down to 60% to soften the edges and to give the image a natural look.
The end result looked far neater and more professional.
< before
after >
Feature enlargement;
In many magazines Photoshop is used to enlarge facial features such as the eyes and lips. I used one of my photos to experiment with this commonly used practice and made the eyes of my model larger using the rectangular marquee tool, the feathering tool and free transform.
To enlarge a feature you must select it using the rectangular marquee tool, set the feather to 5 and make a new layer via copy. On the new layer you select free transform and drag the selected area to the desired size.
Experimenting with this technique taught me several new skills however I think perhaps I went too far and made the eyes too big with this particular image.
< before
after >
I learnt this technique from the following website http://tricky-photoshop.com/enlarge-eyes/
Switching backgrounds;
The backgrounds of these photos are plain white and magazine editors often extract images taken into pre-existing settings/backgrounds, I feel that this would be a useful skill to have and so took several stock images and attempted to place my images into them. The stock images required similar lighting as my photos which was difficult to find as I took my photos on flash but I found this can also be achieved using tools such as the burn and eraser tool. There are several different methods by which images can be extracted and placed onto a different background, the first of which I tried was the "quick selection tool"
I used a stock image of a brick wall to serve as the new background for this image. My model was extracted from the image using the quick selection tool, I selected the white area around her body and cut it out. This left quite sharp edges so after placing the brick wall in the background I used the eraser tool on a very low opacity to soften the lines. To help the image blend into the background I used the burn tool to create shadows where they should be naturally.
< background
image >
< final outcome - I think the end result was quite good and the shadowing created by the burn tool helped to make the combined image more realistic.
I next used a galaxy stock image and attempted to use the other method of extraction which is the magic wand tool. I found this tool much more difficult to use and had to use the eraser to get rid of areas the tool missed. Once I had placed the background image in I used the burn and blur tools to make the image blend in.
< background
image >
< final outcome
I learnt this technique from the following website;
http://photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/cutout/cutout.htm
Eye colour alterations;
Photoshop can be and often is used to alter things like eye colour, I felt this would be a helpful skill to have so experimented with the different ways it can be done, I found the colour replacement tool to be the simplest and most effective method.
I coloured my models eyes a bright blue to make the change more noticeable
< before
after >
The photos:
The "clone stamp"
The clone stamp is a tool that can be used to fix things like blemishes or astray hair and I had previously used it for such purposes in my preliminary task. Here I was using it to fix the astray hair on my model;
The end result looked far neater and more professional.< before
after >
Feature enlargement;
In many magazines Photoshop is used to enlarge facial features such as the eyes and lips. I used one of my photos to experiment with this commonly used practice and made the eyes of my model larger using the rectangular marquee tool, the feathering tool and free transform.
To enlarge a feature you must select it using the rectangular marquee tool, set the feather to 5 and make a new layer via copy. On the new layer you select free transform and drag the selected area to the desired size.Experimenting with this technique taught me several new skills however I think perhaps I went too far and made the eyes too big with this particular image.
< before
after >
I learnt this technique from the following website http://tricky-photoshop.com/enlarge-eyes/
Switching backgrounds;
The backgrounds of these photos are plain white and magazine editors often extract images taken into pre-existing settings/backgrounds, I feel that this would be a useful skill to have and so took several stock images and attempted to place my images into them. The stock images required similar lighting as my photos which was difficult to find as I took my photos on flash but I found this can also be achieved using tools such as the burn and eraser tool. There are several different methods by which images can be extracted and placed onto a different background, the first of which I tried was the "quick selection tool"
I used a stock image of a brick wall to serve as the new background for this image. My model was extracted from the image using the quick selection tool, I selected the white area around her body and cut it out. This left quite sharp edges so after placing the brick wall in the background I used the eraser tool on a very low opacity to soften the lines. To help the image blend into the background I used the burn tool to create shadows where they should be naturally.
< background
image >
< final outcome - I think the end result was quite good and the shadowing created by the burn tool helped to make the combined image more realistic.
< background
image >
< final outcomehttp://photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/cutout/cutout.htm
Eye colour alterations;
Photoshop can be and often is used to alter things like eye colour, I felt this would be a helpful skill to have so experimented with the different ways it can be done, I found the colour replacement tool to be the simplest and most effective method.
I coloured my models eyes a bright blue to make the change more noticeable
< before
after >
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