Midterm Documentation

1) Image Composition

The example I used for image composition is a composition of the famous paint, The Last Supper, and many TCNJ things. It features TCNJ campus town in the background, which was done by selecting the window space and deleting it and then putting the picture of campus town behind it. On top of the picture of campus town, the letters TCNJ are sketched very subtly above Jesus' head, which was done by creating text and then utilizing the brush tool to color the text the same color as the wall. A logo of TCNJ and the athletic logo was also added to the top right  and bottom center of the photo through the same process.

2) Masking

The example I used to show off my masking skills was a picture of a river in which I utilized masks to take the original picture and make it nighttime. I created a mask over the original photo in the sky portion and made it transparent. Then I selected the water and utilized a mask to give it a light gradient of opacity to give the impression that there was a reflection of nighttime. I then utilized the blur tool to subtly darken portions of the photograph including the rock and the trees. 

       Before:After: 

3) Color Correction

The example I used to show off my color correcting skills was a picture I had taken of one of the TCNJ buildings. This picture originally had a very dark look to it because of the way that the shadows were distributed. I took this picture, analyzed it utilizing the levels tool (image/adjustments/levels) and then adjusted some of the shadows utilizing the same tool.  This made the picture look much brighter and more vibrant. To also just touch up the color, I used an auto-color on it to just even out the color scheme.

Before:After:

4) Volvox Technology Logo

The Volvox Technology Logo was created completely from scratch. I used the text tool to write out the words Volvox and Technology separately and then positioned the technology underneath the Volvox so that I felt it was aesthetically pleasing. I added a slight drop-shadow to both texts. Next I had the idea of making the O’s in Volvox look technological and so I created octagons that took the place of the O’s. I colored the octagons green and added a drop-shadow and found a vector of a computer chip pattern that I utilized as the fill for the octagons. This was done by giving the Octagon no fill and then just moving the computer chip pattern behind the octagons. After a little bit of tweaking with the spacing of the letters, the Logo was done. 

5) Post-It Blog post

This picture was created completely from scratch. It was created for a blog post abouta new mobile application coming out about post-its that I am making for IMM 140. The first layer is an outer layer of an Ipad. Then within the Ipad is two post-it notes. These post-it notes are clipart images from online. I then added text utilizing the text generator to represent different things that post-its can do. After this I added the computer chip pattern behind the post-it to represent the post-it company coming into the technology generation. This effect was created by putting a picture of the computer chip pattern behind the clipart post-its and then lowered the opacity of the post-it so it just barely is visible. The only last effect that needed to be completed was the brightness at the lower right corner and the darkness in the upper left. To account for this I simply used the dodge and burn tool respectively to adjust the brightness and shadows slightly. 

6) Silicon Valley Blog Post

This picture was created completely from scratch. It was created for a blog post about Silicon Valley startups spending too much money resulting in a business bubble that will break, that I am making for IMM 140. This picture was created through a couple of different layers. The first layer is a background picture of money. In front of this is a layer of bubbles, which were created utilizing the shape tool and then coloring them. The opacity was then lowered so that we could show the picture of Silicon Valley, which is blurred slightly to give it an almost dreamlike effect. This is to emphasize the fact that the success of Silicon Valley startups is dream-like and very unrealistic which is a highlight of the article.

Self-Evaluation

I believe that I did a very good job on this midterm assignment. I am confident in my photoshop skills. My favorites and what I think was my best work were the Volvox Technology logo and the Post-It. My least favorite and what I think was my worst work out of the group of 6 is the Silicon Valley blog post. This picture was cleverly tailored to reflect the ideas of the blog post however it is not as aesthetically pleasing as the other work that I have done. I believe that my skills in the first three pictures are clearly very good and I tried to utilize some of the skills in the first couple projects to showcase them in realistic scenarios, such as the blog posts and as a logo.

Masking

The first picture where masking was used is seen in the two pictures below. I basically utilized masks to take the original picture and make it nighttime. I created a mask over the original photo in the above portion and made it transparent and then selected the water and utilized a mask to give it a light gradient to give the impression that there was a reflection of nighttime. I then utilized the blur tool to subtly darken portions of the photograph including the rock and the trees. 

Before:

After:

The second picture where masking was used is seen in the two pictures below. I utilized a mask after selection to place an american flag in the background of a picture of me to simulate a picture that a presidential candidate might take. 

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After:

Color Adjustment

The first picture I color-corrected was a huge crab claw that I had taken a picture of before...

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After:

I mainly used the histogram for this one and noticed that there is a slight reddish hue in the original picture. I then adjusted it. 

The next is a picture of a tcnj building that I took a picture of...

Before:

After:

This picture originally had a very dark look to it because of the way that the shadows were distributed. I simply took this picture and adjusted some of the shadows and it looks much brighter and more vibrant. 

 The third picture is a picture I took with my girlfriend in Connecticut under a lot of light.

Before:

After:

This picture originally had very unevenly distributed shadows and I simply took this picture and adjusted some of the shadows and it looks much brighter and more vibrant. 

Image Composition Project 2

The three pictures for the image composition project (2) is below. 

The first picture is of an explosion happening in the background of a football field. I achieved this by selecting the background of the football field utilizing the magic wand and the quick select, and then making it transparent. I then moved the picture of the explosion in the background behind the original football field picture. 

The second picture is of patrick from spongebob being surprised by US military members. This type of photo is actually an internet phenomenon. I basically took a picture of patrick with this face and rotated it so it looked like it was going to be facing the correct way. I then selected that piece of the wall and moved that selection in front of Patrick. so it appeared as if patrick was peeking out from behind the wall. The last finishing touches came when I used the burn tool to simulate patrick's shadows. 

The third picture is a TCNJ last supper. It features TCNJ campus town in the background which was done by selecting the window space and deleting it and then putting the picture of campus town behind it. Also TCNJ is sketched very subtly above Jesus' head which was done by creating text and then utilizing the brush tool to color the text the same color as the wall. 

Image Composition Project

For this project we had to take more than one image and composite them together to make one pictures. We had to make a total of three composites. 

The first composite was made by taking two images from the Image Acquisition Project and compositing them together. I took my face from the selfie that we had to take and got rid of the background and made it so it looked like I was peeking out from the top of the building. To get this effect I had to cut the top piece of the building into a new layer and then put it over all of the others while keeping the layer for the face above the background layer. The finished product and the layering of my images are below. 

The second composite was made by taking two reusable images from the internet (checked for usage rights), getting rid of the background for the one image and compositing them together so it seems that the picture of the sun was already in the image of the planet. The finished product and the layering of my images are below. 

The third composite was made by taking a photo of the two previously made composites in the photoshop window and compiling them together with each image getting smaller every layer so that it seems that there is an infinite amount of them within eachother. I call it Picception. The finished product and the layering of my images are below. 

Image Acquisition Project

For our first project we had to take pictures of a person, the environment, and an action. We then had to take or make an abstract version of these pictures and lastly we had to make a digital painting of what was photographed.

The first set of pictures that I did was a picture of me. The abstract picture is just of my nose and the digital picture is an attempt at drawing myself. (i'm not good at drawing) This is below.

The second set of pictures that I did was of the environment which happens to be of a tcnj building. The abstract picture was made taken really really up close to the sidewalk in front of the building and the digital picture was made utilizing shapes from Photoshop. This is below.

The third set of pictures that I did was of an action. The abstract picture is of the middle part of the fan and the action I chose is of a fan spinning. The digital painting is a drawn fan with arrows representing the action of the fan moving. This and the final is below.