DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING GCD61204 - WEEK 4

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING GCD61204 - WEEK 4

WEEK 1-5 (23.04.2025 - 21.05.2025)

Felice Lee (0381272)

Digital Photography & Imaging / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media - Taylor University

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INSTRUCTION

LECTURES

Week 4 - INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOSHOP 3 ADJUSTMENT LAYER & FILTERS

Adjustment Layer - Is a non destructive image editing tools that can add and adjust color and tone.

Brightness / Contrast :

• Brightness - To adjust highlight
• Contrast - To adjust shadow

Level - Tool to adjust midtone, shadow, and highlight.

Curves - Tool to edit your image tone.

Exposure tool have 3 sliders :

• Exposure - To adjust highlight
• Offset - To adjust midtone
• Gamma - To adjust dark tone

Selective Color - To modify the main color without touching other primary colors.

Filter - Effect that change the visual to enhance the image

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WEEK 4 : TUTORIAL - VITAL TOOLS & PROJECT 1 (DEMO)

Before I begin with my work, I watch the videos provided by my lecturer about match lighting, adjustment layers, filters, and photoshop pen tool.

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WEEK 4 : DIGITAL IMAGING EXERCISES

PROJECT 1B - PART 1 : HEART MANSION (SHAZAM)

TUTORIAL

In this assignment, we were asked to follow instructions from the slides to understand how to do quick selection tool, layer mask, filters, and color correction on Shazam in Photoshop.

PHOTOS GIVEN

Fig 1 Shazam

Fig 1.1 Heart mansion

In this demo, I need to put Shazam inside the heart mansion and blend him in like he belong in there.

DEMO RESULT

Fig 1.3 Heart Mansion demo outcome

After following tutorial from the video and slides given by my lecturer, I successfully blended Shazam into the room and he looks natural.

PROJECT 1B - PART 1 : HEART MANSION (MY REFLECTION)

Based on SHAZAM exercise, I need to create the same steps and insert my own photo by following these steps :

1. Take a photo of myself using the right lighting techniques

2. Apply the Shazam’s exercise techniques to myself

3. Replace Shazam with myself

4. Apply suitable Color Correction to finalize my work

Progress (Step by Step) :

Fig 2 Photo of myself

Since i don't have a full body picture with eye level and good lighting, I asked one of my classmate to help and take a picture of me in University

Fig 2.1 Select object

First, I open my photo that i have taken and select myself with quick selection tool and press select subject, it will automatically select myself.

 

Fig 2.2 Add & apply layer mask

Fig 2.3 Drag & place

Next, I drag and place my figure into heart mansion file, then i also adjust my height to fit into the perspective so it won't look weird.

Fig 2.4 Match color

Next, I proceed to adjust my photo color, by pressing Image -> Adjustment -> Match color. Then I adjust as how i want until it blends in.

Fig 2.5 Result after match color

Fig 2.6 Noise

After that, I proceed to put noise to my photo so it look more realistic, by pressing Filter -> Noise -> Add Noise. As usual, I adjust it as how I want until it blends in. 

Fig 2.7 Shadow

Next, i draw my shadow on a new layer with brush tool and add gaussian blur effect so it looks smooth. Blur effect : Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur.

Fig 2.8 Reflection

After done with shadow, I create my own reflection in the water by duplicating myself and flip it vertical, erase some part that didn't reflect by the water, adjust the color by going to image -> Adjustment -> Hue/Saturation. Lastly, made ripple effect by going to Filter -> Distort -> Ripple , adjust it as how I want until it blends in.

Fig 2.9 Finish

And I'm done, this file contains 4 layers : Background, My figure, Shadow, and Reflection.

Fig 2.10 Heart Mansion (My reflection)

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PROJECT 1B - PART 2 : RECOLORING BLACK AND WHITE

TUTORIAL

In this assignment, we were asked to follow instructions from the slides to understand how to color B&W photo in photoshop. 

PHOTOS GIVEN

Fig 3 B&W portrait

Fig 3.2 Skin color ref

Fig 3.1 Hair color ref

In this demo, I need to color the B&W female with the hair and skin color from the picture given.

DEMO RESULT

Fig 3.3 B&W demo outcome

After following tutorial from the video and slides given by my lecturer, I successfully created a colorful portrait from B&W photo, and I really like the outcome.

PROJECT 1B - PART 2 : RECOLORING BLACK AND WHITE (PART 2)

Based on B&W coloring exercise, I need to create the same coloring steps and choose 1 photo from G-Drive link provided.

Fig 4 Photo chosen

Fig 4.1 Videos of per layers

In this task, the technique is pretty repetitive. First I find the color references from Pinterest and then select out the color I wanted to use using Eyedrop. Next, I select the hair, skin, background, etc with quick selection tool and refine my selection in Select & Mask. After refining I select Output to : Layer Mask, then fill then create new solid layer and use the color picker to pick the color just now i selected from reference. Lastly, drag and drop layer mask to solid layer and play with the effect of overlay, soft light, etc depending on my your object and color. Repeat the process until finish.

Fig 4.2 B&W part 2 outcome

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FEEDBACK

At first, my figure in heart mansion was strange because I look too tall than the other lamp in the room so i decide to adjust it as how tall I should be in real life. After adjustment ,both photo manipulation outcome look nice blended nicely to the environment.  

REFLECTION

Experience - I finally understood how people color old B&W photos and how people edit photos of them or their family together with photo manipulation.

Observation - I realized that this assignment is not easy, it needs many patience since you need to select, crop, color, and adjust color your object neatly to look good.

 

Findings - I find this task both challenging and interesting, I enjoy the process but also struggling during the B&W coloring exercise, since I need to select object neatly.