Exit Through The Gift Shop Project

This project was inspired by the movie Exit Through the Gift Shop and Mr. Brainwash's work. I decided to create my own version of his art that looks like a barcode. As a whole, you can see the image, but if you look closely, it just looks like a bunch of lines. I choses to use the painting Mountains at Collioure to create the image. I used selective color first to manipulate the colors in the image. Then, I used vectors to create the barcode effect. It took a lot of time, multiplying the vectors and changing the size and distance of each one, but I think it turned out pretty well. Though his "barcode art" was usually in black and white, I decided to keep mine in color because I think it is an important aspect of the painting.

MET Exhibit

photo from http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId=%7b2E988323-B8DF-496F-B72A-E999E567FABA%7d&oid=190046296&pg=1&rpp=20&pos=7&ft=*&img=0#fullscreen 

These "photographs" were taking by Matthew Jensen in 2008/2009. Through Google Street View, he traveled through the 49 States, taking one picture in each state. Photoshop was then used to touch up the images and adjust the color and contrast. He displayed the photos alphabetically by state abbreviations.Through the images, he wanted to capture the significance of the great American road trip, while bringing light to ability to explore landscapes all over the country from your own home. 

I love how he managed to capture a similar image in every state. The sun is setting in many of the images and is a prominent part of the image as well. I think these photos create a powerful piece about our country, showing how every state is similar and different in their own ways and I think it unites our nation as a whole.

Incorporating Drawings into Photographs

For this image, I chose a landscape image that I had taken in Florida. Then, I chose a picture of my friends holding hands while ice skating. I selected them and placed them into the landscape. I simply drew a ballon and placed it into Ashley's hand to make it look like the ballon was about to pull them up into the sky.  

This image took a lot more time. I chose a picture I had taken in New York of the Empire State Building. I then selected the area I wanted to turn into a drawing since I am not a talented drawer. I set the foreground color to gray and the background to white and then went to the filter gallery and chose "photocopy." I played with the detail and darkness until I achieved a sketch-like image. Then, I applied a layer mask and used the lasso tool to roughly select the area I wanted to "tear." Using the smudge tool, I blended the image in with the drawing the make it look like a torn piece of paper. Finally, I added in my hand to make it look like I was holding the drawing in front of the scene. I really like how this turned out.

Alphabet!

For this assignment, we had to create our own alphabet. I decided to do light photography to create the letters. This is done in a pitch black room with a really slow shutter speed and some source of light. I turned the lights off in my closet and sat my camera on a chair to stabilize the camera. My shutter speed was set to stay open for 2-3 seconds allowing me to use my cellphone to write the letters. This created the letters to be a bluish/purple color which I thought was really interesting. A flashlight can also be used, created white/yellow letters, but this could always be edited in photoshop to produce a different color. Then I just placed all the images in a photoshop document and scaled them to the same size. I used the smudge tool on some letters to make parts of the letters that didn't show up more visible. The faster the light source moves, the less bright/intense the image will turn out. The areas where the letter is really intense is where my cellphone was held for an extensive time. In other areas, the light was barely visible because I moved my phone so quickly, which is why I had to use the smudge tool. Knowing this, you can create really cool images or produce something just how you want it. For example, for the letter X, I had to move my phone really quickly so that no light would show up and enclose the X. Overall, I think this turned out really cool and I'm really happy with it.

Tutorials

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For these two photos I followed a tutorial on how to achieved a "tea-stained" image and a "turquoise" image. This was done with gradient maps by adding an changing the color stops to a faded magenta or turquoise. Then by changing the opacity, you could make the effect as prominent as possible. I think this is really need and will definitely be using it to add a vintage effect to my images.

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This tutorial was using HDR's to create a really cool black and white image. This allows you to really mess with the details of the image and get sort of a personalized black and white image. I thought this was really cool and a neat way to spice up a normal black and white image.

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 This was stimulating a color grad filter. I used photo filters and the gradient tool to fade the image and give the sky a cool sunset. For this one, I used three different color filters to have a purple/pink sky. This is a great way to enhance sunsets/rises to create the perfect one!

Midterm

For this assignment, I chose to use the UVA Rotunda logo and in it, incorporate popular Charlottesville/Crozet restaurants. Overall, I like it, but the logo I used was not the best quality and there were a lot of outcast pixels that I wish I could have cleaned up and made the image look more clean. If I had more time to work on it, I would definitely fix that.

For the splash, I followed the tutorial, adding different splashes around my object to make it look as realistic as possible. At first, I followed the tutorial for the background too, but I didn't think it looked realistic enough. I played around with a bunch of different images until I found on that worked well. After changing the splash to match the ocean using a color filter and the color replacement brush, I selected the part of the pineapple that would be underwater and lowered the opacity. I also selected the ocean and lowered the opacity on that too to make the pineapple look like it was actually underwater. Overall, I liked how this turned out, although it was a struggle to get it to look right.

"To Save One Life is to Save The World" - Holocaust Project

For this project we had to capture the theme of "To Save One Life is to Save The World." I knew I wanted to incorporate newspapers from the Holocaust and pictures. I decided to use the word "Heroes" and have pictures of heroes in the word. There is a picture of American Soldiers, the Big Three, an injured soldier, a child with his parents, and FDR. I chose these because I feel that in some way all of these people had done something to save someone's life and therefore- saved the world. I then also added an American Flag to the background and blended it with the newspapers to give it a subtle background that embodied America's involvement in the Holocaust. To finish it off, I emphasized the theme by adding the quote at the bottom in a simple font. I really liked how this turned off. I think it is fairly simple, yet it highlights that tragedy and embodies the theme.

Holiday Cards!

Book Covers!

Ashley recommended me to do this book for the cover of a book I had never read. She told me that it was about 3 kids who find a horse and want it, but don't have the money to buy it. I found a picture of this white horse and decided to make it the focal point of the cover, but I also wanted to incorporate the kids somehow. So I found an image of three children and made them silhouetted. Then I created a gradient over top to create the effect that they are walking away in the background. To finish it, I put the title in a deep red to give it some color and the authors name. I really like the simplicity of it.

I chose The Last Song as my second book to do a cover of. I knew I wanted to incorporate the beach and music into the cover because I feel like those are two key things of the book. I decided to have the letters be the beach so it wasn't the whole cover. I added a drop shadow just to define the text a little more and make it stand out. I also chose to incorporate sea turtles because they kind of symbolize the novel. Finally, I added old looking sheet music as the background and faded it a lot so it wasn't distracting. I really like how this turned out and think it captures the key aspects of the book.

Surrealist Sport!

For this assignment we had to choose a sport and turn it into an impossible one. I decided to use pole vaulting, but instead of a pole, use a snake. For starters, this wouldn't even be slightly possible because you would just collapse onto the ground. I think the faces of the vaulters are actually very accurate for having a snake in front of their face and makes all the images very comical. Since we were supposed to make a news article about it, I decided to mimic a newspaper and wrote up a little blurb about the article to emphasize even more of the impossibilities. I thought this was a very fun assignment and I'm happy with my final product.

Color Series: Magenta

Luckily, I had just taken a roll all about color for photography when this was assigned. A lot of the photos already had some pink/magentas in it but I increased it a lot just by playing with the color selector. In some of the images, I desaturated everything else so the magenta really stood out. The barn, geranium. and railing were originally red. By taking the yellow out of the image and playing around with some of the other colors, I was able to make them magenta. I think these all came out really well and capture the color of magenta.

Fliers!

This is the flier I created for the Homecoming Dance. The theme was Footloose/Barn Dance, so I found this image of a barn that was lit up and colorful. I then found an image of the inside of a barn that had colorful lights. I manipulated this image to look like the inside of this barn. I added a lot of people to the inside to finish off the party aspect. Then I darkened the sky to create the effect that it was night time. For the font, I chose something that looked like the Footloose font to bring the two together. I added an outline and drop shadow to add a glowing effect. I really like how this turned out. The colors are very vibrant and it catches your eye.

I created this flier for Spirit Week. I decided to do something simple that would highlight this years theme: Movies. I made a simple collage of the four movie posters that are the sub themes for each grade. Finally, to tie it together, I used the fonts from the movies to create the header. I tried editing the pictures to make them a little more interesting, but they were all so different and it was hard to keep them unified with such different editing.

Jerry Uelsmann Recreation!

For our first assignment, we had to recreate one of Jerry Uelsmann's photos. His image is the top and my recreation is the bottom. I chose an old house and a tree with a lot of roots to best recreate his image. The background is composed of several different images blended together. I chose a sky that had a glow to it to add almost an eerie effect. I finished it off with a light sepia tone to make everything the same color and add that vintage effect. I feel the tree I chose was a little too wide for the size of the house. I also wish I could have blended the two together more instead of it having such a harsh line. Overall though, I like the finished product because I had to do a lot of touch ups to make everything work together and I think it came out well.

Photoshop Tutorials

Custom Pattern Effects: This tutorial showed how to create a pattern that you can manipulate in an image. I chose this image that I took at a Train concert because it had a black background and was easy to add a pattern too. I chose a hieroglyphic background and I think it made the image really interesting and gave it a lot more depth. I really like how it turned out. 

The Bourne Effect: This tutorial showed how to recreate The Bourne Legacy movie poster. By using HDR Toning adjustment, you can make the image very contrasty and grungy. Then overlaying it with your original image you get the perfect effect. Using paths, you can create the bars, hiding parts of the image. I think this was a really great technique and can be used for any thing you're trying to create. 

*image and title courtesy of Ashley*

 Aging a Photo with Textures: In this tutorial, a quick and easy way was shown to make photos vintage looking. By using a paper texture and simply applying it to the image as an overlay, you get this really cool photo. I will definitely be using this technique on more photos.

Photoshop Tools: Paint/Pencil Brush and Color Replacement Tool

The Paint and Pencil Brushes have many uses. They can simply be used to draw or write on your photo or can be used to add effects to your image. By changing the layer to overlay mode, you can change the color of your image, but make it look more realistic. There are many different styles of brushes as well that can be used to spice up your photos. When filling in smaller details, you want to be sure to use the pencil brush.

The Color Replacement Tool is even better for changing the color of an image, because it keeps the original texture of the image. This is great if you want to have a part of your image stand out from the rest.

Alter Ego!

These are the images I made for Alter Ego. In the first one, I took a funny picture I had of my friend and put a mannequin face on her. I then colored her skin the same tone as the mannequin. To make it more cartoon-like, I put a filter on to finish it off. I felt it didn't need a different background since it was already a mall. The second image, I turned my brother into a ninja. I chose cartoon face and then colored his clothes black, and finished it with a different filter. In the last image, I decided to make myself Cinderella. I decided to use the Disney Castle as the background, and again finished it with a filter. The first image is probably my favorite out of all of them.

Cumulative Project: Web Advertisement!

For the Web Advertisement, I decided to use a piece of notebook paper as my background. I left all the writing in black and used a font that looked like handwriting. It gives the look as if the image was all done by hand, but it was really all done on the computer. I chose to make it look like each of my works was taped to the paper. I then used a gradient behind the paper to give it a darkening effect at the bottom. While it may look really informal, I think it shows how you can use photoshop to create unexpected images.

Series of 6!

For this assignment, we had to choose a theme from Hotel Rwanda to base a series of 6 different images on. I chose trepidation: a feeling of fear or agitation about something that may happen. In Hotel Rwanda, the Hutu's lived in fear everyday of being murdered by the Tutsi's. For my first image, I placed images from the movie that I felt captured that feeling behind the word. For the rest of my images, I chose some of the top devastations in the world that have happened in the last two decades, beginning with Hotel Rwanda. I then did 911, Hurricane Isabel, Haiti Earthquake, and Japan Tsunami. I feel everyone lives in fear of these disasters happening again. Although most are natural disasters, and there is a great possibility that they could happen again, the others are not. People fear of an earthquake, or a hurricane wiping everything out and leaving them with nothing, or an act of terrorism killing thousands of innocent people. I kept the editing of these images fairly simple, trying to capture the devastation of each event. I feel each of these can stand on their own as a powerful image, or can be combined to show great emotion of our past. I'm very pleased with how all of these turned out.

Hotel Rwanda: Movie Poster

For this movie poster, we decided to take two scenes that we thought were important to the movie and conveyed emotion to frame our poster. The top scene shows the fear and desperation of the family as they see all the dead, mutilated bodies. The bottom scene captures the mass of people left devastated from genocide. We applied a layer mask and gradient over each of these images to fade them into the poster. We then centered the font in the middle, with the actors on top and then powerful quote on the bottom. I think this poster captures two of the main emotions of the movie.

Another Photoshop Tutorial! Faded Text

These are two more examples of a tutorial I tried. It taught you how to blend your text into an image so it looks like part of the image. First, you create a text layer with the text you want. Then you create a layer mask and you add a black to white gradient from bottom to top the fade the text into your image. I this this technique is really cool and I like how both of them came out.