OUGD405 Design process: Photoshop Brief.

Photoshop induction one.

 Adjust the levels - shadows, mid tones, highlights.

Cmd L. Changing levels. Destructive process. Alters original photo. unable to edit after being saved.

Paper selection.

Web selection.  

Scale- 48 sheet bilboard. 300 pixels/inch. increased.

web. 72 pixels/ inch. 

When working in print leave colour mode in RGB, as this can be adapted for print and still be used for screen.

Photo from a killers concert captured on a camera in RGB format. 

RGB Format can be checked in the tab.

The above colours can not be reproduced in CMYK. How do we translate these colours into print?

 We could change the mode to CMYK. But this is destructive. 

 However changing this makes the colours duller.

As you can see the colours have dulled. Once the image mode has been transferred to CMYK and saved it can not be changed back to RGB as the colours no longer exist.

Instead to not destruct the image we will create a proof, which is essentially a mock up of what the image will look like once it is printed.

And the image is temporarily changed to CMYK.

This can be reversed by turning off proof colour.

How to bring the colours to Gamut, bringing the colours that are out of range back into range, these are shown in grey.

 

To adjust a photo without destructing it, add an adjustment layer to bring the colours into Gamut.

 

 We chose hue and saturation.

Desaturate the image decreasing the level to -20%. more of the blue colours are shown.

Saturation has to be decreased to -50% for all the blue colours to show.

However the colours are still dull. changing the colour to red is easier to read in CMYK and so we weill change the colour to red for more vibrancy.

Here we have taken the ssaturation down to -28%

And the hue has been slid towards the red section. The Image in a red hue is now brighter than the blue as Red is easier red in CMYK.

 

 The adjustment layer can be seen above the original layer.

 Here Is a new photo taken in one of the Arcades in Leeds town centre. In the original photo, the mosaic that surrounded the dome windows lacked character and so I have changed the levels of the photo in order to bring the details in this section out. However when changing the levels of the whole Image the detail in the dome windows are lost and then end up looking over exposed as above. To solve this problem we used the brush tool in order to bring back the details in which we dont want to effect.

We must therefore paint these details black (Dome windows) in order to restore them to the exposure in the original picture.

We must always make sure the hardness of the brush is at 0% so that there is no line between what we have brushed and what we haven't.

The sections I have painted are shown below.

Final Image.

The image has both the detail of the mosaic and the natural exposure of the windows.

This is the next photo we edited. As viewable the statues in the foreground of the image are very under exposed. We want the statues in the foreground to have the same amount of detail as the sky in the background. 

We will use the quick selection tool and order to solely select the statues as shown below.

From the menu we choose to change levels.

We must move the highlights and mid tones arrow into the white section in order to bring out the lighter shades in the statue.

What the layer looks like in the layer menu.

As viewable in the image there are some sections which have gone white, under the mans armpit and between the angels arm and wing. 

Again we will use the quick selection tool to select these sections for re-colouring.

If we fill these sections black, the original picture will mask through the layer in these areas.

We can also experiment with the background by quick selecting it and changing the saturation and hue.

Here are the layers I have made.

For our next exercise we created a panorama image of San Francisco by using the photo merge tool. 

For this exercise we will use the Auto layout.

Adding the three photos and making sure the Blend Images together tool is selected. 

The three images blended together.

We then used the crop tool in order to crop out the background.

We furthered our skills for the brief in our second photoshop induction.

For our photoshop brief we are to design a set of 5 postcards based upon the shape we were given, mine was a cross. After being given this shape we were to go and take pictures of crosses, and shapes inspired by crosses. For this project we were restricted to the college campus. Below are the set of photos that I took when wondering around college. 

When we were in the second photoshop class, we were given some advice on the design of the postcards. Simon showed us an example of some photos he had taken in relation of the brief. He had chosen cross as a shape and had gone round a room in LCA taking photos of all the different screw he saw in the room. these worked both as a set and were quite obscure as images of screws could represent both cross or circle. Therefore we were told that we should think creatively and not be so obvious with our image choices. Looking through my collection of images above lots of them were very obvious, however there was one I had taken that stood out to me. 

This is an image that I had taken outside in the courtyard next to the mosaic bar/cafe. Although it does not directly reflect the image of a cross, each of the branches overlapping do create subtle cross shapes. I felt that this image really represented the obscurity that we were advised to produce. 

Developing from this I went back into the courtyard and took some more photos of the trees and branches. As these postcards were to be a set that worked together, I didn't want every photo to show branches crossing over. I therefore took shots close up, the texture of the bark, perspectives where the image implied a tree but was not a direct reference to a cross shape. 

Already knowing that the front of my postcards would be a selection of images of my choice I began to research layouts for the back design of the cards. As there is an obscure representation of my shape on the front, I wanted to use the back to confess to which shape I was given.

(http://limeshot.com/images/portfolio/graphic-design/shj-postcard-1.png)

I liked the way in which this designer had used an outline as a visual representation of the sydney opera house. I have infact included one of the ideas I had to put on the back of my post card in my contact sheet, this is the image of branches overlapping the main entrance of leeds colle of art. I wondered if this would look good as an outline drawing? This is something I would have to experiment with. I also think the image I took that contains a single branch would look quite effective in this outline style. 

Here I have made this image black and white, which I will then draw an outline to. 

(http://yourtask.wikispaces.com/file/view/postcard_1.jpg/110639265/postcard_1.jpg)

it can be seen in most postcard design systems that the back is usually separated into two sections, the left hand side used to write a message and the right side compromises the recipients address and any stamps needed. I could use the above photograph of the branches inside the cross shape as as stamp in the top right, and explain my shape/postcard on the left. 

Use the left hand side to place all of the information. 

Or alike to this postcard keep all of the information central.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Postcard_Bermuda_1907_address.jpg

My favourite design is the third one where all the information is centered. 

I drew the cross photograph up with the pen tool and then added the text and lines.

I also tried the design without the text as I thought the illustration alone captured the concept of the postcard.

However I do prefer the design with the use of text and so this is the design I will use on the back of all my postcards.

I then decided which 5 photographs I wanted to use for the front of my postcards. As mentioned before I did not want to specifically just photograph branches crossing, I wanted to take pictures of parts of the tree such as texture, bark, the trunk etc that initiated that these were a set and photos of a tree.

These are the 5 photos that I have chosen to work with:

I took these photos on a canon 450D and so they have come out very high quality, and due to the aperture and focus, already have some nice blur effects in the already out of focus areas. Therefore I felt like there was not much that could be done to these images to improve them, I felt that adding a lot of effects would decrease their quality, and so I mainly chose to edit the photos using the levels and curves tools to bring out the highlights and added a black and white filter to one. 

For this image I have lowered the vibrancy as it was very high in red colour, I then added more highlights and midtones through the levels tool as the tree trunk was very under exposed. Then adding a black and white filter to rule out any colour as I still though these were too bright and to accentuate the tree trunk.

To edit the image for this post card I added highlights to the tree trunk through the levels tool as again this section was under exposed. I cut the shape of the tree out using the selection tool to make sure that this would not affect the rest of the image as this was already at the correct level. I brightened the whole image up just slightly through using the hue/saturation tool and increasing the levels. 

Again the only thing I changed on this photo were the levels to the branches as they were too dark, therefore adding highlights, I did experiment with a black and white filter on this image but I felt that it looked better and fit the set more appropriately in colour.

For this Image I edited the depth and brightness of the exposure through the curve tool. I then began to add highlights to the branches in the background (focused branches). However this made the unfocused branch in the foreground (middle) look very under exposed so I continued to add highlights to this section. I also liked how the changes I had added made the photo look almost black and white but it still withheld colour.

As I have previously mentioned there is not much I can do to these photos that I feel would make them more improved. 

This is the image that I felt I could do the least with, Originally the photograph consisted of the branch pictured above, which was before editing totally black. I slightly darkened the background with levels as it was a bright white and quite over exposed, this left the central branch under exposed. To combat this I cut the branch out with the selection tool and added more midtowns and highlights for a better ability to view the textures and details of the bark.

All 5 post cards together with the back design.