Digital Photography and Imaging

Digital Photography and Imaging September 2023

25.09.2023 — 27.10.2023 (Week 1 — Week 5)

Melvin Yung Khun Yew | 0357241 | Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

GCD 62104 Digital Photography and Imaging

This portfolio consists of:

Lectures

Instructions

Work Process

Feedback

Reflection

Click on the link to jump to that part of the portfolio

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Lecture

Week 1
To begin my journey in design, I was introduced to digital photography and imaging subject. In the first week of the class, Mr Martin Chong gave us a warm welcome to attend this class, inviting us to the profusing creative grounds. He conducted a small ice-breaking session in the class to get to know us better and asked us about our own field of design study that we were interested in. For me, it's quite surprising to see that many classmates wish to further research and study UI/UX design. I also pay respect to the classmate who sits beside me (Mehran Ahmad) who is ambitious to take on the animation specialisation.

Week 2 INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOSHOP
The second week into the class, Mr Martin began to instruct us on how to use one of the powerful tools that shapes the internet the way it is now, Adobe Photoshop.

Lasso Tool, Pen tool & Layering

Selection, Layering

Layer interface in Adobe Photoshop
Toolbox

All the tools available in Adobe Photoshop

Marquee Selection Tools - Select and Mask

Marquee tool, Pen tool, Lasso tool & Selection tool

Lasso Tool

Lasso tools allow us to draw and pinpoint specific areas of a document

Tools selections:

1. Lasso

2. Polygonal Lasso

3. Magnetic Lasso

For more information on how to use the lasso tool: https://youtu.be/DKtHsFaclKo

Pen tool

Allow the creation of a path from scratch by adding the points and dragging the tool to determine how the line moves.

The pen tool is versatile for creating extremely precise shapes and paths using manually placed anchor points.

However, the pen tool is not natively made for selection.

Tutorial Exercises

Mr Martin instructed us to play with the selection tools and the layer masking in Adobe Photoshop to get familiarised. This is how my attempts have gone:

Selection and Layer Masking of the Table

Later into the class, I dragged the table I'd selected and masked into another photo of the interior space to blend into the surroundings.

Before

After

Learned Photoshop Shortcut Keys:

CTRL + Z (Undo)

CTRL + Shift + Z (Redo)

CTRL + Shift + I (Invert selection)

CTRL + T (Free Transform)

CTRL + [ (Move Layer Up)

CTRL + ] (Move layer down)

Practical Exercise: Composition Collages

Fig "Attack by Titan" 12/10/2023

Fig "Man-made VS Nature" 6/10/2023

Fig "Wanderer" 10/10/2023

Week 3

Lecture — Blending Mode

Screen blend mode

In Adobe Photoshop, the "Screen" blending mode functions as the black colour of the blend layer to be transparent and white as opaque.

Fig Before "Screen" blend mode

Fig After applying "Screen: blend mode

Multiply blend mode

Multiply blend mode in Photoshop is the opposite of the screen blend mode, where the black part of the image is opaque and the white part is transparent.

Fig Select and paste the blend image into the main image using the lasso tool.

Fig Creating clipping mask on the "Level" adjustment layer.

Fig Histogram adjustment
Adjust the histogram value until the image merges with the photo.

Finish

Softlight blend mode

In soft light blend mode, the black part in the image will be darker, the white part will be brighter, and the mid-tone (50% grey) will be transparent.

Fig Before applying soft light blend mode in a low-contrast image

Fig After applying soft light blend mode with another stacking image.

Final finishing touch

Fig Applying radial gradient layer

Tutorial Exercise

Shazam in Heart Mansion

Week 4 RECOLORING BREAKDOWN

Turn Black and White (B & W) photos back to their intended natural colour.

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Instruction

Mr Martin gave the class a quick briefing on this whole module and the module learning outcomes during the class on Friday afternoon.

Task 1 (20%) - Individual:

Submission
Me in Hearst Mansion, Photo Recolouring

Learning goals

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Work Process

Hearst Mansion with Shazam

Step 1: Add the Hearst Mansion photo as background

Step 2: Go to the Shazam.jpg and begin to crop Shazam out

Step 3: Use the "Select Subject" tools and clean up the selection using lasso tools to include the cape in

the selection

Step 4: Mask the selection

Step 5: Place the selection into the Hearst Mansion background and adjust its size according to the

surroundings

Step 6: Add shadows to Shazam to make him blend better into the background

Step 7: Adjust the colour of Shazam to match the background

Step 8: Duplicate Shazam and invert it to create a reflection of him

Step 9: Apply ripple filter on the reflection to create more realism

Step 10: Apply Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to match Shazam with the water

Shazam in Hearst Mansion

Myself in Hearst Mansion

Subsequently, I began to have a test on my newly learned skills using my own eye-level portrait to blend myself into the Hearst Mansion, making it seem like I've been travelling to that place.

Step 1: Select the eye-level photo of myself and select the silhouette.

Step 2: Layer mask the selection to remove the background

Step 3: Place the masked image of myself into the Hearst Mansion photo and resize it to fit into the image logically.

Step 4: Go to Image > Adjustments > Match colour to blend the colour of myself into the surroundings better.

Step 5: Add a small noise filter to simulate the camera sensor signal disruption.

Step 6: Add a layer of shadows to the body using a brush.

Step 7: Apply Gaussian blur to the shadow to blend the hard edge of the shadow.

Step 8: Add the shadow details on the body using the brush tool

Step 9: Apply Gaussian blur to the shadow detail to blend the hard edge of the shadow.

Step 10: Set the opacity of the shadow to 60%

Step 11: Duplicate the body image layer and invert it upside down.

Step 12: Clean out the excessive reflection using the Eraser tool

Step 13: Add a ripple filter to the reflection.

Ripple tool

Step 14: Adjust the reflection colour towards a cooler colour (blueish) to match the colour of the pool water.

Completion

Exercise 3 Recolouring

In this exercise, I was tasked to recolour one of the black and white (B & W) portrait photos from the wide selections of portraits inside Google Drive. After grabbing hold of the procedures to recolour the photo during tutorial class, I decided to give it a shot on one of the recolouring exercises.

Selected Photo: Side portrait shot of a curly-haired man

Step 1: Quick select the hair.

Step 2: Refine the fine details of the hair using the select and mask options.

Step 3: Output the final selection to layer mask.

Step 4: Apply a solid colour layer and clip it with the layer mask of the hair.

Step 5: Change the blending mode to Soft Light.

Step 6: Quick select the face.

Step 7: Repeat the colouring process on the face.

Step 8: Repeat the colouring process on the lips.

Step 9: Recolour the background to make the subject pop out more.

Step 10: Make adjustments to the exposure and the hue/saturation.

Step 11: Readjust the skin colour solid layer to hex code #fbc089 and the background colour.

Work Comparison:

Before and After

Final work — 21/10/2023

"Challenge Accepted!"

I attempted to select the subject's hair using the lasso tool and the quick selection tool.

In the next step, I created a new solid colour layer for the hair.

Apply the hair layer mask onto the solid blue colour layer

I noticed that there were some imperfections in the hair layer mask, thus I proceeded to refine the selection again.

Refine the mask selection

For the next step, I selected the face and the skin of the subject for recolouring.

Skin colour blending mode on soft light

Lips selection for recolouring.

Eyeball selection for recolouring.

Teeth selection for recolouring.

Teeth layer soft light blend opacity 60%

Tobacco selection for recolouring.

Recolouring of the chain and metal on the costume

Select the smoke using the colour range function by targeting the black-and-white colour of the smoke

Smoke selection

Adding base colour to the eyelashes

Select nails for recolouring

More details recolouring process.

Before After

Colour the background with the addition of a new solid colour layer

Place the layer mask of the girl and invert it on the background colour layer

Finish!

Work comparison:

Before and After

Recolouring women smoking — 21/10/2023

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Feedback

Digital collages

"Personally I like the second collage more, with the placement of the elements visually supporting and complimenting each other. This whole collage gives off a dreamy style look."

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Reflections

Experience
In this first assignment of my first semester studying Adobe Photoshop, I can say that I have learned a lot of knowledge on how to use the tools inside the application to create effects and basic Photoshop skills. From making collages, editing myself into a picture, and later recolouring the black and white portrait photo, I believe I suited myself to this subject fairly easily not to mention that it's all with the step-by-step guidance of my lecturer, Mr Martin.

Observations
In this first assignment that tests my Photoshop knowledge, I observed that the various tasks in this assignment all target how to make content with a story/theme and make it eye-believing for the viewers of fake edited images.

Findings
Through this assignment, I found that photo editing is not only just copying and pasting an element into a picture, but we need to add more details and effects to support the realism of the edit to make it a successful work of art.

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Welcome! I'm Melvin Yung, ID 0357241