Digital Photography & Imaging / Project 1
23.08.2021 - 20.09.2021 (Week 1 - Week 5)
Lulu Luisa Linardi / 0349358 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Digital Photography and Imaging [GROUP C]
Project 1: Collage
LECTURES
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| Fig 1.0: Thumbnail |
Jump Links:
Week 1: Introduction to Digital Photography & Imaging
The first week of class we got a briefing from Mr. Martin. He explained a lot about Adobe Photoshop, why we need to learn it, the importance of Photoshop for graphic designer, and also gave us some tips for a successful graphic designer. We also got some briefings for our future projects as well.
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| Fig 1.1.1: Photoshop Layout |
Tips of Successful Graphic Designer
- Follow the tutorials
- Experiment
- Memorize all keyboard shortcuts
- Try to replicate others work
- Do participate in design competitions
- Subscribe to online galleries
- Smart objects for smart designers
- Scaling artworks and proportions
- Use actions to personalize work
- Organize the files properly
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| Fig 1.1.2: Photoshop for Beginners |
Week 2: Introduction to Composition
This week we got to learn more about some basic compositions for design, rule of thirds, golden ratio, and also composition (framing & cropping).
Introduction to Basic Composition
1. Focal Point
A key element to any good composition is a strong focal point, as it helps your viewers’ eyes naturally settle on the important pieces of your design first.
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| Fig 1.1.1: Focal Point |
Scale is often used to help communicate hierarchy by drawing attention toward and away from certain elements, thus signifying their importance to the communication.
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| Fig 1.1.2: Scale & Hierarchy |
A good technique for mastering asymmetrical balance is to think of each element as having a ‘weight’ to it. Smaller objects might ‘weigh’ less than larger objects, and heavily textured elements might ‘weigh’ more than flatly colored elements.
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| Fig 1.1.3: Balance the Elements |
White space is mostly known as “empty space” to balance up the main focus of a composition. White space when used strategically can help boost your design’s clarity and overall look by balancing out the more complicated and busy parts of your composition with space that helps your design to breathe.
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| Fig 1.1.4: White Space |
Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds is the process of dividing an image into thirds, using two horizontal and two vertical lines. This imaginary grid yields nine parts with four intersection points.
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| Fig 1.1.5: Rule of Thirds #1 |
When you position the most important elements of your image at these intersection points, you produce a much more natural image. It is also suggested that any horizon is placed on either the top horizontal line or bottom horizontal line.
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| Fig 1.1.6: Rule of Thirds #2 |
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- Create conversation between the subject and background.
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Fig 1.1.7: Rule of Thirds #3 |
Golden Ratio
The Golden Ratio is a mathematical ratio. It is commonly found in nature, and when used in a design, it fosters organic and natural-looking compositions that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
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| Fig 1.1.8: Golden Ratio #1 |
In design, the Golden Ratio boils down to aesthetics — creating and appreciating a sense of beauty through harmony and proportion. When applied to design, the Golden Ratio provides a sense of artistry.
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| Fig 1.1.9: Golden Ratio #2 |
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| Fig 1.1.10: Golden Ratio #3 |
The Golden Ratio is a useful guideline for determining dimensions of the layout. One very simple way to apply the Golden Ratio is to set your dimensions to 1:1.618.
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| Fig 1.1.11: Golden Ratio #4 |
Week 3: Introduction to Photoshop 2
In the third week, we got a lecture about the introduction to Photoshop and were briefed about the tools we will be using later.
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| Fig 1.2.1: Tools in Adobe Photoshop |
Tool Box
It is the home of several sets of tools that Photoshop provides to its user. Users can expand the tool bar to get the additional tools.
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| Fig 1.2.2: Tool Box |
Lasso Tool
It is a tool for drawing freeform border around a selected object. Lasso tool allows the user to draw and pinpoint specific areas of an object.
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| Fig 1.2.3: Lasso Tool |
There are three different lasso tool options, which are the lasso tool itself, polygonal lasso tool, and magnetic lasso tool. While the lasso tool can draw a freeform, polygonal lasso tool can only make a straight segment. The magnetic lasso tool is an automatic lasso tool that can detect image's edge that shows the most contrast one, and then select the pixels around them.
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| Fig 1.2.4: Option of Lasso Tools |
Pen Tool
It is the most common option to use if the user wants to create a path from scratch. Pen tool is the way that you add these points and the way you drag the tool as you create the points determines how they will look. The fewer points will create the smoother path.
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Fig 1.2.5: Pen Tool |
Variation of Pen Tool
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| Fig 1.2.6: Straight line paths |
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Fig 1.2.7: U shaped curves |
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| Fig 1.2.8: Simple s curves |
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Fig 1.2.9: Complex s curves |
The layers are different images stacked on top of each other. We can use each layer without affecting another one to make adjustments. Together they form one final image. It could look something like this in real life.
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Fig 1.2.10: Layer interface |
The advantage of using Layers is that users can save a the file with all the layers included which means we can use layers for non-destructive editing. The adjustments in Photoshop will never destroy the original image.
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Fig 1.2.11: Example of Layers |
Week 4: Introduction to Photoshop 3
During this week, Mr. Martin taught us new topic which is about applying
the adjustment layer and filter in Photoshop.
It is a group of a super useful, non-destructive image editing tools that add color and tonal adjustments to your image without permanently changing its pixels.
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| Fig 1.3.1: Adjustment Layer |
When adding an adjustment layer to our image, a new layer will appear over it and a Properties panel specific to the type of adjustment we've selected will pop up. The Properties panel will allow us to modify our adjustment layer, which in turn will modify the image.
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| Fig 1.3.2: Basic Understanding of Adjustment Layer |
1. Brightness/Contrast
It makes adjustments to the tonal range of the image. The brightness slider is for adjusting the highlights, while the Contrast slider is for adjusting the shadows in the image.
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| Fig 1.3.3: Brigthness/Contrast |
2. Level
It modify the tonal values in an image by adjusting the levels of the shadows, midtones, and highlights. Using just a touch of it will go a long way in correcting the images.
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| Fig 1.3.4: Level |
3. Curves
It lets user to adjust as many points as they want throughout the entire tonal range of the image.
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| Fig 1.3.5: Curves |
4. Exposure
It lets user to adjust exposure levels with three sliders: Exposure, Offset and Gamma. Exposure will adjust only the highlights of the image, while Offset adjusts the mid tones and Gamma adjusts the dark tones only.
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| Fig 1.3.6: Exposure |
5. Selective Color
It selectively modifies the amount of a primary color without modifying the other primary colors in your image.
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| Fig 1.3.7: Selective Color |
Filter
There are filters to change colour, add blur or create completely new image effects. Photoshop offers a virtually unlimited variety of filters for this purpose.
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| Fig 1.3.8: Filter |
INSTRUCTIONS
TUTORIAL
Week 1: Folder System & E-Portfolio
Mr. Martin showed us a short video by Mr. Fauzi about physical collage design, then it was followed by him giving explanation about the introduction to collage. We also got to see some past students' collage work from Mr. Fauzi's blog.
Week 2: Basic Composition Exercise
This week, Mr. Martin again showed us Mr. Fauzi's short video about physical collage design. He told us to refer to the video tutorial before we started to compose our collage design.
Enter Life Composition Studies
Week 4: Project 1 (Demo)
How to Remove Background in Photoshop
How To Add an Adjustment to a Single Layer in Photoshop
PRACTICAL
Project 1A: Physical Collage
Week 2: Collage Design Elements
Students were told to collect materials from magazines or printed elements for this week. After we finished our tutorial class, Mr. Martin gave us about 2 hours and a half to pre-compositing those prepared elements into 3 compositions, which should be submitted before 6pm. I didn't have any magazines so I got all the elements printed from Pinterest. However, I think some of the elements are too small, so I had some trouble when composing them. My works is kinda messy because we need to do 3 compositions in a hurry, but it was really exciting.
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Fig 2.1.1: Printed elements for physical collage, 27.08.2021 |
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Fig 2.1.2: Cutout process, 27.08.2021 |
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Fig 2.1.3: Pre-Composition #1, 27.08.2021
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Fig 2.1.5: Pre-Composition #3, 27.08.2021 |
Week 3: Final Review
Students were told to finish composing their physical collage after receiving feedback from the lecturer and classmates. Actually, I was asked by Mr. Martin to use either the second (fig 3.1.3) or the third one (fig 3.1.5), but I ended up combining two of them because I don't feel satisfied with those two. So I recomposed them with a more interesting idea. I also added some new materials to complete the looks.
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| Fig 2.2.1: Pasting the elements, 11.09.2021 |
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Fig 2.2.2: Physical Collage Final Outcome, 11.09.2021 |
Fig 2.2.3: Physical Collage Final PDF, 11.09.2021
Project 1B: Digital Collage
Week 3: Compositing Collage
In the third week, we were assigned to make 3 compositions of digital collage with only the given images. Mr. Martin told us to compose it on A4 portrait canvas size in Photoshop. There are 15 different images to use, and we can choose which to use freely.
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Fig 2.3.1: Making process #1, 11.09.2021 |
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| Fig 2.3.5: Pre-Composition #1, 11.09.2021 |
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| Fig 2.3.6: Pre-Composition #2, 11.09.2021 |
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Fig 2.3.7: Pre-Composition #3, 11.09.2021 |
Week 4: Adjustment Layers & Filters
This is my third idea exploration of the digital collage pre-composition which is chosen to be my final composition. When doing this, I was thinking of making the train and the station as the focal point so I cut them. Then I tried to cut the rail and make it bigger than the station so it has another interesting point. Also, put the sky (I cut it from the building element) behind it to create a great contrast between them. I used the polygonal lasso tool to crop the station, rail, and sky. Lastly, I cut some parts of the newspaper heading to create balance for the left and right parts. For the background, I only stacked some elements randomly but it turns out pretty well.
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| Fig 2.4.1: Adding some elements to create a balance composition, 13.09.2021 |
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| Fig 2.4.2: Digital Collage Final Outcome, 13.09.2021 |
We were also told to improvise our final outcome of the digital collage by using Adjustment Layers and Filters in Photoshop. I honestly didn’t know what to do with the adjustment but I suddenly came up with the vintage concept. I tried to create a vintage look for my digital collage composition. In this part, Hue/Saturation played the biggest role to change the color, almost all of the elements are using Hue/Saturation but with different adjustment. I also used Vibrance, Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, and Black & White for some elements to get another color and effects.
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| Fig 2.4.3: Process #1, 17.09.2021 |
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Fig 2.4.4: Process #2, 17.09.2021 |
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| Fig 2.4.6: Digital Collage (Adjusted) Final Outcome, 17.09.2021 |
Fig 2.4.7: Digital Collage Final PDF, 17.09.2021
FEEDBACK
WEEK 1-2
No feedback given
Week 3
The first composition (fig 3.1.4) is too simple and feels so empty, use either the second (fig 3.1.3) or the third one (fig 3.1.5). If using the third one, add the vintage photo frame there.
Week 4
Great composition. The first composition looks too common. The fish in the second
composition is really great because it is done differently (by blending).
The third one is well composed, but the left and right sides aren't balanced,
try to put another elements below the newspaper cut to have the balance
look.
Week 5
Everything looks okay, just need to separate project 1 from the
exercises blog.
REFLECTIONS
Project 1A: Physical Collage
I really had fun during the class, especially when we were given a session to compose the physical collage. Although it was only about 2 hours, I managed to finish the task on time. My works are kinda messy because we need to do 3 compositions in a hurry, but it was really exciting. I observed that I'm having a hard time when doing work under pressure. I realized that I'll only cause a mess when working under pressure, and so I'm trying to slowly get used to it. And I also realized that I have trouble exploring new idea. I can only create great work for the first one, and then will stuck for the next one. Because my ideas weren't developing well, so I need more explorations to improve it. However, in the end, I managed to complete the task greatly.
Project 1B: Digital Collage
This task is a bit different from the previous one since we're doing it digitally. However, I also thought that it was challenging as well, because we were given the elements already and had to do the collage with our own ideas so our outcome won't be looked similar to the others'. Again, what we need to do is explore and keep exploring for new ideas. After I completed this task, I realized that it was much easier than I thought, because we can easily adjust, resize, rotate, and do many more editings in Photoshop. But I still had to work hard to achieve a great outcome.