Thursday, November 24, 2011

Assignment 4 final Is It real.

Assignment 4. Real or fake.

Finally after several trials. Much research, going through many photographs. looking for something I can work with.
I set a file aside, filling it with pictures so I could get some inspiration from.  Looking for a subject I could put together, that looked convincing.

In the end selection, I chose a man on a bike. A Probosci's monkey in a tree.
Indigenous only to Borneo.

To do this for the combining of the two. Many layers and adjustments were taken.
Starting with Monkey: Separating the subject from the background, to separating limbs to layers, Shading, adjustment of tone and contrast, adding and resizing layers.

The only adjustment I could not find, that I have seen on TVin use is a 3D adjustment.   I would like to have turned the Monkey slightly away.
Nevertheless, with some perseverance, I managed to bring this delightful image to life.



 How was it done?

Once I manage to break up the monkey's body into layers. As shown in Fig 1  This way I can work with each part to manipulate them to perspective.

Fig:1

Then to adjust the bike image.
My first observation was to:
To correct the direction of the bike by flipping the image. Then realising the composition of the bike was leading out of the picture.
I used the Quick selection to move the bike back. Ten rebuildings the road. Then do the same to take the post. taking it away on the far right.



Next:
To take the backdrop and clean up the edges of the monkey.

Placing the monkey onto the bike. The sizing it to match. I could then see where and what I needed to take, and ad in layers.
As seen here in the screenshot. A sequence of images that brought the image together.
Once the layers were in place and adjusted. The layers were flattened.
Some clone and retouching done on the legs, and arms and the body, to make it look real. making layers of just the arms and sections of the leg. turning them and then using clone soft brush to blend.
Another Layer of the bike was added to cover any points that were taken away. When using the eraser tool, the history brush would not restore.

From there, more rebuilding of the legs. tuning, Placement.
Last of all feathering, using softer brushes and cloning, to blend the image layers together. Making fingers. The leg was the hardest and foot in the sandal.

At each stage, I saved, or (save as), renaming each set. So any adjustment that went wrong or required further adjustment may be made, and not lost.

Finally. Flatten and save to Jpeg.


The tail I did not use.

Even after this, Some floors were noticed.  So I tidied up repetitive marks.






Then to make it a front page cover for a magazine.

First to make another new canvas. Resize for the average magazine, Not known.

I chose :














Then to reduce the above image and make a border.
Imports some jungle as an outer frame,
Ad Title
Caption, reintroduce helmet layer. Toad a bit of depth.
Clean up. Ad text.
Ad frog and snake, to liven the page up. Using the same above technique.

As seen here:






Final product for publication.




I hope to publish this now with a write up on what I encountered this week in Borneo, of the poor Proboscis monkeys. Losing their habitat. From the vast deforestation making way for new roads.

Monday, October 24, 2011

4 Real or fake Log practice

For this assignment .
My aim is to produce a book/magazine cover that will tell the story of the content.
Using my skills to manipulate the image to make it stand out.
Title. My tilted heading : Wild life of Borneo close up.  
Subject. Wild life
Theme. focus and close ups.
Ordinance. Nature lovers and wild life photographers.

Planning;

This was at first , new territory, proving some difficulty in selecting the right metrical. Although I has something in mind. The fast amount of images to put the picture together, gave some what more of a challenge then i wished for.

Fist I chose the Horn Bill. Took away it back ground, The confused trees.


Giving some thought over a few days , Going through many more photographs . Then , Simplicity came to mind. So I worked on this. 
Using eraser and the clone tool. 

My next step ; Look for other animals in photos to ad, that compliment without looking unnatural.
At this point , no suitable  subjects that matched lighting. So I took away the blue background and layered the Hornbill into this photo:


By reducing the Horn Bill and cutting the branches. This pleasing compliment and right scale in size came together. adding text in 4 layers.

by adding each layer, I took this what would have been my final. Re sized to 600 x 900  ( 8.5 x 11 )  Magazine average size , Producing a new canvas . Adding some texture and colour. making it the back ground. reducing the main image , then using the clone . Puling the image off . Over the background.  Allowing a margin at the base for extra text.


After all this work. My tutor did not find this impacting enough. Its not what was expected. looking at other work , I wonder where my photography is going. So Now to start over again. And Make another image look Fake .



Exercise 23 : Alteration.

For this Exercise . i have to take any image, Like a person in a garden. And take the person out and move them.  I can go to any length to do alterations. 
So I chose this photograph of A villager elder from Kotakinabalu mountain. 

As i wanted to capture the lady hard at work, with out distracting. Or imposing. 
I took the picture passing by in the car. In doing so. Not able to set the composition and move to avoid distracting object.  I can therefore now change the picture using photoshop. 
The Original. 

With time, masking the image, switching, Then using tools like clone , eraser, patch tool and history brush. Saving as i made adjustments.
The final result is:



The hardest parts was re crating the valley. Not to clone , as in mimic pats, So not make one part look twined with another. then to balance colour.


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Exercise 22 Addition.

In this exercise. I was required to take a land scape on  try pod. To use 2/3 of sky.

Expose one for the land , and expose the other for the sky .
later the lighter one over the darker. using tools to bring back the sky to have an even exposure over the entire image.

These are the two exposures. dark and then two stops lighter.
Tools photoshop Cs3




Tools to work with . Lasso and magic eraser.



For the second part of this exercise. I am to take clouds from another photo. I have chosen the above. as I had nothing els that matched. Take a landscape or find a picture that the clouds are not so evident. Impose the two. To make a dramatic land scape. Showing that the lighting falls close to what light and shadow is in the land scape.

Cotswolds. UK  





some masking and adjustment in exposure and brightness , contrast had to be done . This cloud and adjustment give the over all image , much more depth. 

Friday, October 14, 2011

Exercise 21 Enhancement

This time I have to Enhance a parsons face that has been taken in the shade facing the camera.

Fist this  was to adjust the High clipping. this made the face more darker and challenging. I brightened the exposure to bring detail back. this left a soft tone.


Enhanced the face. from lasso. Carful adjustment to not make the hair contrast against its self. 


And then the eyes. 

For some reason , As Cs3 will not open my raw files , I have to go to CS3 ver Aperture 3. Why I will never know. I could not save the file in j peg. however , i managed this by save as through web send. As when saves as Tiff, this would not export to aperture , to convert back to J peg.

Enhancements: Photographic portraiture, may give the subject a more flattering feel of them selves, So to does the viewer feel more embraced , when the eyes peer out from a magazine. Capturing the on looker to read more. 
Over Enhancement may throw the picture to appear synthetic , if over done. Some people like to see them selves as they are. As one portrait,. I had taken years ago. A Lady was most up set, as I took her blemishes out. She stated it was not her. yet here in Asia, its the trend to look perfect. 

Exercise 20 Improvement :

The aim of this exercise is to take a portrait , To make improvements to make the image stand out. face Enhancement

Before adjustments :


After ; I has used the lasso tool to mask the face , lightened slightly and used healing brush for the cheek.
When doing this, i noted that to much, Evidence of a line in stepping of tone or brightness would show. it pays to follow a slight shaded area on the face hair line. Or a graduated mark will appear.