Digital Photography and Imaging | Week 4

 

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY & IMAGING GCD 61204

 

WEEK 4: PRACTICAL

 

NAME: ISAAC YAW WAI ZAC

I.D: 0343197

COURSE: Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Mechanical Engineering

GROUP: A

WEEK 4 E-PORTFOLIO LINK: https://isaacyawofficial.blogspot.com/2021/09/digital-photography-and-imaging-week-4.html

 

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INSTRUCTION:

 

Attach your best composition from WEEK 3 digital collage exercise below.

 

Figure 1.1: Selected digital collage composition from week 3

     After this composition was agreed upon and chosen amongst all the other compositions by my lecturer, Mr. Fauzi Yusoff, I was a little skeptical with the design because I liked it but I thought that it could be further improved by adding a few extra elements. After adding the extra elements such as some keys, backgrounds, and projector, all the negative spaces were occupied and I am happy with the final composition. Other than that, it also obeys both the golden ratio rule and the rule of third. 

Figure 1.2: Final composition from week 3

Figure 1.3: Final digital collage composition obeying golden ratio rule 

(before using adjustment layers and filters)

Using the same Photoshop file, improvise your WEEK 3 digital collage into WEEK 4 by using Adjustment Layers & Filters on Photoshop.

Explain what you’ve learned in the description section.

Figure 2.1: Progress 1 (Editing using curves)

    In progress 1, I imported the same file that I have used which is my composition #1 in week 3 and the first thing I did is to fiddle around with the curves because I have experience using Adobe Lightroom and this curve is very important to adjust the colouration to allow the subject to stand out and tone down the background. 

Figure 2.2: Progress 2 (Editing using levels)

    In progress 2, the levels adjustment tool was used and to allow the brightness or colouration of the overall image to be lowered so that it can match the theme which is more of an antique feel. 

Figure 2.3: Progress 3 (Editing using brightness and contrast)

    To further help out with the theme, the brightness and contrast tool was used and as can be seen, the overall old-style or antique is shown. 

Figure 2.4: Progress 4 (Editing using hue and saturation)

    In progress 4, the more complex tool was used, which is the hue and saturation tool. Overall, my image was not needed to be saturated, so the master hue was toned down in terms of saturation. Then, the individual colours were adjusted such as the brown/orange background was toned down in terms of hue because I want it to look more 'rusty' and faded. Other than that, the blue and cyan colouration was toned higher in hue and saturation because the fish and the typewriter are the foreground subjects and are needed to stand out.

Figure 2.5: Progress 5 (Editing using blending options for VINTAGE)

    In progress 5, I played around with this new tool called 'blending options'. This tool was also used for the few upcoming progress for different elements. The first group of elements edited were the floating letters that spell 'VINTAGE' from top to bottom. I used the options such as linear glow, contour, and also drop shadow.

Figure 2.6: Progress 6 (Editing using blending options for projector)

    In the blending options for the projector element, the underlying layer tab was fiddled around to allow the projector to look like it is projecting from the inside (a different perspective). Together with the similar blending options for the floating discs, it gives a more effective perspective look whilst maintaining the overall theme of 'vintage'.

Figure 2.7: Progress 7 (Final tweaking such as colour correction)

    Lastly, a few extra tweakings and adjustments were made such as repositioning the layers, and adjusting the background colouration, I am very happy with how the final outcome turned out.

Figure 2.8: Digital collage progress

Figure 2.9: Digital collage progress

Figure 2.10: Digital collage progress

Figure 2.11: Digital collage before and after using adjustment layers and filters

Feedback from lecturer:

    

    After submitting the progress of the digital collage in utilising the features of using adjustment layers and filters, Mr. Fauzi Yusoff chose progress #2 as shown in Figure 2.8 above. However, he also agreed with me and then chose progress #7 as shown in Figure 2.10 above. To me, I am very happy to get this feedback and I am very happy with the work done after applying some changes in the colour-grading, and filters to my digital collage composition and the difference of 'before and after' can be seen in Figure 2.11 above.

Figure 2.12: Digital collage final outcome (13th September 2021)

Learning Outcome:

    This is a relatively challenging but fun task to be done because I myself am a photographer and videographer who has quite some experience in photo and video editing such as colour-grading. However, I have never used this feature in the Adobe Photoshop software so it was challenging to find the positions of each feature at first, but it was fun to learn and fiddle around with my selected composition from week 3. However, the blending option and layering of each layer in a composition were very new to me and I am glad that I learned that in this week's class because I find it very useful to give a different look or perspective to any elements we like in an image or a composition.