Digital Photography and Imaging / Project 1

03/04/2023 - 31/05/2023 / Week 1 - Week 9

Digital Photography and Imaging

Iman binti Kamarudin / 0364014

Project 1A & 1B

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LECTURE 

Week 1:

Importance of Photoshop for graphic designers

- Express creativity

- Create graphic design

- Restoration of old images

- Integrate graphics and text

- Make use of brushes

- Change photo color

- Rectify mistakes in photos

What is digital imaging?

- Converting text, art and photos into digital images using a digital scanning device.

- Consists of removing and adding details

- To improve appearance by removing unwanted or distracting objects

- To add elements to a scene to change the tone of the photograph

- Consists of photomontage and false caption

- To pair images to suggest a relationship

- To change the context of an image

Tips to become a successful graphic designer

1. Follow the tutorials
2. Experiment
3. Memorise keyboard shortcuts
4. Try to replicate other work
5. Participate in design competitions
6. Subscribe to online galleries
7. Make use of smart objects
8. Keep proportions in mind
9. Use actions to personalise work

10. Organise files properly

Week 2:

Basic Composition

- Focal Point

Helps your viewers eyes naturally set at the most important pieces of your design first.

- Scale and Hierarchy

Used to draw attention to and away from certain elements.

- Balance The Elements

Each element has a weight to it. Smaller objects weigh less than larger objects, and textured objects weigh more than flatly coloured objects.

- White Space

Can boost your design's clarity and overall look by balancing out the more busy parts of your composition, allowing space for your design to breathe.

Rule of Thirds

Process of dividing an image into thirds and positioning the most important parts of the image at the intersections of the lines.

It is a way to:

- Create conversation between the subject and the background

- Use composition techniques that is pleasing to the eye

- Creatively use negative space

Golden Ratio

A mathematical ratio commonly found in nature and used in designs to create organic and natural-looking compositions.

It uses harmony and proportion to create a sense of beauty and is a useful guideline for determining dimensions of a layout.

Week 3:

The Lasso Tool
Allows you to draw and pinpoint specific areas of an image. There are three different options of lassos within the toolbar:
- Lasso
- Polygonal lasso
- Magnetic lasso

Pen Tool
Used to create extremely precise shapes and paths using manually placed anchors, the pen tool is the most common option to create a path from scratch

 

Figure 1.1 - Straight Line

Figure 1.2 - U-shaped Line

Figure 1.3 - Simple 'S' Curve

Figure 1.4 - Complex 'S" Curve

Layering
Layers are different images stacked on top of eachother. You can use each layer to make adjustments without affecting the other layers (non-destructive editing). Your adjustments in Photoshop will never destroy the original image.


Week 4:

Adjustment Layer
Non-destructive image editing tools that add colour and tonal adjustments to your image without permanently altering the pixels. You can edit and discard your adjustments anytime. When you add an adjustment, a new layer will pop up where you can adjust it accordingly.

1. Brightness/Contrast
Makes adjustments to the tonal range of your image. The brightness slider controls the highlights and the contrast slider controls the shadows.

2. Level
Makes adjustments to the levels of the shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

3. Curves
Lets you adjust as many points throughout the tonal range as you want in the image and is one of the most powerful and precise tools in Photoshop.

4. Exposure
Lets you adjust the exposure using three sliders: Exposure, Offset and Gamma. Exposure adjusts the highlights, Offset adjusts the mid-tones and Gamma adjusts the dark tones.

5. Selective Colour
Selectively modifies the amount of primary colour without modifying the other primary colours.

Filters
There are a variety of filters in Photoshop that adjust the colour, blur, sharpness etc. of your image.

Week 5:

Exposure Setting

In photography, exposure refers to the amount of light which reaches your camera sensor.

Figure 1.1 - Exposure

Shutter speed and aperture adjust the luminous exposure of an image. Camera ISO affects the brightness of your image.

Figure 1.2 - Exposure Triangle

1. Iris

Controls the flow of light entering the lens. It's measured by f-stop. Ex. f/1, f/8, f/16. The lower the number, the larger the lens opening.

Figure 1.3 - f/stop Settings

2. Shutter Speed

Small plastic that opens and closes to allow or prevent light from reaching the film. It's measured by seconds. Ex. 1/1000s, 1/500s, 1/25s.

Figure 1.4 - Shutter Speed ex. 1

Figure 1.5 - Shutter speed ex. 2

3. ISO

Refers to the sensitivity of the camera's sensor. The common settings are: 100, 200, 400 etc. The lower the ISO, the less sensitive your camera is light and the finer the grain.

Figure 1.6 - ISO settings

Lens Perspective

Appropriate lens provides the desired framing, lens choice affects angle of view. Different lens are designed for different purposes and can be categorised by focal length. 

1. Focal Length

The shorter the focal length, the wider the view.

2. Depth of Field

The proportion of image that is sharp and in focus. The smaller the aperture you use, the greater the depth of field.

Figure 1.7 - Depth of Field

Wide angle lens are ideal for fitting a large area into your frame and are especially useful for landscape or street photography. 

Standard lens offer a fairly accurate representation of what the human eye sees, both in terms of visual angle and perspective. Images created by standard lens are considered more natural than using an other type of lens

Tele lens are useful for isolating a subject that is far away.

Figure 1.8 - Camera Lens

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INSTRUCTIONS

Week 1:

Firstly, we were briefed about the module and the curriculum outline. 
We learnt about collages and looked at works from previous students. We briefly discussed about Photoshop. Then, we were required to bring materials to create our own collage with the next following week and come up with a concept for it. 

Fig 1.1 - Collage Video Screenshot

Fig 1.2 - Past Student Collage Work

Using Pinterest, we were instructed to create a board for the subject and pin posts with compositions we liked. Then, we had to choose 3 graphic designs to analyse and list down our reasons for liking them. Additionally, we had to create our e-portfolio using Blogspot.

Week 2:
During class we went through the elements of good composition such as focal point, scale and hierarchy, balance, white space, rule of thirds, golden ratio. Afterwards, we experimented with the collage pieces we cut out and had to come up with three pre-compositions. Once we came up with three pre-compositions and took photos of them, we had to submit them in Google Classroom and wait for feedback on which one we should glue down.

Fig. 1.3 - Physical Collage Composition #1

 

Fig 1.4 - Physical Collage Composition #2

Fig 1.5 - Physical Collage Composition #3

My first composition was chosen to be glued down.

Week 3:
During this class, we went over the basics of Adobe Photoshop. We saw how to use the pen tool and the magic wand tool, and which tools are better used for which photos. Additionally, we learnt about layering. We then had to create a digital collage using Adobe Photoshop and presented our physical collage. After taking photos with our physical collages, we came up with three pre-compositions for our digital collage.

Fig 1.6 - Digital Collage Composition #1

Fig 1.7 - Digital Collage Composition #2

Fig 1.8 - Digital Collage Composition #3

Week 4: This week we watched a few tutorials on how to use adjustment layers in Photoshop and then we had to apply some adjustment layers to our digital collage.

 

Figure 1.1 - Before Adjustments

Figure 1.2 - After Adjustments

I made adjusments to the brightness/contrast, hue and saturation, curves, colour balance and vibrance.        

Week 5: We didn't have class during this week as it was a public holiday. We were instructed to do these exercises on our own following the instructions in the slides.

Figure 1.1 - Cut out Shazam

Figure 1.2 - Place Shazam in the mansion

Figure 1.3 - Apply match colour to Shazam

Figure 1.4 - Add shadows

Figure 1.5 - Add reflection, adjust hue/saturation & add ripple effect

After I did the Shazam exercise, I began working on editing my own picture into the mansion following the steps in the previous exercise.

Figure 1.1 - Full body cutout

Figure 1.2 - Add cut out into mansion

Figure 1.3 - Add shadows

Figure 1.4 - Add reflection, adjust hue/saturation & ripple effect

Figure 1.5 - Hearst Mansion Final