Evaluation For My Fantasy Landscape & Final Landscape Image.

In this assignment we have been asked to create a fantasy landscape using our own images. We have had 6 weeks to complete this assignment.  Over this time we have to cover different tasks and experiments using photoshop, including artist research and our own experiments on photoshop. Throughout each task we have to screen grad and document everything onto our blog and talk about what we did and what we think about it. 

I got my fantasy landscape idea from the other assignment we have been doing as i have based that on horses and hounds and i thought it would be quite nice to include this into my landscape as-well. 

For my landscape i used my own photos that i had taken for the other assignment i cut bits out of each of the photos and added them into my landscape. Over all i have added 10 other objects into my landscape which include a range of different things such as more horses, hounds and people.

I did not really get inspired much by artist research it mostly came from my own ideas and what i like and what i like to do. But one artist i did look at was Jeff Walls i liked a range of images he produce which gave me a few ideas of what i could add into my own landscape. I was amazed how he had added so many different objects into one photo yet it to still look so real. 

Other things that effect the look of my landscape were things such as the use of photoshop to edit my images, i change the exposure of the photos my going to 'Image - Adjustments-Exposure' then i could change it to how i wanted it best to fit my landscape. I also used the lasso tool to get an image/object from one photo into another. I think this tool helped a lot and made it easier for me. I also had to have a different layer for each image/object i had added to my landscape. 

Over all i am very pleased with the final outcome of my Fantasy Landscape. I think the images i have added to the landscape i think work really well and help create the sort of photo i was going for - they don't look too out of place which i like - And they all link together well creating a good image. I like all the tools i used and found them all rather easy and simple to use and i will use them again for other things as-well. I am very pleased with my final out come and how it has all fitted together and  think i might create more. 

Making my Final Fantasy Landscape

For my Final fantasy landscape i have used an image that i took myself. It Looked like this before i did anything to it: 

This is the landscape before i added my other objects in to create my fantasy one.

First i started by finding photo of things that would fit in and make my landscape quite real and not too fake. To do this i found the photo i wanted then used the, 

Magnetic lasso tool. 

This helped me go around the edge of the image i was copying it made it a lot clearer and neater when on my landscape.

These are the images i added to my landscape:

I copied the dog out of this photo that i took for my other assignment and added it to my fantasy landscape - all my photos before they were used were edited in photoshop and i like that fact that the colours match so it makes it look more realistic.  

 One by one i added these different objects into my landscape. For the one of the people i had to copy each person out on there own. I found using this tool quite easy - I have used all my own images from other photos i have taken to put into my fantasy landscape. 

On this next photo i have got the quad bike off the internet but the photo of the person is one that i have used in my work before and was taken within the college. 

i think the quad bike could have been cut out a bit better but there was a lot of detail on the bike to go around.

I then added another photo of my own that i took for my other assignment -  i added a photo of another hound and a horse to my landscape again that i took myself. 

This was the hound before i cut it and put it into my fantasy landscape
This is the image of the horse i added again from images i have taken myself before:

I then added another horse and rider into my photo - again from my own images, i cut the horse and rider out on the right hand side of this photo in the red jacket and then added it to may landscape at the front of the photo:

I then thought the sky looked a bit plan so i added a image (The sun) to the photo. 

Photoshop - Editing

Vignetting a photo: 

To vignette a photo you have to first of all make a new layer by going to - Layer/New Layer. You then need to select the 'brush' tool and Draw a boarder around your image. But before you do that select the colour boarder you want then when you go to draw your boarder hold down the 'shift' key so this will then help make sure all your lines are straight when you are drawing them.

The before image: 

Here you can select the size of the brush you want to use. After you have drawn your boarder using a 'soft' brush, then click onto filter 'Gucssian blur' change the radius of the blur to make is softer and blend into the picture. You can also change the image to black and white if you want. 

The after image: 

Adding colour to you image: 

To add colour to your image again you have to start by adding a new layer. Then you need to select a colour you want to use. Doing this this you can use a variety of colours, however many you wish to. You have to select the 'brush' tool and colour over the parts you want to.

Here is the starting image: 

Then you have to chose your colours: 

Once you have coloured in everything you want to you then have to click onto the layer and change it to 'OVERLAY' to create this effect: 

Cloning a Photo:

To clone a photo first of all you have to select the 'cloning' tool. You then have to hold down 'ALT' while going over the image you want to clone - once you have gone over the whole of the image you can then let go of 'ALT' and start selecting and copying where you want the image to go. 

The starting image: 

Then this is the image after cloning - i have also changed it to black and white: 

Adding text to an image: 

when adding text to an image first you have to select the 'TEXT' tool on the left had side. Once you have done this you can move the text key to where you are wanting to write. 

You can also change the SIZE/FONT/COLOUR of your writing. Once you have done all this you can then add the text you are wanting to be placed over your photo.  So hopefully it will look like this: 

You can add your own text or poems to your photo. 


LAYERING PHOTOS:
We did a task where we wanted to blend a portrait photo into the background of a landscape image - to do this i had to chose a landscape photo of my own and a portrait one. 
When i had chose my photos i had to drag the landscape photo over onto the portrait photo so it looks like this but you will make it central and it will cover the photo fully: 

once you have placed both photos together you then have to click on 'layers' on photoshop and change that to 'OVERLAY'

It will the look like this! 
I really like the effect the overlay tool has and i like the outcome that is provides and i think it has worked well. 

Research ~ Duane Michals

Michals' interest in art "began at age 14 while attending watercolor university classes at the Carnegie Institute.He describes his photographic skills as "completely self-taught. His is known as an American photographer. He had no formal training but recognized his photographic aptitude when he took his first pictures as a tourist - he was earning his living through commercial work, including portraiture and fashion photography.

As a portraitist, he has photographed a considerable number of the well-known artists and actors of the 20th century, many of them his close friends.
Michals couldn't care less to what film or camera his is using when taking his photo. He just uses what he has at the time and captures the images he wants to with no effort at all. He is more interested in the thing that he can not catch on camera. Things that maybe no one else would be able to or even think about getting a photo of. 

Here is an example of his work: 

This is an example of his work - i like this piece because it like the way its not just a single photo it goes clearly through all the stages of what's happening! He photographs most his work in back and white - i think that personally add a nice vintage effect to his photos. He does quite a large range of his work like this, here is another example: 

Again he bases most his work in a grid formate - i think the message of this image is quite hard to understand as it is a strange thing to photograph. But again he captures the photos in the order that they happen so creating a series of events. He catches the unusual things that other people might not! 

Organise And present Images Sequentially

To organise and present my images sequentially using Photoshop.

To do this you have to follow a process to make sure all the photos are exactly the same and present as best as they can be and how you want them to be. 

First you have Load one of you photo's into Photoshop and then go to file - New you should then see the following on your screen: 

You need to change the paper size to A4 then click OK. 

After this you now need to Drag your photos over to the black document you have just opened to do this while dragging your photo over you need to hold down the 'shift' key so that when you drag your other photos over  you can then make them all the same size easier - just go to 'EDIT' - 'Transform & Again'. So that now when you do that your photos we  automatically go the same size to make it easier. 

The next stage once you have got all your photos the same size and where you want them - you can now add backgrounds to your work and boarders to each photo. 

To add boarders to you work you have to follow the process show in the three pictures above. First you have to select the image you want to put a boarder around or select them all by clicking 'auto-select' at the top of the screen. First you have to go on 'EDIT' - ' stroke', you now have to then pick a colour that you want and change the width of your boarder to '20px' 

Now once the boarders are on all the photos that you want you can make sure all your photos are level and equal sizes by using a grid: 

To get a grid you have to click on 'VIEW' then make sure you word extras has a tick next to it to get your grid. 

To remove the gird for your final out come just unclick the word grid so it looks like this: 

Your final outcome should look something like the above photo. 

You can then move this file into preview to print it out. 

Downloading photos ~

When we have taken our photos we then have to come back and download them onto the computer. The best way to download the photos is through 'Image Capture' This is a fast easy way to download images, whereas if you used 'Iphoto' this could block your computer up and also it is extremely slow to use. 

Here is 'Image Capture' when my camera is connected up to it. You then from this stage have to decide which folder you want to put you photos in and if you want to download them all or just some selected photos. 

In the photo above i have chosen to place my photos on to the desktop.

I will then sort my images into different photo albums so i know where they all are - when my photos have been downloaded and sorted in to folders where i know where they are i will then save them onto my memory stick for backup. I can then put my photos in to photoshop etc and edit them how i want. 

When i had downloaded all my images i then made a 'Contact Sheet' with all my photos on, for this i had to use 

'Adobe Bridge'  
and copy all my images into there to create my contact sheet: 
Here are my two contact sheets. 

Image Management

The next stage was to name all the files that i put my photos in so that they were all well organized for example here are my folders: 

To re-name a folder what you have to do is double click the folder slowly and then it will allow you to re-name your folder to whatever you like. 

Over all i took photos of 5 different things so i could then come back and look at them all in detail and decide which one is my best. 

PhotoShop - Introduction

The title for this assignment is 'Image Management' it will take us Six weeks to complete a photoshop workshop, this task covers unit 34. In this we will learn and show how to use different effects and techniques in using photoshop and look at different artists and how they change there work by using photoshop and digitally manipulated them. And also compare other artists work to our own. 

The aims of this assignment are: 

*To understand how image manipulation techniques are used in the work of others

* Be able to digitise source materials

* Be able to organize work using image manipulation hardware and software

* Be able to present own design outcomes.

For the final outcome of this assignment we are going to create one image 'A Fantasy Landscape' which will incorporate some of the skills we have learnt through out the six weeks. The final idea is to create a fake landscape which doesn't actually exist. We can make it as simple and realistic as we like or we can make it stand out and as strange and artistic as we want to.