30th October

This is a simple picture I created this picture in today's lecture using Photoshop, in this case I had a background of a city scene, I then placed an image of an eye on top of the background, using a both of the Quick Selection Tool and the Magnetic Lasso Tool, I removed the eye from the image allowing the background to be seen, and finally used a special brush to create the lashes.

Working at the head office for a women's clothing company I have seen how Photoshop is used to create the images that go on our website and in our catalogue. For example most images on our homepage http://www.wall-london.com/ would use a similar method to mine, finding a background in this case plain grey (may be different now) and placing an image of the model on top and using the same selection tools mentioned previously and the inverse tool, the old background is removed and the grey background is revealed.

In another lecture I have this semester Artist PR and Publicity we are learning about press packs usually a 'Pack Shot' of the artist(s) will be included which is an official image of the artist(s) themselves or a logo that represents them, either way it will have been created on Photoshop or Illustrator.

This is a pack shot for 'The Saturdays' the girls would have been seated on a bench of some sort in their poses, then the image of a beam in the sky would be used as a background, removing the bench from the image, the long trains of the dresses were most likely added on later along with the text.


Using this software, I have recognised just how much can be done with it and how much it is used.

Continued...

Today's lecture was focusing on Photoshop, Michael first showed us an image he had created using layers, he had created several layers containing various images and text which came out like one big poster. The layering technique reminded me of projectors and the clear sheets. You use images on each sheet and when they are all piled in top of each other and in the correct position it gives you your final image.

We watched a demonstration of how this image was created, using tools such as masking, which can be used with a paintbrush tool to hide parts of an image. We were also taught about the selection tools such as the magnetic lasso, which is a tool that recognises edges and colour differences to help you select what you need, although depending on the colours and lights in the picture it may need to be altered, this can be done by using the 'shift' and 'alt' keys to either remove or delete selected parts.

Once we had been shown what to do we were asked to use high resolution images and create a poster like Michael's, I took images from the web and at first they were coming out really pixelated and blurry and then I was told to change the format of the page to 'Web' which switches the resolution of the bitmap. Once I did this my images were coming up much clearer. I had used an ocean image for my background and found an image of a white tiger, so using the magnetic lasso I was able to remove the tiger from the jungle and put him by the sea! I then used the masking tool to neaten up the edges around the tiger, as the lasso had left a few jagged parts. I also used the clone tool to spread the background of my image.

 I now need to dedicate some spare time to making a few images and testing out what I know so far. It's a shame Photoshop is so pricey! Would be great to have it at home, as well as Illustrator and the Apple Mac. Maybe once I win the lottery.

Getting to know the software

Finally my blog is up and running! I have had some technical issues setting up my blog, even though its supposed to be a very simple process.

The main purpose of this blog is to talk about what I've taken from my lectures on Advanced Digital Interaction and Communication with Michael Garaway.

In my first lecture Michael gave us introduction to the software we will be using for the module; Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator, I am not very familiar with either of these and I'm also not familiar with the Apple Mac's we use! But I know I'm naturally quite good with computers so I'll pick it up. Both Photoshop and Illustrator are very similar in terms of the interface and the tools etc. But the main difference between the two is the way they create an image, Photoshop uses pixels on a bitmap, which are basically millions of tiny squares used to create an image. Whereas Illustrator uses vectors and uses anchor points to create mathematical expressions that make up an image.

I spent some time clicking around with them both, creating images and seeing what else I could manage. I familiarised myself with the tool bars, although there are A LOT of tools and effects it gets a bit daunting, but hopefully if I practice at it I'll be a pro by the end of the module!