Digital Photographic Practice: 2012

Friday, 9 November 2012

Assignment 4 - Design a Book Cover

ASSIGNMENT 4 - DESIGN A BOOK COVER

I have two word documents, a summary of the course, and the document which is for Assignment 4,
which can be found here ....

Here is my final book cover which I have designed.

The imaginary book is about a man who has moved to the country, and is trying to covert his old life to the new country life, it is like cycling in snow...

This is a new book cover, saved in 300 ppi, as the one above was too small, done in error.

Exercise - Alteration

ALTERATION

Well I was actually quite terrified at the prospect of doing this exercise, I thought it would be beyond me.. or my limited skills.. anyway I am quite chuffed with the outcome. This is the first time I have even attempted something like this and now feel confident to attack another project. And it wasn't as daunting as I expected, as like most things, once you get going on them they are fine.

Here is my first attempt, I thought it was simple in its set up, and I felt I could isolate the person and remove from the shot. However I wasn't taking into account the complicated wall that would be picked up to replace the missing area.

This was how the result was before any adjustments, you can see that it has picked up some of the leaves from the floor and are up where the wall should be. Also the top of the wall isn't too bad, slightly raised, this could be lowered, but I felt the other part of the wall was a bit muddled, probably if I had spent more time on this I could have perfected it. The trees were very good and you would never have known there had been a person there before.

This was my second attempt, tried to find a photo without the complicated wall. I tried again with this shot below.

I used the lasso tool and selected the person, then pressed the delete / backspace button and the content aware box will pop up and click OK and the computer magically removes the selected person in this case.
The first result is the one below, as you can see the pathway has been selected where the grass should be. This was easily adjusted by using the clone stamp tool and colouring the pathway with the grass and perfecting the puddles a little.

I was actually pleased with this result, I expect maybe if you inspected very closely there may be imperfections, but to look at the picture you would except that this is how it should be.
Im glad that I have managed to do this as it give me confidence to try more.
Whether it is acceptable or not ... I think it is a useful skill to have if you need to remove something that is ruining a picture but I still would prefer to take the picture how you want it if at all possible.
Im not a great fan of photo trickery although I can see the benefits.

Books used Lightroom and Photoshop , page 274 ...

Exercise - Addition

ADDITION

This first image was taken on auto just to give one representation.

Picture Two...

Then below is the two pictures above, merged.

This picture I have done with the eraser tool and could nt get a very good result. I am attempting something better.. and also to put a completely new sky in the following picture. The erasing line I have taken to the grass as the treetops were too obvious and didn't look very good. I shall keep trying this.

Then we have this same picture again with a different sky .

Exercise - Enhancement

ENHANCEMENT

Here is a portrait picture as requested, with no artificial light and in the shade. Firstly I lasso Hannahs face and select ... I have minus the contrast and that removes colour, so instead I increased by +24.
The effect it gave was that it looked like Hannah had more make up on, so this could be useful if your model was looking a little washed out. I plussed the Brightness by +38 but you could see the lasso marks begining to appear around the face, 11 OK and -13 you start to see a rim appear. So I just adjusted until all was as I wanted, then saved the image.
The book I used was again Adobe Lightroom by Scott Kelby, page 104.

AFTER ADJUSTMENTS

This second selection is to enhance the eyes. Ella here has beautiful eyes anyway so don't really need enhancing, but its a good picture to practice on.
Again I used the Lightroom book page 180 ... As with most pictures, zoom right in so you can be exacting with your alterations. I started by getting the adjustment brush in develop mode, click on effect and get the pop down sliders. I increased the saturation to 75, then painted over the iris. Then drag the clarity and sharpness sliders, lower the brightness a little and increase the exposure.
Then you can brighten the white of the eye. I clicked the new button, as working on a new area. Then increased the exposure amount to 0.95. I painted over the white of the eye, if it looks bright you can always decrease the amount of exposure. I did find the white of this little girls eye was very white anyway so didn't need too much but it was good just for me to experiment. Then if you need to you can click the new button and choose soften skin to soften around the eye gently, but again I did use on Ella but wasn't required.

AFTER ADJUSTMENTS

I think I would use most of these effects, but with caution, gentle enhancements are great and I think especially with a portrait you focus on the eyes and if you can make these stand out even more then I think this would be beneficial and improve the photo, just by lifting the colour fractionally. These changes being more noticeable on and enlargement.

Books used ...

Exercise - Improvement or Interpretation

IMPROVEMENT OR INTERPRETATION

I have selected here a portrait image as suggested. I felt here the skin was a little yellow - I used the curve to increase the darks by -16, I felt it made it a bit sharper, making the eyes a little more defined.
I adjusted the colours but this didn't seem to make too much difference.. i was hoping the eyes would be bluer, this wasn't so obvious but the lip colour did intensify. when I added blue the whole picture had a bluer tone - quite nasty !

In Lightroom I used the lasso tool and selected the face and then used 'soften skin' which has worked wonders in the final picture.

ORIGINAL

AFTER ADJUSTMENTS

AFTER SKIN SOFTENER

I think some of these adjustments are legitimate - colour, blacks and sharpness these are things people
/ customers wouldn't even notice. Some things you may have to be more careful as in adjusting the skin too much and making a too extreme adjustment.
I remember when I took my children for photos and the photographer wanted my daughter to remove her glasses, but to me she always wore them and I wanted them on.
Also I think I would consult my client before removing any facial marks or scars, as this is a very personal area. But I do have some friends who would be more than happy for me to remove all their wrinkles.. so here a little bit of assessment is needed.

Exercise - Correction

CORRECTION

This exercise was or is to remove dust, I cannot find a picture with dust and for some reason I can never open the examples on the OCA website, I really must all and work out what i'm doing wrong.
I did recall this image that I had that has an annoying flake or newborn baby skin, by the babys eye.. Its hardly noticeable but I found it very annoying. So this will be the same process as removing the dust fleck.

I opened image 6370-2 in Photoshop and selected the clone stamp tool, I clicked on the area and it selected a similar area and replaced. Even this wasn't perfect but much better, I was happy with the alteration.
The second image is the improved one, probably on this blog it is less noticeable but when you have the image on an enlargement I found the skin flake to be quite obvious. In this instance I would always remove. It only enhances the picture and the skin would take your eye otherwise.
With dust removal it would always depend on the photograph which it effected. If the image was very busy and dark.. if you had a really blue sky for instance and and the fleck of dust was right in the middle of perfect blue it would ruin your picture.
So I think removal will always be dependant on the photo in question.

First Attempt at Lens Flare Correction in Lightroom

This here, as stated above is my first attempt at lens flare removal... and as I proceeded I realised I should have found and easier example maybe. I did have this picture to hand, IMG 7253, and with the necessary 'Lens Flare'.. I have made the alteration as best I can but is not perfect but it gave me a good idea how it works. The trellis made it a little hard.. This was done in Lightroom with a clone stamp tool, and I had to be careful as when I made the circle larger the trellis became distorted.

After Alteration

Below is an advertising image with lens flare which it is beneficial to the picture. Without it this picture would look just misty, dusty and maybe an early morning coolness. The lens flare however suggest the sun is out and immediately there is a hotness about the shot, its very descriptive and should definitely be left in..

The book I was using to help me was Adobe Lightroom Book by Scott Kelby. Page 202.

Friday, 2 November 2012

Response to Tutors comments

Assignment 3 - Monochrome

I felt much more relaxed with this assignment, the previous one, which I think I said at the time, I felt like I was looking for a set up that fitted the photographic requirements, rather than taking a picture that I liked which I felt restricting. I was more at ease with Monochrome.

I did find my selection quite difficult as I liked many of the pictures, which I suppose is a good thing, better to have too many than not enough. I did include the pictures with people as I was aware that the whole assignment would have been people less, and that may go against me. If I had been true to myself I don't think these would have been my first choice. There were others that I preferred and as it is about the sculptures I probably didn't need the people.

Also I did like this picture ... IMG 7329..

but wasn't sure if it showed enough detail, I just lacked a bit of confidence to chose it and dismissed it quite soon. Now I am going to, happily, use it in place of my second Knife Edge shot.

My second replacement is Figure in a Shelter, still called the same but I have removed the gardener image, replacing with the actual sculpture. This was on my shortlist and I had liked it but used the gardener to have some human activity. I liked the shapes of the Figure in a Shelter, there are lots of shades of colour on the sculpture which is very smooth and tactile. Also there is a lot of variation on the surrounding vegetation.
The second choice I was considering was ..

I liked this because this is a good shape and i liked the brightness of the sculpture against the darkness of the trees. I made my decision and saved this for another day..

The last photo exchange is for Sheep Piece. When I took this photo I was trying to get an ironic image of the sheep dominating over the sculpture. That the sheep took your eye first, however you point out that the sheep and the sculpture are fighting for attention, which I now see.
The replacement was also on my shortlist and I was happy to change and when you now look it is a much more comfortable image.

I have made my changes and am now happy with my Assignment 3, to put forward for assessment.