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Photoshop with Stephen (Workshop 4)


In my workshop, our focus was Photoshop and looking at different tips and tricks that help speed the process of certain elements up.
We started investigating into Raw Images...

What is a Raw Image?

Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor.

Part 1 
Images in Photoshop


Below shows me editing the raw image, I have a lot more control than I do a normal image.


I then started to investigate into masking and the best way to select something. Usually I would of used the magic wand tool however we was shown select and mask. This allows us to mask out certain elements, in this case the sky. I worked with making sure the right areas was selected.


Once I worked with layer masks, I moved on to work with the colour range tool that allows me to select the sky. I found this quite tricky sometimes as at times it wasn't selecting the right part of the image that I wanted. I also worked with the healing tool.


Finally I then created a solid colour layer and choose pick. This allowed the sky to turn a different colour however this only worked when the image above the layer was hidden.


Part 2
Illustrator and Photoshop

We then began looking at using Illustrator and Photoshop together. The first thing I did was to create lines that formed a shape. I made sure to have no fill. One tip I found really useful was in view and hide transparency background it would give me my white background as before this I couldn't see any white and only squares. This helped a lot! I could never find out how to do this before hand.


After drawing my shape, I looked at the blending options. I went to object, blend and make. I also worked with the blending options and changed the blend options from smooth colour to specified steps. I set this at 20. I also looked at my layers under blend and used the direct tool to have more control of the movement.


Once I was happy with my shape, I copy and pasted the blend from Illustrator and pasted this into Photoshop keeping it as a Vector Smart Object.


I then added a gradient background and began adjusting the gradient to radial and finding an all over dark colour.


I linked the shape layer to my own file. This changed it from being embedded to being linked. By saving it, If I go into illustrator and change it, I can command + S and go back to Photoshop and my changes are automatic. 


TIP: I can't direct the Smart Object directly in Photoshop, I can only edit this In its original file and click save.

Example of using Smart Object: If I created a logo and wanted to import it to advertisements, banners, I can put this onto something as a Smart Object then If I need to make any changes I can make changes like I have above and it will change automatically.

I can also add effects to my smart object using Fx. I can work with a range of blending options including outer glow, inner glow, texture, contour and more.


Here I have played with a range of techniques.


Deconstruct Edit

Our homework for this session was to deconstruct ourselves. I worked with a range of layers and techniques I learnt in todays session. Below shows my layers and also my before and trials.

 


Before



After

My inspiration for this was movement and blurriness. I have tried three different ways to show this and I wanted to show the idea of my face being taken away and being deconstructed that its still easy to work out what the image could of been but a creepy way of showing what it actually is.


Other Distorts

My inspiration for this was movement and blurriness. I have tried three different ways to show this and I wanted to show the idea of my face being taken away and being deconstructed that its still easy to work out what the image could of been but a creepy way of showing what it actually is. I wanted to look into subtle distorts swell as highly distorted ones like above.


Conclusion

After todays workshop, I felt like I learnt a few new things I wouldn't of thought to try. I am quite advanced with Photoshop however I am a beginner when it comes to Illustrator. I didn't think the two softwares could be combined as I felt Photoshop was for editing imagery and Illustrator was for Illustrators only. After today I have opened my eyes to how most of Adobe programmes can all combine together and their is yet lots to be learnt within each programme. I am fascinated to find more and I am excited to look at some tutorials for combining the programmes together.



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