Creative Images in Photoshop - Typography & Graphic Communication

Design ideas and design process

Combining black/white and colour

For my first design, I selected an image of a girl with paint on her hands and face. I wanted to make the paint the main focus of the image so I decided to keep only those parts in colour.

I used the quick selection tool to select the parts of the image I wanted to keep in colour (the paint on the girl’s hands and face)

I then refined my selection by pressing the ‘select and mask’ tool where I could select or unselect the detailed areas around the fingers to make sure everything was selected

I then pressed cmd+j on my laptop to create a new layer with my selection

Then I locked the new layer, went back to the first layer and selected the ‘black and white’ option to change the background.

before

after

Overall, I was happy with this result as the colours of the paint, being the main focus really stands out from the black and white background which is effective when drawing the viewers’ eye. This task helped me to understand how to use the quick selection tool and to see how I could refine my selection by clicking ‘select and mask’ to include the fine details of the hand and face.

Altering the background of a photo

For my second design, I took an image of a dull landscape, where I wanted to replace the sky for a bright blue sky.

main image to change background of

background I want to use

Using the quick selection tool, I selected the sky, then clicked on ‘select and mask’ to refine my selection so that every detail is captured

I pressed cmd+j on my keyboard which created a new layer for my selection

I then moved the new layer over the original one so that it could be seen

I then adjusted the hue/saturation and brightness/contrast levels to maintain the same colour, light and shades throughout, matching the foreground with the background

before

after

The results were successful as the image looks realistic as if it had a bright blue sky to begin with. This task helped me to become more familiar with the quick selection and ‘select and mask’ tool and to adjust the hue/saturation levels to match with the original image. To improve, perhaps I could have moved the sky down or enlarged it as you can see the foreground of the background image which does not match the colours exactly.

Altering reality of a photo

I selected an image with a doorway where I could replace the entrance with another world to alter reality

I chose this image of a road with a vibrant sky to contrast with the white of the original image

I cropped the image to fit into the size of the door frame

From here onwards, I experimented with different ways of seeing how I could create more depth into this frame as it seemed to look too flat and simple.

I first tried selecting the frame to create a glow/shadow effect, however, it did not match with the different tones and lighting the image in the door had

Next, I wanted to create a beam of light using the pen tool, filling it in and changing the opacity, however, the lines seemed too sharp and again, there was the issue of flat tones and lighting which did not match the scenery

So instead, I experimented with the brush tool, matched the colours to the ones in the scene, reduced the opacity and drew over the door areas where the image touches to create a reflection as if the door really does lead you into that road

I also created highlights over the floor to create a grand entrance towards the doorway

before

after

The results of my third design were quite successful as the brush tool enhanced the features of the sunset as if it was really projecting outside into the room, however, I do think with some more detail, for example, adding more shadow around the door frame could bring a more in-depth alter reality.

Software tutorials

These tutorials were very useful in the fact that they were quick and easy to follow. Even though I have use photoshop in the past, I was not familiar with all the tools so these tutorials helped me to get more familiar with the quick selection tool when changing the colour of a specific section or changing the background of an image.

How to Color Part of an Image in Photoshop! Partial Black and white in Photoshop! Partly B+W

How to Use Layer Masking: Photoshop | Adobe Creative Cloud

I did not use the third tutorial in my final design, however, it did help me to understand more about lighting and the direction it travels which I incorporated in my third design.

I would like to further my skills and knowledge of using the drop shadow tool in photoshop as this could have brought out some of my designs more and add more depth to it.

Design resources and articles

https://www.befunky.com/learn/black-and-white-photos-with-color/

This page inspired to me choose an image with a variety of bold colours to make them stand out more by making the rest of the image black and white.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-change-the-background-of-a-photo-in-photoshop/

I was inspired by this page to enhance the background by changing it entirely to a bright blue sky and match it to the same tones as the original image.

https://slate.com/culture/2013/02/popel-coumou-using-photography-and-collage-to-alter-reality-photos.html

I was inspired by the first two images on this page when creating an altered reality of overlapping a scene on top of another one to look like you could walk through it.

Learning across the module

Across the module, I have improved my skills in photoshop such as using the quick selection tool to remove/change backgrounds. I have also learnt how to use the clone stamp tool to help me remove unnecessary objects in the background. I have also improved my illustrator skills in creating a variety of different shapes for my text using the effects tool. Furthermore, I really enjoyed creating the gifs in AfterEffects and since I had never used that software before, the tutorials I watched were very useful and I feel confident in using this software again.