Dawn's Final

So I am really struggling (as I have been all semester) to come up with an appropriate final.

I'm thinking something to do with picture size/shape manipulation, as that will be the most useful to me. I have been surfing the tutorials and found some interesting things, but didn't know what project was worthy of a final.

Last week over the break I did tackle the fire text tut that I found. It was more time than it was worth but here is what I have
There is a sister tut to this about about grass, but it is more for just learning useful tips for later. Any suggestions????

where is everyone?!?

hellooooo?!? where is my class?!? okay, wednesday we meet at noon in wathena temple, the computer lab. be there.

Jessica's Final

well when we started this semester I wanted to work on getting things together for my business that I will be pushing right after graduation... I have been working on getting ideas of how to market myself as well as getting the paper work all done too such as pricing and copyright releases. For my final I would like to show what I have come up with. I will show you my blog, bring my client packet and have a few easy ideas to share with ya'll of how to market yourself. What do you think? 

okay, great....

hi guys- so it turns out that i can't meet on wednesday. i have another meeting that i need to attend re: the grads. i apologize, and i apologize that we haven't been able to meet recently. it shows in our lack of work on the blog too. bad news for all of us. i really think we do need to meet this week, and i have to drive art to austin on thursday. i have a faculty meeting and an opening tomorrow afternoon. and friday i have grad reviews that will go until 2:00.

so what do we do?

i propose that we talk on the blog, you guys tell me how you want to end the semester re: a final project. it doesn't have to be extensive, but we've got to have something. suggestions?

meeting this week...

hi gang. we do need to talk about a final in here. i know that last couple of weeks there hasn't been a whole lot of action on the blog. i say we meet for lunch- those of us who are in town. js, i can talk to you via phone or email... wednesday 12, lonestar.

Question.....

Are we meeting this week? I dont have to drive in until Commerce so I was wanting know if I needed to make plans on coming in for a meeting? I think we should just individually talk to Vaughn and clarify what is due for the final to make sure we are on track, I dont think if we meet that we would be very productive and get everyone clear on whats going on...

Technology is cruel

I am posting to say that I completed the last assignment, texture painting, poster thing.. but i accidently deleted it, so much to my dismay i am RE-doing it. Technology is cruel. 

cool trick with fire text and more

Although there appears to be lots of steps with this one, it looks really cool!

http://psdtuts.com/tutorials/text-effects-tutorials/dramatic-text-on-fire-effect-in-photoshop/

Dawn Weatherford

For the first link, I am using CS2 and wasn't able to do all the cool tricks. But I still had a little fun and created a 'Lil Barack. Maybe Comedy Central will be jealous.


For the second walk through, I struggled. It took me far more time than I think it should have because I had to search for just the right pictures and that was tedious. Also, the instructions somewhat dropped off in detail towards the end and I had to do a little searching to follow along. Here is my homage to Mark Wahlberg because he brings sexiness to any picture. Be prepared to spend some time when you do this one...

vampirse?!?

hmmm... okay. uh, nice. listen, i can't meet tomorrow, i have two meetings, one at 11, the other at noon. how about we do two tutorials for next week, the first id on cloning. it's really easy, but it shows you other ways to use the clone stamp that you might not be aware of...

http://psdtuts.com/tutorials/tools-tips/useful-applications-for-the-clone-stamp-tool/

you can do the same images that the author does, but then do something else, make it your own. the second is a bit harder, but the results are much more interesting. you'll find it here:

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/index.cfm?featureID=1758&pn=1

thanks for the good work everyone, let's try and get together next week. it can't be wednesday as i'm taking a group to dallas, but maybe tuesday? lunch? dinner? let me know. v

are we meeting this week? and where?

vampire?

I did both tutorials.. but not sure if it looks like a vampire or not? hmmm

Isn't this weeks assignment but I thought it was kinda cool (PSDTUTS tutorial)

"Vampire" Charlie - Jessica

here is my nephew :)  Im not too fond of this, but thats ok I know how to do it if it's ever necessary. :)

It took me forever to get these two images to post... anyways here is my little "vampire" I guess

Vampire

Dawn Weatherford -

Turning my sweet and innocent nephew....


























into a vampire

Next Assignment

So inspired by watching the HBO show true blood.  

try to make your own scary, vampire photo.  

enhance the eyes first

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/5-second-eye-enhancement.html

Next add a gritty texture to you photos.

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/gritty-photo-effect.html

have fun  (a close up shot will work best.)  

Baby pop art

big tex from Daniel

hey!

hey, those look pretty good! are you learning something from those tutorials?

tomorrow, LONESTAR PIZZA, noon! be there!

vintage me

Dawn Weatherford

I followed the tutorial with some slight alterations.

vintage me...Jessica...

my planet

Dawn Weatherford
Here is my planet.

yes!

yes please let's do the tutorial that amanda suggests. if only we had apples and pumpkins from daniel we could bake a pie... oh well, i guess the kids don't get a halloween this year... hopefully they'll get christmas.... everyone please do the next tutorial, we will meet next week, please bring some prints of what you've done... v

Do this for the assignment next week!

http://psdtuts.com/tutorials/designing-tutorials/create-a-wicked-worn-vintage-pop-art-design/

Jessica's World :) lol

so the flower in the middle I just used a brush and used the color burn option and I thought it was pretty cool :) This was easier than I thought...just time consuming... :)

happy halloween...

hi guys- i have to cancel today's meeting. can any of you met tomorrow, thursday at noon? please call and let me know. 573.220.5968. dawn the pumpkin looks good. can you make the type arch and fit the pumpkin better?

Happy Halloween ***** EDIT****

Dawn Weatherford -

Sorry for the delay, I have been having some Adobe program issues with my new laptop so things got lost a couple of times. Here are my two submissions (planets to come soon).

I have an actual picture of a pumpkin that I doctored and the one that I created from scratch.










































Upon suggestion from Vaughn, here is the fixed version with the arched text.

Ok, apple thing, pumpkin thing, and some planets.

Round Planet thing

Okay well I tried it.. i know it looks like crap. The picture wasn't a good one. I am going to do another one. A tip for you guys when you try and find a picture: Get one that is pretty squarish.. or at least that has a decent height above like 700. That will make it way way easier.. but here is my second attempt. I am gonna try another one later. ;)

vaughn

Oh and Vaughn, thanks for the links. One of those is the one I was already using. Thanks. 

And a Pumpkin!

Stem Could Use a little work..  but its a pumpkin!

TAH-DAH!! Heres an apple for the teacher... :) a pumkin on the way...

yeah jessica!

okay, that's one! let's see some more kids... in fact i won't be meeting you tomorrow- i have to meet the grads in cooper for lunch. you invited too if you want, it's just lunch... so, please everyone post your pumpkins here soon! like today... and let's do another tutorial from psdtuts. let's all try this one > http://psdtuts.com/tutorials/photo-effects-tutorials/create-a-glowing-surreal-planet-design/ <. extra points if you use your own original photography. and i'll buy a pizza for the first person to get an image in the blog... and another for the best... let's get started... i'll see you all next week in the computer lab.

amanda, check out this> http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-popart.html <. and this > http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-blog/2007/09/13/give-your-photos-a-retro-comic-book-effect/ <.

Jessica- Jack-O-Apple

Wow... That was way more intense than I was thinking it was going to be... I must say though I did learn a lot more just going through and figuring out locations and shortcuts to things. This was an great learning experience for me... kudos! It's not a great little jack-o lantern but I think that the main objective was to learn something new you can do in photoshop and I did that :) yay me! Well hope ya'll are having a great week and good luck "carving" your "pumpkin" :)

Happy Halloween!

websites for pumpkin

http://www.tutorialwiz.com/halloween_pumpkin/

http://psdtuts.com/drawing/how-to-create-a-delicious-green-apple-illustration

"If you are really cool, you will make a pretty nice background or some digital straw, graveyard, candy, etc." - Vaughn

Awesome Site for Photoshop Brushes

http://www.photoshoproadmap.com

This Wednesday I will be teaching the right way to do an HDR, time permitting.

HDR what is it and how do I do it.

HDR stands for high dynamic range.   "the HDR technique allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques." So to do this you need to shoot the same image in three different exposures and merge them in PS.  In PS File: Automate: Merge to HDR.  the more extreme the exposures. the wider range you will get.  have fun, low light shots work best.

OH... and the time is off on this blog.. i think the date it too cuz its saying its like 11: 30 and its like 2 am... just thought id mention that. 

MY BAD TO WHOEVER ALREADY POSTED THE RULER THING> didn't see it til after. 

SPIFFY LITTLE TRICK TIM TAUGHT ME THAT I LIKE> High Pass filter

We found this helped improve contrast and detail after using HDR. After I did this I then used lab color. Okay so do HDR. Then your going to flatten your image you have from that. Go to Image>Mode> 16 bits Then duplicate your layer (Apple>J) On the new layer your going to go to Filter>Other> High pass. Change the radius to where you can just see the outline because a little goes a long way (so Tim says). On this my radius was 3.9. Click okay when you have it where you want. Now go over to the little box where your layers are and right under the tabs there is a drop down that says normal.. click that and select the one that says overlay. After that you will notice that there is a little more contrast and a little sharpening that can really help after HDR. Toggle between the before and after with eye and you can really see it. But just look at my example and im sure you can tell. :) And then you can flatten the image... and go on to do lab color or whatever! Happy photoshopping! :O Bed time (that was a yawny smily) 

RULERS

I found this to be helpful because I only knew how to do it in lightroom but since this is a photoshop class im glad Vaughn showed me how. :) This is for if you shoot like a drunken sailor and all your images are slightly crooked. I purposely took a really crooked one to make a point. So here it goes. Open a image (duh) Decided what part of the image is straight in reality. In the case of the picture above I knew that the room line was most likely straight.. or at least pretty close. So I just realized I left all my files on a third floor computer so the example I was going to show you is there.. or this one isnt nearly as crooked but its still off. So anyways the roofline would still be the straight part. On you tool bar the rulers button is two above the magnifying glass icon. The shortcut is I, but you have to shift-I until you get the ruler. Anyways once you have the ruler, hold your clicker down and drag it across the part you know is straight, in this case the roof line. It will stay when you let go. Then go to Image>Rotate Cavas> Arbitrary. It will tell you how many degrees your off, click okay. It will then adjust the image for you. You will have some white spaces around the image so then just use your crop tool to crop in a little bit and get rid of the white parts. See the three images. :)

Make Vaughn Happy

Dear fellow classmates.. and Vaughn. I would like everyone to know I am shooting my first compostie image this Thursday.. so Vaughn don't be pissed. Be happy :).. but to make Vaughn happier I am going to fufill this weeks post with a lesson on lab color since I learned how to do it recently (thanks Vaughn), rulers (thanks Vaughn) and a little filter trick (thanks Tim. )So there are the two weeks I was behind on and one for this week just to catch up. And then I promise (fingers crossed) an composite image for next week. :) Happy days. P.s. If anyone knows how to format this stupid blog thing so that all the pics don't go on the top.. please clue me in.. its really annoying. Also Vaughn it says who posted the post right under the post. ... but for your sake.. im Amanda.  Now for lesson on : LAB COLOR

First you open an image in photoshop.

If this was an HDR image your going to first need to change the image from 32 bits to 16 or 8 bits which you need to go Image>Mode> 16/8 bits (whichever you want). I did 16. 

Next you will need to make a duplicate of you image so go Image>duplicate> then name it whatever you want. 

On the copy go to Image>Mode>lab color.  After you do that go over to the right hand part of the photoshop screen to the little windows that have you layers and click on the "Channels" tab. There should be 4 layers under this tab, Lab, Lightness, A and B. Select the A layer. Then press Apple>M on your keyboard. It should bring up a Curves box. Now pay attention carefully here cuz this might be hard to explain. Mouse to the very upper right hand corner of the curves box and drag that corner over to the left (staying at the top) to the first line where it exactly lines up. Then take the bottom left hand corner and move it over to the right to the first line so that it exactly lines up. Then click ok. Select the B layer and do the same thing. After you have done this make sure the eye is visible on all the layers and go to Image>mode> RGB. Then click "V" on the keyboard . Then hold down the shift key while you drag the lab colored image over on top of the original. It should snap into place. To see the difference lab color made click the eye on or off on the lab color layer. You should notice a huge difference. See my example below. (or above) whereever the silly thing goes. (The lab colored on is the more vibrant one) 

Jessica - Fake using a Tilt Shift lens

My intern showed me this as well, I thought it was pretty need and it looks real good on certain images. This one just gets the point across...

after opening your image, if there is no editing to do then go to filters. blur, lens blur. You can play with the adjustments but I left mine at Blur Focus = 0 Radius = 21  Blade and Rotation at 0 Brightness will vary on the image and Threshold =255.

When you are selected the amount of blur you want keep in mind that the main focal point will be in focus you are deciding the amount of blur you want on the background. I kept the blur fairly low because its easier to add more than take it back.

When you are done with that popup hit ok. It takes a little while then it will come up blurring your whole image dont freak out! on your history menu highlight the last thing you did before the blur...see image. on mine I selected open. click in the box next to lens blur, it will put a brush and arrow in that box. like in image below... Now select the history brush from your toolbar it looks just like the image in the box...make your brush size fairly large. with your brush you will start "blurring" your image. With a tilt and shift lens you can only blur in vertical or horizonal, one or the other or both. Not in circular motions.  you can do it, it just wont look like tilt shift.... 

I applied lens blur a couple of times and slowly blurred. With a true tilt shift lens it will be sharp in the area you select, a little blurry just beyond that then blur dramatically 

Hopefully I explained that well enough, if not comment and I will try to clarify...

Final Project

So as I'm really not very versed on photography, I am posting my general ideas for a final project in hopes that you guys can provide me with some feedback and thoughts.

Generally, I would just really like to learn as many tips and tricks in Photoshop as I can that would aid me in altering images in the cleanest and quickest ways. I mainly work with picture manipulation where one picture is side by side with another and so details matter. Things like the liquify trick that you guys showed me were helpful. I have some specific project ideas that pertain to the psych lab, but nothing that really is outside the scope of what I have already produced and shown you guys a couple of Wednesday's ago.

While the book I have right now is great for learning new ways to do things and different shortcuts, I think it might be best for me to investigate and purchase a new book that is more suited for the alterations that I need to make. I'll try to have some ideas for next Wednesday's meeting so that we can discuss.

Copycat post - techniques from the blog

So I decided to use three/four of the techniques from this blog on one picture (image). Since I'm not in photography, this is one of the only things I create that I would consider "printworthy."

I altered the opacity of the clone tool for the faces and shirts in the picture.
I used paths to put the text around the leaf button.
I laid a light opacity pattern over the bottom paper image as well as a color layer from the tree.


Note: Many of these images were free downloads from websites and I didn't generate them on my own.

Edit picture from start to finish. (this is one way not the only way)

Photo is in need of a little tweaking (I can never take a straight picture)

1.  First thing I did was correct the dust spots on my CCD chip.  I used the patch tool (tip) it works well on large texture like in the boards on the side of the church.

2.  Next I straighten the building using the ruler tool.  Under the eye dropper tools draw a line on something you want to be straight.  Next go to Rotate Canvas under image.  Select Arbitrary.. .  the adjustment should be shown, click it and your photo should be straight. 

3.  Crop your image the way you like, so the white edges are not shown

4.  adjust curves (tip) command M, to pump up the contrast.  

5.  These tips may help to enhance you photo.

 

Final Project Daniel Mendenhall (need help)

I need some help, I don't use a lot of photoshop in my photography but I could do some HDR photographs any other ideas?

Layer Masking tool (not Vector Too?)

not so great?!?

did i speak too soon? another week goes by, no posts. we're meeting on wednesday. prepare for me to be pissed.

Great!

Okay, it looks like a few of you are posting and actually doing something! Thanks! I think we're going to need to see prints from some of these things, and then we'll each try doing another persons post or two. or three. We're NOT going to meet tomorrow, October 1st, as I'm taking two classes to Cooper and I won't be able to make it back for lunch. Let's please continue to post more this coming week and plan on getting together next Wednesday. Keep up the good work! vaughn ps. when you post, please put your name in it somewhere, so we know who is making the post... thanks! v

FINAL PROJECT

I know I owe you guys some blog posts but I wanted to make them something meaningful and helpful so its taking me a while. I decided to follow Vaughn's lead and attempt to work on some composite/ collage ideas for my final project. There are several things I want to try but do not yet know how to go about doing it. I also want to attempt to emulate on of my favorite David La Chappelle's images. I'll include it if I can figure out how in the world he did it. Okay so thats a rough proposal of my final project. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. :) Or if you know any artists that do stuff like that. Thanks!! (i've included links so some interesting people below)

http://www.foundshit.com/tag/collage/

http://photoevents.lv/2008/03/13/david-lachapelle-various-shots/

http://lh4.ggpht.com/daniel.abrantes/RnvWnPfgxJI/AAAAAAAAAFA/sTzitJ09D2o/Britney+Spears.jpg

Creating a torn paper look

Okay, so this didn't come from the chapter -- I learned it elsewhere. But I thought it was a pretty neat trick and if you don't already know it, could be fun to play with.

Click to enlarge

Retouching...

I have always hated retouching, until this past week I have watched my intern edit many images and payed close attention to how she retouches. Whenever I cloned it was always harsh and obvious.

in this image I am going to remove acne and a few things on the background that bother me. (yes the wrinkles in his shirt bothers me too but Im going to reshoot later...)

I use the Clone tool... make sure to change the opacity... I use around 20-30 I would rather click on a particular area twice than a higher opacity looking a little funny. Keep the clone source point close to your clone tool to keep the color and textures blended.  With such a small opacity you can lighten up under eyes and blend bags or lines.