Angela's Digital Assignments

Major 2-Final

2009-04-30T15:41:00.001-07:00

I used the same main photo for both versions but tried to make them completely different. My theme was "What's on Your Mind?" I tried to think about the different types of things that my daughter and my husband think about.

My husband is going through a rough time right now. I found out I was pregnant in December and four weeks later he found out that the company he had worked for for 9 years was closing it's doors. He has so many worries concerning his job situation, bills, baby on the way, our relationship, etc. In the first image I retouched the skin on both subjects and adjusted the color balance with adding more green and cyan to make the picture sort of "dark and gloomy". I also used the fresco filter.

My daughter is 7 and knows no worries except whether to pack or buy her lunch at school. I also retouched and adjusted the color balance. With this image I used more yellow and red and it gave it a real bright and cheery feeling. For a filter, I used water paper.

Both images have "thoughts" surrounding the subjects. I used both scanned objects and objects captured with a camera.

Minor Assignment 5

2009-04-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

"Word of inspiration:" Slumber: -verb; to sleep, dose, drowse

Antonym: Wakefulness: -adjective; watchful; alert; vigilant

I used "opposites" for my project. I used two photos and two images that I found on-line. My favorite of the two is the one where I used the filter, dark strokes.

Proposal for Major Assignment #2

2009-04-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

Last week the weather was gorgeous so I packed up my daughter and husband and took them to a park to get some shots for class. One of my favorite pictures that I captured was one of the two of them holding hands walking down a sidewalk. I took the picture as I was walking behind them and they had no idea that I was taking it. Everytime I look at the picture it makes me wonder what they are thinking and/or talking about.

I came across this photoshop image on http://www.stillontherun.com/. I'm using it as my inspiration. It makes me laugh because I've always said that children's heads must look like an "I Spy" book on the inside and this image reminds me of that.

For my variations I think I will use the image as what would be running through my husband's mind and the other of what is going through my daughter's mind. I know they will be quite different. My daughter is happy-go-lucky so I would like to give it a whimsical feel. Whereas my husband is out of a job right now and worries constantly--I'm sure his thoughts aren't so "happy". I would give his image a more serious, even dark feel.

The tentative title for the piece will be: "What's on Your Mind?"

Minor Assignment 4

2009-04-20T18:20:00.001-07:00

I had so much fun putting this piece together. I took several pictures of my daughter, husband, and dad for this project. The pictures that I took came out great of the subjects but the actual window in the picture wasn't what I was aiming for. Soooo, I used the magnetic lasso to remove the people from the photo and found an image of a window frame to incorporate into the project. I used a brush to make "snow" on the edges of the window.

I hope I did the text correctly per the assignment. I tried to use some special effects with the text like adding a stroke to the "home alone" title and I used outer glow for the top line.

Like I said, I had fun with this and my daughter now thinks she is a movie star!

Fortune Cookie Assignment

2009-04-20T18:09:00.001-07:00

I used the fortune "Nature, patience, and time are the three greatest healers" as my inspiration for this project. To incorporate nature I used my main layer as a picture of my daughter sitting in a tree. I also used rippled water as a background. For patience, I found the Japanese symbol for patience. For time, I used the face of an antique clock. And for the "healing" aspect, I used two healing hands; they are ever so slightly there as if they are holding up my daughter in the background.

I figured out how to apply a filter to a flattened image and I think that really helped make the image look like a uniform, completed image. My
favorite filter for this project was the water color brush.

Photoshop is getting a LOT easier to navigate. Now if I could only get my internet to work so that I could post my projects on time! :)

2009-04-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

For my major assignment I used three layouts to tell the narrative story. My theme that I had in mind was the well-known saying children say: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage. I used three main pictures. The first shows a picture of my husband and I when we were dating, the second is a picture of us from our wedding reception and the third is an ultrasound picture of the baby that we are expecting. I tried to have some continuity in all three pictures by using the same scroll background in all three. I erased and added leaves to bring that background out. I also used flowers in each "story" by making several different layers of the same flower in each.

My computer was behaving much nicer in class last week so I was able to to use the clone stamp tool. I had two straws that were sticking up over my shirt in the "dating" layout and I was able to take them out.

I'm getting much more comfortable with Photoshop--I don't get quite as scared when I open the program!

Minor Assignment 2

2009-04-02T17:33:00.001-07:00

I used two different picture for this collection. The background is just a random shot of some trees with the sun trying to shine through. In the second picture, I used a picture of my daughter. In the actual picture she was standing in front of a go-cart track and it wasn't the greatest background. Someone in class mentioned a tool to use to cut an object from a picture: the quick selection tool. I loved it! It made it so easy to cut her out of the picture. The only thing it brought over that I didn't want was a small piece of room above her head but I was easily able to erase it. I used the same basic images but applied different filters to them. I left the background alone in the first (other than applying a frame). I used the "cutout" filter on Molly. In the others, I used filter on the entire picture from the stylize drop down menu. I used the stylize and find edges filters for these.

I really wanted to do some retouching but the computer I was using wasn't cooperating!

Minor Assignment 1

2009-03-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Oh my! When I got out of class on Thursday night my brain felt like it had run a marathon! I sat down in my car and felt like I had to catch my breath...I was SO confused after those four hours (which by the way, only seemed like 30 minutes).

I used three pictures to make my "creation". The background was a shot of Mardi Gras beads. The second picture I used was of the high heel. I used the magnetic lasso to cut the shoe out and bring it over to the beads. The third picture was of the wall clock. For the wall clock, I used the magic wand. The magic wand brought over the black frame of the clock first. Then, it brought over the face of the clock but it left out the numbers. That wasn't my intention, however, it turned out kind of cool because you could see the colors of the beads in the numbers.

For the 3 assignments I kept the same picture and just tweaked each one a little bit. The first completed project is actually the second picture posted here (I had a hard time posting and was running out of time!) In this picture I used the "liquify" setting to smudge up the clock. I had no method of using the pictures I did, but when I started to put these together it started to take on a theme of a "modern Cinderella". When I smudged the face of the clock, I thought it kind of made it look like a dream.

The last picture that is posted here was the second. In this picture I simply made a frame and adjusted the "curves" to make the inside of the background darker than the actual picture.

The first picture was my last that I finished. In this picture, I used the eraser tool and found a star shaped brush. I used two different sizes and randomly applied stars to the picture.

I am such a HUGE perfectionist and I really felt like I rushed this whole project. I'm really hoping that I can get a better grasp on the technicalities of the program so that I can focus more on the artistic aspect.