Principles of Design and Elements of Art:

The most powerful principle of design I used was contrast by positioning a young picture of myself alongside a more recent picture of myself. This image is balanced like a Cartesian grid with the most visual weight in the center (vertically and horizontally) where the girls are centered, as is the bright green of the shoreline. The visual weight decreases as the eye radiates outward which helps emphasize the subjects I put into the photo. The element of art line can be seen in this with the horizontal lines of the shore and the trunk of the boat, both providing stability to the image, and this is juxtaposed with the vertical lines of the girls. I felt as if this unified the the image by keeping things simple enough so as to not be distracting and kept the focus on how natural the scene looks. I took advantage of the negative space of the original image to add in the little girl and fit in the new shoreline, again in order to keep things natural looking and keep the focus on the girls.

Tools and Techniques:

The first thing I worked on was getting the images to roughly be the same color, so I decided that sampling the color of the skies would be a good start. For both pictures I used the Rectangular Marquee tool to select a sample of the sky, made this selection into a layer, and averaged the color of the samples to get one solid color for each rectangle. Next I created a Curves layer to get the color information of the sky sample of the primary picture and altered the other rectangle’s RGB values to match this. The color changed for the whole picture and next I started selecting the little girl from her picture so it could be placed on the background layer. I used the Marquee tool to select a rough outline of the subject and made a layer mask of it. From here, I deleted the background of that image and put this layer into the main page so the image could be resized (using the Transform tool while holding shift) appropriately in proportion to the older version. From here, within the layer mask of the little girl, I erased the remaining background from it’s original image using the Eraser tool with a very soft brush. Once the little girl was in place, I did various adjustments to her Saturation, Brightness, Intensity, Vibrancy, and Exposure to get the colors of the girls to match. With every adjustment made I would Merge Down that adjustment layer into the little girl so only her layer was changed, not the whole image. Next I repeated the selection process described here to select a portion of the shoreline from another photograph as well as the outline of the older girl and made them into layers. The colors already matched so I did not have to change any color data. I added two copies of this shoreline layer to the work space and flipped one so it would fit across the whole image and still be realistically proportioned. I created layer masks for each of these new layers, aligned them with the original shoreline, and then used the Eraser tool on the layer masks to blend in the skies and water. I used the Spot Healing Brush Tool to remove a strand of hair from the shoreline layers and then added the layer of just the older girl on top of the shoreline layer (since the older girl is part of the background image which the shoreline is covering). From here it was just spot touches using the Burn and Dodge tools to get the lighting on the faces to better match and to more clearly define where the sun was hitting them.

Meaning and Ideation:

For this project, I knew I wanted to do it on the topic of change, but more specifically, continuity over time. This topic interested me because I’m graduating soon, and with everything happening and changing so fast, it’s comforting to look back at the things that have stayed the same. This has helped me realize that those are the things that truly matter, and with this explanation given with the picture, I hope that a viewer can take this away as well. Other people should care about this topic because everyone goes through periods in their life when things feel as if they are changing too fast and they can find comfort, like I have, in reflecting on these things. Cliche images associated with change include the procession of the seasons, the changing of the leaves, and the growth of a plant, so in order to avoid cliche imagery, I used my own pictures which are me at different ages (roughly 5 and 18) in similar settings and situations.

Critique:

At first people didn’t really see that I had done anything with the picture which is something I take as a compliment because I was working to get a natural looking final product. Someone suggested that I adjust the exposure of one of the layers in order to make the little girl’s color fit in better, and this comment was very useful because I hadn’t used that tool but it ended up being just the thing to get the color adjustments to my liking.

For this project, Jeff and I took each other’s picture outside in the morning when the light was still indirect but bright enough that the shadows weren’t too dark. For each photo, I began with frequency separation which starts with making two copies of the original photo and labeling them “texture” and “color”. I blurred the color layer using the Gaussian Blur tool to eliminate the minute details. I used the apply image feature in Photoshop on the texture layer and subtracted the color layer from it, and once processed, I changed the lighting on it to Linear Light. From here, I used the Lasso tool to select and blur some of the texture on my face, but for Jeff I used the Spot Correction tool to eliminate his blemish and stubble. Next I did brighten and hue/saturation adjustments to the eyes, but Jeff’s eyes are pretty squinty so it’s harder to notice than on my picture. With the eyes enhanced, I used the dodge and burn tools to play with how the light hit both of our faces and to make the lighting more flattering. Once the subject of the image was fully edited, I selected the subject roughly with the Lasso tool and then more precisely within the Select and Mask window, inversed the selection, and then blurred the background and also brightened Jeff’s background to best showcase our pictures.

Portrait Edit – Self

Original Portrait – Self

Portrait Edit – Jeff

Original Portrait – Jeff

I will be doing my final project on the topic of change, but more specifically, continuity over time. This topic interests me because I’m graduating soon and with everything happening and changing so fast, it’s comforting to look back at the things that have stayed the same and realizing that those are the things that truly matter. As far as learning about this topic, I look forward to working with these two pictures I have of me getting ready to water ski up in northern Michigan and picking up on the minute similarities between tiny Amber and Amber from a few years ago. Cliche images associated with change include the procession of the seasons, the changing of the leaves, the growth of a plant. Other people should care about this topic because everyone goes through periods in their life when things feel as if they are changing too fast and can find comfort, like I have, in reflecting on the things that have remained the same. To avoid using cliche imagery I plan on using pictures that are from the same season in similar settings and with Photoshop I will attempt to make it look like tiny Amber is standing next to larger Amber. I hope to get people interested in this topic by making the final product look seamless and they’re kind of candid pictures so they’re cute.