Figure 1: Lava field Photoshop (top left) with posterize (top right), invert (bottom left) and invert (bottom right) adjustments
It was an interesting process creating this image because this was the first time in Photoshop that I felt as if I had made something interesting. Despite its simplicity, I found myself fascinated that I had taken three images and merged them together with a sense of unity. Obviously there are higher level things that could have been done to make the images more aesthetically pleasing and believable. However, it was a proud starting point for me that made me feel more eager to learn more and create more images in Photoshop.
Figure 2: Freckles and Tattoo Photoshop
This was a huge project for me as a beginner in Photoshop. The main tools I used for this image was the clone-stamp and blur tool in order to take clear portions of the models skin and cover the freckles and tattoos she possesses in the image. I had relative success with the models bicep and face. However, the forearm has very noticeable artifacting marks from my attempts to cover the large area of the tattoo. The primary complication in this assignment was her shoulder. The several types of lighting and shadowing proved too difficult for me to replicate and I ended up masking her entire chest and shoulder in a similar tone and essentially erasing her clavicle. It does not look very natural, however the choppy patches of different skin tones I was attempting to use actually drew more attention in the image than making it a uniform tone.
I actually did this project approximately four different times in an effort to improve the quality of my image. Each time I progressively learned more about the tools I was using and even though the final result was still far from perfect. It was orders of magnitude better than my first iteration of this project. I found myself temporarily addicting to trying out different methods to make sections of her skin appear more natural. Actually, in my first iteration I did not even use the clone stamp tool because I did not understand how it functioned. Instead I used several color modifications to pull the color out of her tattoos and then blurred them until they were unrecognizable as tattoos. Instead she just had the appearance of being very dirty which was admittedly not a great final product but a surprisingly effective result given the tools I was attempting to use. Overall, I developed a much deeper understanding of the basic tools used in Photoshop which has allowed me to grow as a designer and further deepen my skill set.