Digital Photography and Imaging - Project 2 A&B

Digital Photography and Imaging - Project 2
18 May - 01 June (Week 6 - Week 9)
Hong Ze Yee / 0335678
Bachelor of Design in Creative Multimedia

Project 2 - photo manipulation / self titled

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LECTURE NOTES

From week 6 onwards, both lecture and tutorial are having consultation for projects to provide feedback and keep us in the right track of progress. Mr Martin and Mr Fauzi also provide us demonstration video of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects.

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PROJECT 2(A) - Photo Manipulation
For our project 1, we need to make ourselves into cyborg in Adobe Photoshop.

Sketching :
AI is becoming more advanced by the day, and is replacing some of our jobs because it has physical or mental abilities beyond what human capable of. Everyone wants to become better and if there is a chance to make ourselves into cyborg, I think most of the people would definitely have an idea to which body part that they would like to change. I would like to change my arm to become cybernetic arm because we do a lot of things with our hands in everyday life. I would only like to change one of my arm because cybernetic arm can help us a lot in our life like using strength or staying in one position in while time or even painless but a metal hand do not have sensory ability, so I will remain another arm so that I still can keep the sens of touch, warm/cold.

For the photos below, I decided to make myself a cyborg arm and remain another arm. I am drinking a hot tea and just chilling at my home. I'm holding the mug with my cybernetic arm and another arm is like feeling the warm of the tea.

figure 1, sketching

figure 2, sketching

figure 3, photo

figure 4, photo

Mr Martin suggest me to choose this as my project because it shows better composition sense compare to another one

Progress :

figure 5, progress

 start with adjusting the colour of my arm to make it looks like a machine arm. First of all,create clipping mask and mask out my arm by using brush tool (white to show, black to hide) and then go to adjustment, select levels or hue / saturation to lower down the contrast.

 figure 6, steam

cut out the steam and apply blending mode "screen"

figure 7, steam

I decided to use two steams in order to make it looks real on my mug. 

figure 8, progress

combined two steams together

figure 9, progress

cut out part of  the skin of my arm and then put the gear behind it , add shadows to make it looks like the machine is inside the skin.

figure 10, mask out another part of my arm to create a gap

figure 11, progress

 playing around with blending option and adjust the position

figure 12, progress

draw some lines by using pen tool and then change the stroke path into brush

figure 13, final outcome

REFLECTION 

This project is very hard for me because we have to take a picture for ourselves in a good composition and make sure the picture has enough brightness with good quality. After I got the approval from Mr Martin, I begin to edit my picture in Photoshop. I watch the video few times when editing the picture and I have gone through a lot of error and technical difficulties. I wanted to make the whole picture integrated and real, I have redo three times and I finally come out with my finalized picture. The progress is hard but after I have finish it, I feel fulfilling and exciting that I can finish this work.

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PROJECT 2(B) - Self Titled
Another project is given by Mr Fauzi which is self titled. We have to use our own pictures to make a composition that express ourselves. My favourite style is simple, pastel and muted. Before I start to design my work, I already have a fuzzy concept on how my artwork gonna be like. I decided to have a pastel colour background and some simple shapes to decorate it and then add some elements to enhance the focus point of the artwork. However, I still need to I do some research in Pinterest to get inspiration and to see how people do their collage and observe the colour contrast, balance, composition as well as the perspective.

References :

figure 1, reference

I like this because it is very simple and there are some contrast on the background.

figure 2, reference

When I first saw this, the overall colour is pinkish  purple and there is a black and white girl in front, its very nice.

figure 3, reference

Even though this one is only using few elements, but I really like the person sitting in the middle with his posture and the flowers beside him is decorated very well. The flowers with bright yellow color stand out in the picture and the person also placed very well in the middle.

Project 2B : Self titled

Before we start our project, Mr Fauzi want us to do some exercise (elements are given by Mr Fauzi) as a practice before we start the project. 

Below is the exercises :

figure 1, first composition.

figure 2, second composition

figure 3, third composition

Project 2(B) :

I have create two compositions for my project 2B to decide which one looks better. However, it is hard to decide and same goes to Mr Fauzi as well. Mr Fauzi said the first one is nice looking and I played with so many layers in this ; the second one looks more on mysterious and he liked the pastel colour background.

 figure 1, first attempt

 This one is basically I gathered all the stuffs that I like to do such as drawing, reading, flowers etc. Mr Fauzi says this one is very nice looking and maybe the elements at the bottom can make it bigger and the "enough, as, she, is" can enlarge it as well. However, I think this was a bit messy but overall I still like it.

File link : https://drive.google.com/file/d/14MzY4CGNPWkcHIIG_C4i0v0z1SCz-pFZ/view?usp=sharing

Figure 2, second attempt

Since the first attempt I have use a lot of elements and the frame for the background, so the second attempt I've decided to playing with shapes and blending mode. I wanted to make it opposite with the first one, so I make it more simple and tidy. Same thing, I put some stuffs that I like to do (drawing, flowers etc.) but apply shapes and texture for the background. Both are same intentions but with different feelings and style.

File link : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FrgzCfx-qof20ztSFx0btTnybEYcjDLH/view?usp=sharing

figure 3, final decision

I can't choose between them yet Mr Fauzi suggest me to submit the second attempt, so I'll just choose this one as my final.

REFLECTION 

I liked this project and I am having fun with it. It feels satisfying when you have created your own artwork that represented yourself. The artwork is simple yet very nice and tidy. I think this can be a picture of myself and hang on the wall of room as a little decoration because my room's design is warm, simple and pastel. I think this project is fun and interesting for students because its called "self-titled" which means to create a picture that are about yourself and learn to express my personality in a picture. Overall, I enjoyed the progress of this project and I like it so much.