Monday 20 January 2014

Camp Kodiak

Title of my artwork is Camp Kodiak.

We had to create a surrealism photo (surrealism is something that is fake but looks real and creates something real from our unconsciousness) for our teacher Ms. Silverman in Photoshop CS6.

I decided to create a picture from memory of going to a camp called Camp Kodiak for 3 days. This moment in my life means a lot to me because I made some new friends on this trip. I made connections with people and really made close bonds with some of my other classmates. Most importantly for me I saw the world in a different way. One night I just looked up at the stars, that was when for first time I had ever seen so many. Seeing all those stars up in the sky made me feel like I escaped society and was now free. It was just a very happy memory for me. It changed my perception towards the world. It made me realize how beautiful the night sky really is.

I added the starry background to show their real beauty of the night. I made the trees stretch up towards the sky because I wanted to show how there tall and free to grow, that they have no limit. I made the image black and white to create the feeling of a peaceful dark night feeling. The foxes represent my friends and I discovering the camp. I chose the fox to represent me, I have a lot of the same qualities. The foxes are there in the forest admiring the beauty of the starry sky and the nature around them. The frame is like a magic viewer that sees the mysteries of the night.

Monday 6 January 2014

Fox President: Photoshop Practice

We were doing so practicing in photoshop and one of the assignments was to blend to images together, so basically we were dragging one image on a different background.

Steps for blending images:
Step 1: Open photoshop
Step 2: Open both images you have chosen on different files.
Step 3: Drag the image you want to put on a different background and drag it onto the other file keep dragging until you are on the other file.
Step 4 Let go.
Step 5: You might get warnings telling you that the images resolutions are different, click yes. 
Step 6: Drag your mouse over to the layers and drag the lock thats looking your layers into the trash.
Step 7: Use the quick select tool to cover the whole image you want to move. Make sure you get the main structure of the image (In this case the fox). Its okay to get a bit outside of the image if you have fur or ears you want to add in later. 
Step 8: Click Refine Edge (Can be found on the top bar menu, right next to Auto-Enhance.) (Refine Edge shows your photo on different background's such as on black, overlay, and so on.) 
Step 9: Turn on Smart radius and increase the radius to smoothen the soft spots and harden the sharp edges.
Step: 10 Increase the contrast and shift edge, you can also decontaminate colours. 
Step: 11 Click ok, which creates a new layer which is now your mask.
Step: 12 Go to image, adjust, exposure. 
Step: 13 Increase the exposure if you are unhappy with the lightness on your image. (If the two images still appear to have different lighting)