Thursday, October 11, 2012

Mojo Online Solutions


I've started my own business based around
web design and social media.

Mojo Online Solutions create and manage Facebook Business Pages, Twitter accounts, blogs and websites
for small businesses affordably.


Don't ignore the power of social media.


Find us on Facebook, Twitter, our blog and our website.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Week 7: Combining images

Again this week was exciting...a little tricky but fun. There were several tutorial movies to watch this week so I will post as I work my way through. The first 4 images were created by combining 3 images into one and trying to make them look real. We had to add shadow and glow to add depth. We need to submit two for our next assignment and I haven't decided which two to select yet.










Friday, July 13, 2012

Week 6: Creating Panoramics

This week was exciting. We had to create panoramic photos from 3 images, fit them precisely into place, blend their backgrounds so you couldn't see the joins and match the tonality of the three images so it looked like one photo.

This is my first attempt...pretty dodgy really!

This is my second attempt...much better :)

I found it very difficult with the beach scene for several reasons. By the time I took the 3 photos - the clouds and waves had moved so aligning the 3 images was hard for me. With more experience and knowledge of tools, I would get a better result. The other thing about the beach scene was matching the tonality. Because the colour of the sky and water differs in every shot (due to light) I couldn't match the tonality of the sky AND the water at the same time.

The view from my deck was easier to line up and match the tonality :)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

MMC140: Week 5: Adjustment Layer Icon

I was very excited when I discovered I could improve the appearance of an image with a few simple mouse clicks. This lesson taught me about the 'curves' adjustment, applying filters and blurs and black and white adjustments.

CURVES
Open the image you wish to add depth to and in the layers panel click on the 'Create new fill or adjustment layer' icon...



Select 'Curves' and click 'Auto' and the image changes dramatically. See the before and after images below...
 Before


After

Then I learned how to manually adjust the curve and select a section of an image to adjust it separately from the rest of the image. Firstly click the 'Create new fill or adjustment layer' icon (image above), select 'Curves' and instead of clicking 'Auto' click on the slider to move it up. This lightens the entire image...great for images with dark shadows.

Great result with the brick wall lightning, however the sky also lightened so to separate the sky and give it it's blue colour back, use the Quick Selection Tool to select the sky. Once the sky is selected click on the document in the curve layer (layer mask icon) and press 'Edit' then 'Fill' then 'Contents use' 'Black'. Deselect and the sky is blue again.
 Before


After

ADDING DEPTH
You can also add depth to an image using the Curve Adjustment Layer and the gradient tool. With your image open, apply the curve auto adjustment (as outlined above), then select the gradient tool - linear gradient and draw a line across the image.

If the light in the original image is coming from the right or top right - draw your gradient line from left to right. If the light is coming from the left then draw your gradient line from right to left.

Once the gradient has been applied select the brush tool and ensure white is selected as the foreground colour, choose a soft brush about 100px and paint the image to add depth. This reveals the image's tonal adjustments underneath.

 Before


After


BLACK AND WHITE
The simplest way to make an image black and white is by adding an adjustment layer as described above, but choose Black and White instead of 'Curves' ...


This window appears where you can individually alter colours to add depth...


Here is the original colour image...
Before


 Default Black and White


 After: the red, yellow and green colours have been manually altered to add depth


FILTERS
When changing an image to black and white doesn't improve the overall image - adding coloured filters make a nice effect. This image has the blue filter added to remove the sky altogether.

Here is the original coloured image...
 Before


 Default Black and White


After: With high contrast blue filter applied


BLUR
This image looked over exposes so we duplicated the original background and softened the blending mode to intensify the image. We then applied Filter - Blur - Gaussian at 4.9px to give it a bright and glowing effect.
 Before


After





Thursday, June 21, 2012

MMC140: Week 4: Masks

This week was fun - we had to create masks on a face. Tools/functions learnt:

  • using the paintbrush - thickness and style
  • choosing colours for paintbrush
  • using the eraser - thickness and style
  • eyedropper tool
  • moving the virtual light source
  • adding shadows and drop shadows to paint marks
  • drawing straight lines
  • using the marquee tools
  • zooming in and out
  • hand tool
  • loading selections
  • layer transform
  • distort
  • boundary boxes
  • modifying and expanding painted lines
  • hue, saturation, brightness
  • copying drop shadow styles
  • bevel and emboss
  • gradient tool - radial gradient
  • flipping background and foreground colours
  • layer blending modes
  • image canvas size - resizing
  • guide rules
  • text type tool
  • preserve transparency
  • contouring bevels
  • filter noise
  • gaussian and monochromatic






MMC140: Week 3: The Glob

This week we had to use an image of a glob and, using different effects, produce different results from the same initial glob. Tools/functions covered:

  • scanning solid objects
  • transforming and rotating layers
  • darken and lighten blending modes
  • duplicating layers
  • move tool
  • polygonal lasso tool
  • copying and pasting to new layers and new documents
  • transparent backgrounds
  • deselecting
  • centering images
  • merging and connecting layers using the chain link
  • free transform
  • scaling without distortion (constraining the dimensions)
  • merging more than one layer
  • repeating actions
  • history panel
  • applying actions (double clicking within the layer)
  • using arrows to position layers
  • creating new layers and documents
  • adding black background


MMC140: Week 2: Mandalas

This week we made mandalas using the following tools/functions:

  • gradient
  • filling layers
  • scale and transform
  • adding patterns
  • blending layer modes
  • duplicating, flipping and rotating layers
  • polygonal lasso tool
  • using the ruler guides
  • moving layers around, making visible and invisible
  • zooming in and out
  • merging layers
  • layer comps
  • saving as jpg versus psd