Assignment #4 Touch Up Yourself

For this assignment we'll be practicing the touch up techniques we learned in class to create new versions of ourselves. This can be as difficult mentally as it is technically but try to enjoy it. Give yourself a haircut, clean up your skin, and enlarge those baby blues. For extreme examples check out the link for DeTouch.

Assignment #3 Playing with Perspective

Perspective, as most often used in art, is the introduction of three dimensional space represented on a two dimensional surface. Traditionally, when it comes to photography, we think of perspective as the view through the lens of our camera.

For this assignment we will twist this idea in a new dimension by creating our own spaces out of multiple images using perspective. Options include creating (1) a simple one-point perspective which is created with a single centralized vanishing point, (2) a two-point perspective which allows for two vanishing points moving away from the viewer, or create an image that includes multiple perspectives in a puzzle piece fashion, breaking the common laws of physics!!!

Composit Found, Anyone Claim It?

This composite recently sited on The New York Times online. Anyone know who made it?

Speaking of Composites...

From Gawker today:

The Atlantic has said it didn't vet Jill Greenberg's politics before hiring her to shoot John McCain. Even if it had known about her controversial anti-George Bush photographs, it wouldn't have cared, as a matter of policy. The policy may soon change: Greenberg is gloating she left McCain's eyes bloodshot and skin gnarly for the Atlantic's October cover. Worse, from the magazine's perspective, is that she tricked the Republican presidential nominee into standing over an unflattering strobe light, then posted the worst shots and Photoshops to her personal site.

Gawker has more of the pictures up. Pretty tricky, but nice Photoshopping.

Assignment #2 Composite Imagery

For our second assignment we will composite three elements into a single realistic image. When trying to fool the viewer's eye it is important to look at lighting and shadows.

The example above uses the same specific lighting for each piece, allowing for a more believable blend in the final composite image.

Photoshop Phony

Thanks to Debbie here is the original image (1) that was used to create the Photoshop phony of Governor Palin (2) which we discussed in class last Wednesday. As Debbie points out, take a look at the tail of hair on the left below the ear. Notice how it appears in both images, but isn't blended very well in the forged image. I'm sure by the end of the semester your masking skills will be better than this. The original image can be found here on flickr as posted by the photographer.

We'll leave this discussion open for your continued thoughts as to whether or not the phony is effective or not? illegal as slander? legal as "free speech"? meant to be serious or is it the equivalent of a modern-day political cartoon?

Assignment #1: Photoshop Masks

Our first assignment is to isolate a complex object on a white space by using the various techniques we learned about masks. Masks are used in Photoshop to selectively edit specific areas of an image without being destructive to the original. Feel free also to add a new shadow to place the image within a visual space.