Photoshop Flop

Many people who are majoring in communications will need to use skills like editing photos and photoshopping images. Therefore, our assignment for Digital Aesthetics this week was to photoshop a new background onto an image using the pen tool in Photoshop. The pen tool uses the Bézier curve where anchor and control points are placed to connect lines in order to hug the edges and curves of the main focus of the photo. In order to practice this, we played a game called The Bézier Game where we used this tool in order to draw different shapes. I found this game to be very challenging, but was able to get better redoing the tutorial.

Upon coming home and working on my own project, I thought about what image to photoshop. I remembered that my roommate, Rachel, has always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon, so I decided to base my project around that. I had her stand against a blank wall with the shadows as minimized as possible (which can be difficult with dorm room lighting). From there, I uploaded the image to Photoshop and selected the pen tool to start chipping away at the background. Even though I had practiced with the Bézier game earlier, I was not a pro at this by any standards, but was helped by a friend who was in the class and by many Youtube tutorials.

Once I started remembering the keyboard commands and where to place the points, I enjoyed editing the picture and was amused by the outcome. This project made me a lot more aware of the many angles and curves that come from any design, even one as simple as someone standing in front of a blank wall. It also made me realize that there are a lot of choices that go into designs. For example, I could have simply used straight lines to connect the points or placed the points further apart, but this would have given a different look than the one I was going for. Design is made up of planning and patterns that have a set end in mind, and I enjoyed my opportunity to create a design in the form of photoshop.

Overall, I had some minor difficulties in my photoshop attempt, but I wouldn't necessarily call this edit a "flop". Further editing like shadows and blending would definitely make the image look more realistic, but I don't think it looks bad for my first edit using Photoshop. Now, Rachel can finally say she lived out her dream of visiting the Grand Canyon (digitally).