Enhancing Images

Blending Mode

I had to download a dirty texture image and put it in photoshop, then I drag it into my existing Koala in the Desert Photoshop as another layer. The Koala in the Desert layer is above the Dirty Texture Layer. I chose the 'darker colour' blending Mode I thought works visually from the dropdown on the Layers Panel to enhance the image.

Layer Panel

Final Result

Working with blend modes is almost always an experimental process. Because it’s nearly impossible to predict the results, you always seem to end up experimenting with different modes and Fill Opacities until you get the results you’re looking for.

Adjustment Layer

Use a range of adjustment layers of your choice to come up with 3 further variations of the image background. I have to  change the background and not affect the Koala.

Original

First Effect

Second Effect

Third Effect

An adjustment layer applies color and tonal adjustments to your image without permanently changing pixel values. For example, rather than making a Levels or Curves adjustment directly to your image, you can create a Levels or Curves adjustment layer. The color and tonal adjustments are stored in the adjustment layer and apply to all the layers below it; you can correct multiple layers by making a single adjustment, rather than adjusting each layer separately. You can discard your changes and restore the original image at any time.

Layer Style

Photoshop provides a variety of effects—such as shadows, glows, and bevels—that change the appearance of a layer’s contents in a non destructive way. Layer effects are linked to the layer contents. When you move or edit the contents of the layer, the same effects are applied to the modified contents. For example, if you apply a drop shadow to a text layer and then add new text, the shadow is added automatically to the new text.

A layer style is one or more effects applied to a layer or layer group. You can apply one of the preset styles provided with Photoshop or create a custom style using the Layer Style dialog box. The layer effects icon  appears to the right of the layer’s name in the Layers panel. You can expand the style in the Layers panel to view or edit the effects that compose the style.

You can apply multiple effects in a single layer style. Also, more than one instance of some effects can comprise a layer style.

Destructive and Non-destructive Editing

 Non-destructive Editing

First, I had to download a koala picture and the desert background picture. Then I had to resize the koala by using the transform tool and place it to the bottom right corner. To remove the background of the koala I used a mask layer.

Masks are good to edit specific area of the image. The media of working with masks, is that they allow us to continuously edit or modify what you work on. In masks white reveals and black conceals. 

The Final Result

By clicking on the icon which is located on the base of the layers panel (it kind of looks like a square with a hole punch through it) it will create a mask on the layer that is selected.

There are two primary types of masks in Photoshop, layer masks and clipping masks. Layer masks use values of grey to assign levels of transparency to specific portions of a layer or group of layers while clipping masks use the transparency of one layer to define that of a different layer or group of layers.

Refine Edge

The refine edge command can be used to touch up an existing image. The refine edge command can be found by going to the mask properties then clicking 'mask edge', or just by going to select on the top and then clicking 'refine edge'. ( options + command + R )

 This is how the refine mask command looks like.

Making Selections

First, I had to use the image of the koala again and put it on the bottom right corner of the desert background. Then I used the wand tool to remove the koala image background. 

Magic Wand
The Magic Wand tool, is one of the oldest selection tools in Photoshop. Unlike other selection tools that select pixels in an image based on shapes or by detecting object edges, the Magic Wand selects pixels based on tone and colour.

Selection Tool
You can use the Quick Selection tool to quickly “paint” a selection using an adjustable round brush tip. As you drag, the selection expands outward and automatically finds and follows defined edges in the image.

Using Layers in Photoshop

Quiz

I learned that layers are one of the most powerful panels in Adobe Photoshop because this whole lesson series are about layers and you can't do much without it. The layers panels have evolved so much through time in Photoshop because there was a time Photoshop didn't even have layers. When layers first came out the max layers were about 100, but now they fixed it to around 8000 layers or more. The reason why they did 8000 layers is because, if they give you more than you ever need, your not restricting your creativity. The background is not a layer, its a background.

If you don't see the layer panel, the way to find it or get it is by going to Window and clicking Layers. All of the panels are located on the Window.

The layer panel looks something like this.

 Lock Transparent Pixels      Lock Paintings              Lock Movements             Lock Everything

To make the Jellyfish layer blend in with the Desert layer, you have to reduce the opacity of the Jellyfish layer.

Composite Images

Composite Images

In this course it showed me how to make selections, do non-destructive editing, blending the layers, images and text, adjusting the layers and how to manipulate the layer styles on photoshop. I have significant prior experience of Photoshop beyond the Yr 8 course covered in ICT and am a bit confident that I understand non-destructive editing, blending modes, adjustment layers and layer styles.

First I had to combine these 3 images,

and make it something like this

This is what I made,

and this is how I made it.

I first uploaded the plane picture and gave it a drop shadow with the distance of 242px. Then, I removed the plane picture and kept the shadow. I tried to find similar texts from the original and added it to the picture. On the Australia text, I added a thin black border and a yellow outer glow like the original picture. On the dirty paper I changed the colour to red and made the saturation and contrast higher. Comparing the pictures now it looks like I should have made the glow stand out more and made the shadow more blend in. This would really help with the title making because it teaches me how to use the layers and how to adjust and manipulate the colour and saturation.