Abstract
The subject of this series of Photoshop images is hands. I took a liking to the subject in fine arts and wanted to see how it would translate to digital media, specifically Photoshop.
My first image mainly focused on layers. I sought to layer an image of a hand over a well-known landscape and remove a section of the hand, revealing the background landscape. To accomplish this, I first used the magnetic lasso tool to make the selection of the hand. This was probably the most challenging part of compiling the image; I needed to use the “Shift” key to add to the selection and the “Option” key to detract from the selection. I then lowered the opacity of the hand layer and used the elliptical selection tool to copy a part of the Eiffel Tower from the background – copy layer. I returned the opacity of the hand to its normal level and pasted the elliptical selection from the background on top of the hand, giving the illusion that there is a cut out from the hand. Finally, the background eraser tool and blur tool were used to make the selection less harsh.
The second image is centered on color correction. My goal was to experiment with the images’ levels and create an Andy Warhol-esque matrix using the word “love” in sign language. The first step involved cropping each of the four images to leave an equal amount of background in each. For the sign language “L” and “E,” I made equal levels of input and output levels in the red channel under the “Levels” adjustment. The same was done for the sign language “O” and “V,” plus the hue/saturation was altered. Each hand image was resized in order to make the final compilation.
The third image is mainly comprised of layers and selections. I wanted to put the model’s eye that was covered by her hand on top of her hand. I had an image of the model without her eye being covered so I copied her right eye and eye brow using the selection tools. I then pasted the eye and eyebrow on top of her hand. I blurred the edges of the eye and eyebrow. I am not completely satisfied with the final project. In the image without her eye being covered, her hair cuts off part of her eyebrow and the corner of her eye. I attempted to place part of her hair on top of her hand, like I did with the eye and eye brow, but did not feel it looked cohesive.
My fourth image is a composite made possible by selections. I first selected the hands forming the heart. I feathered the edges and pasted this selection on top of the image of the house. I made a selection of the inside of the hand and then selected the photograph of the girls from another page. I used “Paste Special” to paste the selection of the girls inside the selection of the hand. I had never used feathering in any of my exercises before, but generally liked what it did to the edges of the selection. However, in this case the feathering affects the image of the girls inside the heart because the outer edges of the heart are also the inside edges of the hand, which has been feathered. This resulted in the edges of the girls not completely lining up with the heart. If I were to complete this project again, I would make the initial selection of the hand and feather it before adding the inner heart selection to the hand so as to only feather the outer edges of the hands.
For the fifth image, I sought to place a bird on an outstretched finger, giving the impression that the bird had landed there. Creating the image involved first selecting the bird. I did this mainly using the magnetic lasso tool. I then went back in with the lasso tool and refined the original selection. The edges of the selection were feathered to lessen the harshness of the edges. The bird was pasted onto the image of the hand and moved into an appropriate position on the finger. This is the most realistic image in the series and I generally think it looks natural. Further refining the selection might have added to the authenticity of the image.
For the final image, I wanted to make the hand’s finger nails be another aspect of nature because the hand was juxtaposed against the sky. To do this, I used the magnetic lasso tool to select each of the fingernails. I copied the grass from another image I had taken and used the "Paste Special, Paste Into" tool to get the grass to appear as the fingernails on the hand against the sky. Looking at the image, I think it might have been more effective to have altered the hue and saturation of the grass. Not that the image is supposed to be natural, but there is a sharp contrast between the highlights of the grass and the background sky.
Self-Evaluation
Because I had no experience with Photoshop prior to this semester, my goal for this project was to execute as much of what we practiced in class on my own. I am pleased with how the series of images came out although I realize nothing I did was necessarily groundbreaking. I used hands as the focal point for the series, and mostly utilized my new knowledge of selections and layers to complete the series. At this point, I would say I still feel more comfortable with fine arts compared to digital arts because of my extensive background with fine arts. However, I would absolutely have not been able to create this series on the first day of class this semester. I am happy with how much I have picked up but do feel some of the images would be enhanced with further editing.
