Digital Photography & Imaging / Project 1

6.4.2023 - 28.4.2023 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Digital Photography and Imaging
Project 1 

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 1. Module Information Booklet

Project 1A: Physical Collage

For this assignment, we were tasked with creating a physical collage using either cutouts from magazines/ newspapers or printing our own assets. I chose to print as I wanted to base my collage on a piece of fiction, The Story of Evil. 

The story focuses on two twins who were separated from birth. The girl is a princess who rules the country, and the boy is her butler. One day the citizens were fed up with the cruel princess' way of ruling and she was about to be executed, but her twin helped her to escape by taking her place and getting caught while she fled. 

Fig. 2.1. Composition 1 (13/4/2023)

For the compositions, I used flowers to symbolise the twins. The withered flower represents the male twin who ends up dying by execution, and I placed a crown on the lively flower to represent the female twin. 

She loved tea time, and her butler would always be on time at 3p.m. sharp with her tea, which is why the tea set is included in the collage. The butler, her twin who took her place, was executed at tea time, and said the princess' famous line, "Ah, it's tea time" as the bells rang and he was executed.

The flower in the bottom right corner next to the fire symbolises the male twin, who called himself the servant of evil. His love for his sister meant that he followed all her orders, even if they were horrible actions.

Fig. 2.2. Composition 2 (13/4/2023)

For the second composition, I decided to include the silhouettes of the characters. I wanted to emphasise the closeness and the care they had for each other, especially the brother to the sister, hence the closeness of the flowers on the right and the quotes in between the silhouettes. 

FINAL Physical Collage

Fig. 2.3. Final Composition (13/4/2023)

This was the design that I chose as my final submission. I thought that the second composition was too crowded on top and too empty on the bottom, so I spaced out the assets in the third composition. 

I also tried a different route in representing the characters. In the first and second compositions, there was a distinct difference between both of the twins. However, one of the main points of the story is when the brother swapped places with his sister. So for the final composition, the flowers continue to represent the same twin as the first two designs, but this composition shows the princess being the one facing the guillotine, as this is the brother in her place. 

Project 1B: Digital Exercise 1 - Hearst Mansion

In this assignment, we were tasked with photoshopping ourselves into a provided picture of a mansion.

This is the photograph that I chose to photoshop into the mansion:

Fig. 3.1. Photograph (15/4/2023)

Fig. 3.2. Original submission (15/4/2023)

This was the original exercise that I was going to submit. However, since I'm not wearing any shoes in the picture, I photoshopped some shoes onto myself and submitted that version instead.

 FINAL Hearst Mansion Exercise

Fig. 3.3. Final Hearst Mansion Photoshop Exercise (27/4/2023)

Project 1C: Digital Exercise 2 - Recolouring

For this assignment, we had to recolour a black & white picture. We were provided with a variety of pictures and we had to choose one to recolour based on what we learnt during tutorials. 

This was the picture that I chose to recolour, of BTS member Jin:

Fig. 4.1. Black & white picture of Jin (20/4/2023)

From Pinterest, I was able to find a coloured picture of him wearing the same outfit from presumably the same photoshoot:

Fig. 4.2. Reference photo for colours (20/4/2023)

Using the colour picker tool, I was able to use the same colours from the picture and recolour the picture as accurately as possible. I tried to colour in details like the corners of his eyes and his lips as well, even if his lips are barely visible, I tried to tint them pink to make the picture look more lifelike. 

Fig. 4.3. Cut out sections and colour picks from the reference photo (20/4/2023)

Fig. 4.4. First final version (20/4/2023)

Since he likes pink, I wanted to incorporate that into the final version. However, the pose he's doing is more of a 'cool' vibe, so I went with a darker pink that is closer to magenta.

But since the original picture is in black & white, the colour that I originally chose for the background emphases the inconsistencies along the edge of his person. So I changed the colour to be even darker and changed the blending mode to make it mix better with the original grey background.

FINAL Recolouring Exercise

Fig. 4.5. Final Recolouring Exercise Submission (22/4/2023)

FEEDBACK

Week 3
Specific Feedback:
- Lecturer said that my third composition (of the physical collage) was the best of my three compositions

Week 4
Specific Feedback:
- The lecturer suggested that I photoshop shoes into my Hearst Mansion submission.
- Lecturer agreed that changing the background colour (in the recolouring exercise) into a darker colour is a good decision.

REFLECTIONS

Experience
I've tried making collages before, and I enjoy watching videos of others scrapbooking, so I'm glad I got to try to make a physical collage. I also like using digital programs to edit, so I think it's good that I was able to properly learn to use Photoshop. I learnt about techniques like how to draw shadows, and learnt about tools like the object selection tool and how to mask in Photoshop. There was also the learning experience of developing compositions that were appealing but in my case, also meaningful. All this knowledge will definitely be useful to me throughout my degree and maybe even my career and hobbies. 

Observations
In the recolouring assignment, I saw firsthand how the colour of the background can emphasise the main subject of the photo. Using a darker, duller background enhanced the colours of the model, while also making the outline of the figure less obvious and successfully creating a more realistic image, rather than looking like a cutout pasted onto a solid background. I think that changing the blending mode of the background layer helped as well. because now the colour followed the lighting of the original black & white photo.

Findings
Photoshop has a lot of different features that can be confusing at first, but once you get a good grasp of what each tool or button does, you realise there are many different ways to achieve a common goal. For example, you could use the object selection tool, the variety of lasso tools, or the pen tool to create a mask. Composition is also a very important part of design, and placing your assets or choosing colors and effects in a way that directs the audience's attention to the main subject of the design is a key point.