Week Six

First draft

Assignment- Turn in first draft of second concept and continue working on it

Craft- We are still using photoshop for this project.  New techniques are being used along the way, such as the magic wand tool.  We're learning how to utilize preproduction to make postproduction (photoshop) much easier to do.  There is a strong focus on backgrounds.

Composition- I used Saint Xavier's racquetball court as the setting for this mashup.  I wanted a room that was clear of distractions, and the white walls offered that.  I asked my friend to try several different poses in the corner of the room to see which worked best.  I eventually picked out one where she looked depressed and went with it.  After that picture was chosen, I asked her to stand outside and pose like she was yelling.

Concept- The concept I was going for involved someone trying to get a message cross but different obstacles appear to get in the way.  Another reason that the racquetball court was useful, was the fact that it had a clear glass wall window stretched across.  I used the window as a barrier between the two people (who happen to be the same person) in the picture.  One version of her is on the outside looking in, while the other is on the inside-- she's oblivious to what's going on outside.  The one on the outside is yelling; the one on the inside looks lost.  The outside version is just trying to tell the inside version but to no avail.

Week Five

Assignment- Take 25 pictures for a new mashup. This mashup will include our second go at photoshop.

Craft- We will be using photoshop for our two pictures. The techniques and strategies we learned during our Abraham Lincoln mashup process will be incorporated into this new mashup project. New methods will potentially be used as well.

Composition- I was thinking of using the these two pictures because of the easy going nature that both of them display.  Perhaps I could play around with a cloning like effect.  We'll see where these pictures take me.  I hope they work out.

Concept- I'm not entirely sure I will use these two pictures, but so far they're what I'm going with.  Both of the pictures contain so much energy.  I want to show the different levels of enthusiasm that humans are able to portray.  She's just so happy in both of them!

Week Four

Assignment- Finalize Lincoln photoshop mash-up.  Results will be printed out on glossy paper and hung in a gallery.

Craft- One of the main critiques that I have received so far through this process was that my photoshopped Lincoln looks like a painting.  Instead of starting from scratch, I decided to continue working on trying to make Lincoln look more realistic.  I brightened the shadows around his eyes, gave his forehead and cheeks a white glare, and played around with the different coloring techniques.  I also tried to make him smile by liquifying the corners of his lips.

Composition- After the image was flattened, I tested out different coloring options for the entire picture.  I especially considered going the black and white route, but ultimately decided to go color.  My final attempt, I hope, looks better than my previous ones.  At least Lincoln isn't giving a complete death glare this time around.

Concept- Changing Lincoln's death glare into a semi-smile redirected my concept a bit.  This slight change indicates that although Lincoln is all for challenging society's norms (or in this case, television personalities' norms--notice Lincoln's the only one not showing teeth), he still is willing to compromise and keep the peace.  He knows how to pick his battles.

Week Three

Assignment- We had to pick one picture from the 25 photos that we took ourselves, and one picture from the 25 photos from the Lincoln era. We then had to create a mash-up of these images.

Craft- Using Photoshop, I combined Lincoln's head onto my background (the ABC7 news team). Ron Majors' body type and suit seemed to be passable as Lincoln-like, so I pasted Lincoln's head over Majors'. After aligning the head properly, I noticed that Lincoln looked like a corpse. His pale black and white face next to Kathy Brock's tan face seemed a little out of place. I desaturated the entire image and started playing with the hue/saturation and brightness/contrast levels to try and make his face look darker. Seeing a bunch of tan newscasters loaded with makeup in a black and white setting didn't seem right. I decided that the image would look much more realistic if it were color. I gave the image back its color, then began to attempt to make Lincoln's head look more colorful. During this process, I used the paintbrush (changing its opacity), smudge tool (to get rid of the imperfections of the old photograph and as an attempt to make him fit in with his unblemished counterparts), and the color balance (to match the skin type of the rest). As a result, the Lincoln photoshop kind of looked like a painting.

Composition- I was walking along a street downtown when I saw a bus stop with ABC7's news team plastered above a bench. I suddenly had the image in my head of Lincoln standing in the middle of them. I decided to use that picture, after I nixed a few other suggestions. It wasn't too hard finding a picture where Lincoln wasn't smiling. After I began working with the images, I noticed that it was really difficult trying to make Lincoln's head and neck match the rest of the image's color. I'm still working on ways to make Lincoln look less painted on. Because of this difficulty, the thought of desaturating the entire image instead of trying to make it color has come up time and time again.

Concept- Well, Lincoln was not too big on smiling in many of his portraits. He had such a death stare. It feels like he's staring into your soul when you see pictures of him. I wanted to capture this glare and contrast it with modern day society's representation of media members. People in the media are usually layered with makeup while carrying large grins across their faces to portray an image of togetherness. By having Lincoln and his death stare thrown in the middle of these personalities, I'm trying to rebel against society's idea of what it means to truly be "together." What better man of his era to do it than Lincoln?