Photoshop - Blur and sharpen tools

For this task, I had to impliment blur and sharpen tools.
I used the blur tool on a low strength and size setting, to blur one of the hills in the background.
Then I used a large sharpen tool on a low strength setting, to sharpen the fields and houses in the foreground. I did this a little too well and wound up greatly decreasing the quality of the image.


BEFORE

  

AFTER

 

 

Photoshop - healing tools

I had to use three tools, the spot heal tool, the healing brush and the patch heal tool to repair 2 images.
First I used the spot heal tool to remove one of the birds from the image below.

BEFORE


















AFTER

It's almost as if the bird falling from the top power line was never even there.


Then, I used the patch healing and healing brush tools to patch up holes in this wall and then some.



BEFORE

AFTER

You can tell this image has been tampered with by looking at the ghost bricks in the top of the archway, as well as the warped brickwork along the bottom of the wall. There are also some ghost bricks along the top of the wall.
I used the patch healing tool on a small part of the wall, but most of it was done using the healing brush tool.

Photoshop - Broken Glass

For this excercise, I had to place an image of broken glass over a background image that I had downloaded from the internet.

I opened my image in photoshop as a background. Then I dragged the image of broken glass into photoshop, and placed it on top of the background. I then selected "screen" from the dropdown menu in the layers toolbar.

Here is the complete image.

Photoshop - Alan Sugar

I had to superimpose Lord Alan Sugar's head onto a bag of sugar.
I started, by using the Polygonal Lasso tool to select the part of the image that I wanted to move onto the bag of sugar. I then pressed Q, to mask of any elements of the image that I didn't want to copy.
I then used the brush tool to mask of anything else that I had missed with the polygonal lasso tool.
Then, I pressed q again, to unmask the masked off area and reveal the now refined lasso selection.
I then clicked on select and clicked feather, in a drop down menu. i then copied the image of Alan Sugar's head onto the bag of sugar.
Next, I moved and resized the image to make the head apear as if it fits in the bag of sugar.
I copied the head over to the bag of sugar 5 times.


Here is the result.

To What Degree Should an Image be Manipulated to go Into a Fashion Magazine?

The idea of manipulating images for a fashion magazine, is to sell the general public on the idea of this fantasy of being beautiful and that good looks are only obtainable by, purchasing the item(s) of clothing adverised.

 

For example, the image on the left shows a model with skinny arms and her ribs on show and the image on the right is the image after being manipulated. the editor has manipulated the image to make the model's breasts appear slightly larger, the editor has made her arms appear thicker and they have made her ribs appear filled out.

The editor has done this in such a way that the model doesn't appear too thin, but the image of the model retains some of her natural looks.

Though there are no legal issues with this, there are a few ethical issues.

For example, the issue of young girls reading the magazine, seeing the photo and striving to look like the model in the manipulated version of the image, without realising what goes on behind the scenes. Without being aware of just how much the image has been tampered with and, how different it is from the real model. This can lead to young girls being overly conscious of their appearance and can have some disturbing results, both physically and psychologically, for the young girl and those around her.

My opinion

While I can see and agree with the ethical issues surrounding manipulated images, I am also aware of what manipulating images can do from a business perspective, such as increasing sales of the product the magazine is advertising. On top of that manipulating images gives you the opportunity to create something beautiful, that doesn't exist and that can't exist.

Put simply- image manipulation software is a powerful tool. It is often used for recreation or education, but some people choose to exploit this software for profit.

I almost fully support the use of manipulated images for fashion magazines, as long as the editor is aware that there is a line which he/she should not cross.

Photojournalism- What is it?

Photojournalism is the collecting, editing and presenting
of news material for publication or broadcast. it creates
images in order to tell a news story. It is now understood
to refer only to still images, but in some cases also refers
to video used in broadcast journalism.

Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news
media.

Portraiture

What is the difference between portraiture and photojournalism?

-portraiture is very posed and set up. It is a lie and openly admits it.
-photojournalism is photographing something as it happens, but is also used to bend the truth.

Larry Clark
-Took photos of people/events that represent himself.
-Although people called Clark a photojournalist, his images were
still classified as portraiture.

Photo Analysis: Thomas Hoepker's 911

(http//:www.google.co.uk- 20.09.2012)

Above is a photo taken by German photographer Thomas Hoepker during the 9/11 incident.

There is much controversy behind this image in particular, for many reasons.

The 1^st being that Hoepker took this photo without consent. The 2^nd being that it was a beautiful morning when the photo was captured and this caused the people in the image to look as though they were enjoying themselves. Since the image’s release in 2006, people have been debating as to whether, the people in the foreground of the photo had noticed the smoke emanating from the twin towers in the background and were making a mockery of the incident, or if they were just out taking in the sunshine. Hoepker decided in 2001 not to release the image for legal reasons. When the image was released in 2006, people began debating over the image’s meaning, completely missing the original meaning in almost every argument.

Later in 2006 Walter Sipser in the top right of the foreground, had been tracked down for an interview. Unfortunately there is no footage of said interview on the internet.

A news website called “Slate.com” had invited the subjects in the photo for an interview.

They received a reply from Walter Sipser, who is an artist from Brooklyn.

Sipser then confirmed his identity in several ways, mainly using current or more recent images of himself. One quote by Sipser read:

“A snapshot can make mourners attending a funeral look like they’re having a party.”

(Quotes from www.slate.com- 20.09.2012)

He then provided information as to the origin of the photo, writing, “Thomas Hoepker took a photograph of my girlfriend and me sitting and talking with strangers against the backdrop of the smoking ruin of the World Trade Center during 9/11.”

Sipser also provided information as to what he and his partner were doing earlier that day.

“Earlier, she and I had watched the buildings collapse from my rooftop in Brooklyn and had made our way down to the waterfront.”

Sipser also wrote of what he saw on the Williamsburg Bridge saying that, “It was clear that people who ordinarily would not have spoken two words to each other were suddenly bound together.”

Another quote that determines what the subjects were feeling is, “We were in a profound state of shock and disbelief, like everyone else we encountered that day.” Sipser then provided a quote from Thomas Hoepker in which Hoepker stated, “It's possible they lost people and cared, but they were not stirred by it.”

Photo Journalism

Application
-Robert Capa photographed "Dying Royalist Soldier"
-Capa chose the battles he photographed in WW1
-Tony Vaccaro was a WW2 soldier/photographer
-Capa went onto battlefield with the first wave of troops

Techniques
-Leica camera- released in 1925
-Tony Vaccaro used a standard camera, despite what the military ordered him to use
-Tony was close to the action, taking photos while being shot at. He also developed his film on site.

(photo from: photocsc.blogspot.com)



Robert Capa

Robert Capa photographed a "Dying Royalist Soldier",
using a "Leica" camera. The camera used was released in 1925.
(photo sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Capa)
Capa selected the battles that he photographed during WW1. He went onto the battlefield with the first wave of troops during the V-day landings. One photo was taken by Capa while he was being shot at.
He managed to capture the image of an enemy tank being destroyed.

Tony Vaccaro was a soldier-photographer during WW2,
using a standard camera as opposed to a camera sanctioned to him by
the military. He usually developed his film on the battle field. Vaccaro took some photos and found the ruins of an old camera store, where he found the chemicals necessary to develop his films on a moonless night. The military censors confiscated and destroyed the developed films on account of
"the public wasn't ready for such realistic images".