Corrections in Photoshop

 For this assignment, we were given images that needed to be corrected and optimized. I really enjoyed this project.

 This young lady's photo really needed some depth and color treatment.








This lady is stunning. I only adjusted the color. I refused to "correct" her wrinkles. They make her beautiful.

Photoshop Cleanup

I think we live in a pretty cool city. I love walking downtown and taking photos of the buildings against the sky. This one was really nice with the reflections and the framing. The only problem was the electrical wire that cut right through the middle. I removed it.

Logo and T-shirt Design

Here is the complete logo. We were given a client worksheet for a hair salon. The client wanted something colorful, eye catching and simplistic. Her main goal was to bring in more families. She wanted to promote an atmosphere of comfort and familiarity. She actually mentioned the word family five times.

 She wanted to see what it would look like on a t-shirt, so she gave us a 

template so we could demonstrate the placement, and sizing of the logo.

We were also encouraged to come up with something to put on the back, a tag line. She gave us these "models" to wear the shirts so we could show what they looked like on a person.

Photography

I have always loved taking pictures. I really enjoy it now that I can make them look even better with cropping, color correction, lightening and optimizing. These are just some random photos that I have taken over the last couple of years.

This one is called "up". Prayers, faith, respect.

We had a horrible storm in June of last year. We lost the top of a tree in our front yard. It took out my mailbox. This was the sunset after the storm. No photoshop. Totally natural.

Lake Royale. On the morning of the Canoe Merit Badge festivities.

Church steeple silhouette and some interesting clouds. St Eugene's Catholic Church on the occasion of Pack 515 W2 Bridging Ceremony.

Scary clouds foretelling a scary storm. Boy Scout Summer Camp. Moore County - Camp Durant, 2013.

A dragonfly landed on our bird feeder. I really didn't think I could capture it.

Downtown Raleigh. A hot summer afternoon.

We have a cat that does not do well when it comes to climbing trees. I ran to get my camera to capture the moment. Instead, he gave me this beauty.

Pedestrian/bike bridge over the New River between Ivanhoe and Foster's Falls VA. One of our most favorite camping trips.

On the same camping trip, this was a former railroad bed that winds for 50-some miles along the New River in western VA.

Pullen Park, Raleigh NC

Sunset over our cul-de-sac.

Sunset over the Farmer's Market. Taken from the park on Dorthea Dix campus. Raleigh NC

Under the pier at Cherry Grove. North Myrtle Beach SC.

Shooting for the Moon

I love taking pictures of the moon. These are not assignments but my own desire to capture beauty. You will notice that I usually have clouds, trees, or at least, branches in the photo. I feel that it's necessary to provide depth and perspective.

[A rare exception.]

Photoshop Layer Mask work

Throughout my classes, I have used Scouts as a source of great material. This is one of my favorite assignments. When a Scout earns his Canoeing Merit Badge, he has to purposefully paddle a canoe full of water. I captured a wonderful photo in the process.

The first image is the original.

  The second was a full color version of the project.

The completed project.

In preparing the photo for this project, I created a Curves layer and deepened the coloring just a bit. There was a Scout that was floating behind the canoe. I extracted him from the scene. I then created a new layer and, using the saturation adjustment, brought the photo to black and white. I then created a layer mask and using the brush tool at various sizes, colorized the Scout in the front of the canoe. I also colorized his paddle since it provided a pop of color on the left side of the photo.

I added the type at the top left. I added a Bevel & Emboss effect. I then felt that an Outter Glow would make it stand out. Since it was a relief effect, it needed a drop shadow. The water is dark, so I made the shadow a lighter shade of gray so it would stand out.

I added the BSA logo as my vector image element. That layer is set at 75% opacity to keep it subtle yet easily visible.

The scouting.org type is also at 75% opacity. There are no other effects on this text.

For the Canoe Merit Badge, I cropped it away from the rest of the image to make the selection process quicker. I then used the Quick Selection Tool to remove it from the transparent background. I placed it on the top right corner of the composite to complete the thought and to provide some balance of color.

Animated GIFs

During my Adobe Flash class we made an ad for a fictitious match service for those on their second time around.
I used my favorite photo of my parents. This was an assignment in making an animated GIF.

We had to create two different display sizes and layouts. This was a really good lesson in creativity and patience.

Thanks Mom and Dad for providing some beautiful imagery.