LO4 Final Edits with Evaluation

Before I begin talking about my edited photographs, here are some key editing terms:

Cropping and scaling: Cropping an image is when you cut parts out of it in order to be left with only a section of it that you want. Scaling is when you edit the ppi (pixels per inch) number, so that a printer knows what size to print the photo.

Layers: These are an element of Photoshop which allow you to manipulate different parts of an image, without affecting the rest of it. For example, you might want to put some trees in an image into a separate layer - then you could change their colour slightly without at all changing the colour of anything else in the image.

Green screen: A green screen is a plain green background that a subject can be photographed against, in order to be able to easily swap the background out for one of your choice during editing.

Text and image: Text and image is when a photograph contains words, whether they are taken in naturally in a situation or added in during editing. When this technique is used right, photographs can have very deep meanings and extra dimensions.

I have not used a green screen or a "text and image" effect for my portfolio, because I feel they don't quite fit with my theme of "Identity of the Peak District". Green screens would typically be used when a model is present - I didn't use any models - while "text and image" is more commonly seen in city-like photos. I just wanted my photographs to convey the beauty of the Peak District and the countryside as a whole.

Planning my Editing

Now that I have my final ten unedited photographs, I am going to begin editing them for the gallery we will have in the UTC foyer at the end of the year. I am going to use Adobe Photoshop to enhance aspects of my photos which I think will best bring out the meaning in them. This might be colour, saturation, hue, or contrast (or any other element of a photograph). Hopefully my editing makes my pictures look really great and have a stronger meaning than they already have.

The first bit of editing I did was using the "enhance" feature of iPhoto on all 10 of my final LO3 shots. This is an automatic feature which tries to make the photos look the best that they can do (to a natural extent). Following this, I put the shots into Photoshop to do some further editing (except for one or two which I thought looked perfect after enhancing).  Below are the final edited images, with evaluation under each one. There is also an overall evaluation at the end.

Final Photoshop Edited Photographs

LANDSLIP

• This image has been edited a fair bit. I feel that I have really made the photo more exciting by making the road more blue and brightening up the green of the grass. It still looks natural, but the editing that has been done makes the photograph more interesting for the viewer.
• To make the road more blue, I selected the "colour range" of the road in Photoshop and added a blue colour overlay. What I did with the grass was similar - I selected its "colour range" and added a brighter green for a colour overlay.
• I decided to edit the photo in this way because the meaning was already there before - it just needed to be brightened up so it looked more interesting, enabling the viewer to appreciate the meaning.
• I think the texture of the broken road has been enhanced thanks to the editing - it makes the road a bit easier to see in detail.

Here are the steps I took to edit this photo:

I wanted to select the "colour range" of the road (the final option in the list).

I adjusted the "fuzziness" so that the correct areas of the photo were selected.

I then added a blue colour overlay to the selected area of the road, to brighten it up.

Finally, I used the hue/saturation tool to add the finishing touches to the photo.

COUNTRY ROAD

• The only piece of editing I did on this photograph was to replace the white and washed-out sky with a high-definition image of a cloudy sky from the Internet. This gave the photo all of the dimensions it needed and made it complete.
• To do this edit, I selected the "colour range" of the white sky, and then removed it from the photo (making the sky section temporarily transparent). I then simply slotted in the new image of a cloudy sky and positioned it correctly. I also had to remove a tree from the skyline, as the white sections between the branches weren't properly detected and remained transparent - this was obviously a problem and it was too difficult to correct.
• I decided to edit the photo in this way because the white sky was the only thing clearly wrong with it. Now that a sky has been added, the photo is complete, and the meaning has been emphasised. Now the viewer isn't distracted by the lack of a proper sky, and can take in the towering slopes of Winnats Pass against the road.
• This edit is a hybrid design, in a way, because it has been layered with the photo of a cloudy sky, which wasn't a part of the original image. Despite this, it does still look natural.
• I think the leading line element was enhanced thanks to the edit, as the road is now the same colour as the sky and it makes everything in the image work together.

BERRIES

• This photograph has undergone a simple but fairly time-consuming edit. I made only the central branch, with the berries on, stand out in colour, while making the rest of the photo monochrome. This edit enhances the photograph by guiding the viewer to the focal point. The green and red also go nicely with the monochrome colour.
• In Photoshop, I used the pen tool to go around the edge of the branch with the berries on it, making this area a new layer so that Photoshop would know what to keep in colour. I then selected the rest of the area which hadn't been selected and added a black colour overlay (making it monochrome).
• I decided to edit the photograph like this because I wanted to make the central branch and berries stand out as the central focal point. By making only this part of the image in colour and the rest of it monochrome, the viewer's attention is brought right to the intended focal point. This enhances the meaning of even the smallest things having beauty in the Peak District as the berries are focused on immediately.
• The "central focal point" technique was enhanced thanks to this edit, as the monochrome brings the viewer's attention to the centre.

BRANCHING OUT

• This photo hasn't undergone too much of an edit - I just touched it up a little bit so that it looked better. I basically brightened it up a bit and added a slight orange hue, to make the image feel warmer. This has enhanced the photo because it feels better to look at, and less cold.
• In Photoshop, I added an orange colour overlay to the whole image with a 4% opacity level, and I followed this by using the "lighting effects" option to make the image a bit brighter. The edit on this photo was just the finishing touches.
• The meaning of nature's connectedness and harmony was already there in the photograph before the edit - I just made the image nicer on the eye. This does enhance the meaning in a way because it makes the viewer enjoy and appreciate the photo more when they look at it.
• Obviously, the main technique I used when taking this photo was framing, and this aspect of the photograph can only have been made better thanks to the slight edit.

SHEPHERD

• This image has been edited a fair amount. I made the colours of the trees, water and grass stronger, while still keeping the look natural. This makes the individual parts of the photo stand out more, and this enhances it because it is much more vibrant and interesting to look at.
• In Photoshop, I added a red colour overlay to the trees with 6% opacity, a blue colour overlay to the water with a 12% opacity, and I brightened up the grass using the hue/saturation tool. I had to select the trees, water and grass individually using the pen tool and create new layers for them before I could add the colour overlays, so that the editing would apply only to the sections I wanted.
• I edited this photograph like this because it adds to the beauty of it. I think the blue of the water in particular, after the edit, looks great. The meaning of a sheep being the king of the area, undisturbed by human activity, has been enhanced by the strengthening of colours throughout the image. This is because the land around the sheep looks lush, clean and more beautiful than it did before.
• Composition was one rule of photography I used in this photo - there are four clear layers to the image (grass, water, trees, sky). This has been enhanced thanks to the edit because the layers stand out more individually now and make the whole image much better to look at.

GAZE

• The only editing that this image has undergone is an auto-enhance in iPhoto, using the "enhance" button. This tries to automatically make photographs look as good as they can, and I think it did a good job on this photo. It enhances the image in the way that there is now an emerald-green tint to it, and it looks really fresh and clean.
• The meaning of this photograph is that all around you in the Peak District, there are a lot of wonderful colours and animals. The edit has enhanced this meaning as it has made the landscape a much nicer green than before and the photo really shows the beauty and peacefulness of nature.
• Similar to the "Shepherd" photograph, I feel that the composition rule has been enhanced thanks to the edit. This time, the three layers of grass, water and trees stand out more and look more beautiful than in the original picture.

ROADSIDE

• This image has been edited quite a lot. What I did basically was make the orange colour in the picture really strong and fiery, so the image is much warmer than it was before. This enhances the photo because it stands out much more - it doesn't look washed out at all.
• In Photoshop, I used curves to create this effect. I increased the red curve which tinted the image red, before I decreased the blue curve to make the image feel warmer to look at. The result was a photograph with a really strong colour.
• I chose to edit like this because it enhanced the meaning of the photo, which is that even the messy, thrown-together elements of the Peak District (like this flora at the side of the road) have a beauty. The meaning is enhanced because the warm, fiery colour makes the flora look even better than it did before.
• The "colour" rule of photography has been enhanced here because thanks to the manipulation of curves, the orange of the photo (and green) is brighter and more vibrant than before.

CANOPY

• This is my most heavily edited photo. I changed the blue sky of daytime into a purple, night-time sky and added stars. This enhances the photo because it makes it much more peaceful, while also keeping the detail of the tree branches.
• In Photoshop, I first of all selected the "colour range" of the blue sky and made it purple using a colour overlay. I then used the brush tool to add stars of different sizes, dotting them around the photo. Next, I added a Gaussian blur to all of the stars, making them look more distant and realistic.
• I chose to edit the photo like this because it adds a new dimension of meaning to the photo. Previously, the meaning was just that there are lots of intricate patterns in the Peak District (the tree branches), but now there is also a meaning of peace and tranquility thanks to the night-time sky.
• In a way, I think that the deep depth-of-field technique has been enhanced thanks to the edit, because the newly-added stars make the photo feel like it goes a lot deeper.

CROSSOVER

• Just the finishing touches have been added to this image - it has been through an auto-enhance in iPhoto. For a one-click edit, it has really done a lot to the image, brightening up the green and orange a lot and getting rid of the washed-out look. I felt that no further editing was needed.
• The meaning of even "bad" things such as mould looking fantastic in the Peak District has been enhanced here because the colour of the fungi on the tree has been brought out so that it looks even better.
• Both the "colour" and "texture" techniques have been enhanced with this iPhoto edit because now the colours stand out more and are strengthened. This, in turn, makes the viewer's imagination of texture more vivid and lifelike.

REFLECT

• Like, the photo above, the only editing that "Reflect" has undergone is an auto-enhance in iPhoto. The edit brightened the colours in the sunset, while also making the surrounding trees and hill not so dark - they were barely visible before.
• I chose to edit the photo like this because I didn't feel that much needed doing to it - it was a relaxing shot of a sunset which didn't need changing wildly. The iPhoto enhancement just brightened the surroundings and sunset, which only strengthens the meaning of peacefulness and relaxation.
• The "colour" rule of photograph has been enhanced as the edit has brought the colours of the sunset out. Also, the general composition of the photo has been enhanced because all of it has been brightened up.

General Evaluation

I selected these ten images for editing because I feel that they carry the most meaning for a viewer. I also feel that they contain some fascinating sights and use most of the different photographic techniques - this means that there is a lot of variety, keeping the viewer interested. I think that now they have been edited, the meaning has further brought out, as explained above.

I think that my photos did fit the brief before, but now that they are edited they fit it even better. I think they are now the best they can be, in terms of meaning, colours and beauty. I think the editing affected the lighting of the photos in the way that they are generally much brighter and interesting - the shots are definitely now fit for purpose.

Bibliography:

http://www.gameinonlinefree.net/out/956702.html - this is where the cloudy sky in the "Country Road" edit came from.
http://systematicsinc.com/wheres-all-the-art-at-the-louvre/ - this is where I got my gallery wall template from.