Project One:
Description: Take a headline from a recent newspaper article, opinion piece or magazine article and illustrate it visually using multiple Photoshop techniques. Adhere to the basic graphic design principles of contrast, balance, unity, and hierarchy.
I chose the article “An Ad Boasting ‘A Million Burger and Topping Combinations’ Seemed Ridiculous. Actually, It’s An Understatement” because I felt it had a lot of potential for a creative graphic. Although I already liked the existing graphic, I thought attempting a variation of the graphic would be a fun challenge. I also liked the concept of a burger toppling over because it was filled with too many toppings.
To create my graphic, I first imported a hamburger vector image and duplicated the layer twice to have three identical burger vectors.
On the first burger, I used the quick selection tool to select the fillings and bottom bun, then the delete key to leave only the top bun. On the second, I did the inverse and used the quick selection tool to select the top bun, then the delete key to leave the fillings and the bottom bun.
On the third, I removed the top bun using the same techniques as the second burger vector but then used the eraser tool on the bottom bun for a cleaner edge around the lettuce.
Next, I created 17 additional duplicate layers of the burger filling layer one by one. I transformed the image by manually inputting different angle adjustments until I could snake the burger fillings across the piece. The angle adjustments took the longest as I made minor adjustments at a time so that all the fillings connected properly with the next.
Then, I created a gradient adjustment layer. I selected a preset green and teal gradient because it complimented the burger's color scheme while still differentiating it from the background.
I then merged all of the burger layers to create one layer. I created an effects layer and used an outer glow to make the differentiation between the burger and the background even stronger. I adjusted the settings until the glow properly dissolved into the background while separating the foreground from the background.
From here, I made minor adjustments to the burger by adding an adjustment layer to increase the exposure of the background slightly, another adjustment layer to decrease the vibrance, and a final adjustment layer to increase the brightness.
One alteration that would’ve strengthened the piece would be to change the color of the filling layers so that the graphic implied that there were “a million” topping combinations. Despite following various YouTube videos and visiting the Adobe Photoshop help page, I could not do this without the original color bordering the altered color.
Assignment Two:
Directions: Create a double-exposure effect using the basics of layer masking, copying, and blending to fuse two images into one
For this assignment, I followed the steps to create an image of a Bison blended with another image of my choice. When looking for an image to blend the Bison with, color, depth, contrast, and composition were all important to ensure that it was suitable for the project. I ended up finding this particular image on Unsplash and made sure it was a very high-quality photo. I felt the lavender field had beautiful colors that would translate well once overlaid.
The basis of this assignment was creating different layers in photoshop and exploring the blending modes available. For this particular image, the mode “Screen” was chosen so that the lavender field was overlaid on top of the bison.
The most enlightening part of this assignment was using the brush tool to return the details to the bison’s face, legs, and tail. This gave the image more dimension and brought the subject back to the bison. In addition, the part that made the most difference in the final image was adding a two-toned gradient to the bison to shade the image. This did wonders in terms of creating depth and took the image to another level. I chose a purple and pink color for my gradient, with purple on the top and pink on the bottom, and feel it helped saturate and highlight the color of the field more while blending the tone better with the bison.