DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND IMAGING - WEEK 4

Week 4

NAME: ZHANG QIYU

ID: 0384019

COURSE:Digital Photography and Imaging

GROUP: 2

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Lecture

In this recorded session, it starts out by briefing us about the portrait, and what we're going to do with it — recolour. This is compounded along by bracing for more complex uses of blending modes & masks.

First things first, the famous brush tool in Photoshop. We were broughtthrough size & hardness sliders, as well as selecting the initial skincolour we were going to be working with.

Now this is a weird adjustment, since it's not an adjustment layer; acting more like a filter as it applied as a property of a layer. On top of that, there seems to be no "smart" variant of this adjustment as well, being unavailable to Smart Objects without rasterizing.

PART 1

We would enhance the skills of using layers, blending mode and masking which have been taught in previous tutorials. I followed the steps in the video . Below is the progress of the recoloured black and white portrait done by me. The tool we would use the most is blending mode. I have mentioned the blend mode I used for recolouring each part of the portrait at each image caption. I tried several attempts of blending modes at the skin, hair, lips, and shirt colours.

PART 2

This part has 2 exercises of recolouring black and white portraits using a different method from the previous part. We will follow the video  to complete exercise 1 and use the same method to complete Exercise 2 on our own.

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Tutorial

1. PROJECT 1B - PART 1: Hearst Mansion- Follow instructions from the W4_HEARST MANSION: 
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Uc5UY-PjqTCImigtHk8qh6vUuutTZw8qAjJHiNXjPOM/edit?usp=sharing

2. PROJECT 1B - PART 2: Recoloring Black and White 

• Follow instructions from the W6_RECOLORING BREAKDOWN:
  EXERCISE 1: (Tutorial Demo in Class)
  EXERCISE 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bmNokgEamSgp0wzdGl-6sggcNrVI1JtY/view

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Practical

1.PROJECT 1B: PART 1 A

                                                                         Fig 1.1 : Heart Mansion Demo Exercise

PROJECT 1B: PART 1 B

                                                                               Fig 1.2 : Heart Mansion with My Photo

REFLECTIONS

By integrating personal portraits into the architectural space, I deeply experienced the magic of Photoshop as a "digital scissors". The key techniques used were layer masks and edge blurring, which created a sense of breathing at the junctions where the flesh met the bricks and stones - the deliberately retained few imperfect seams (such as the light and shadow discrepancy at the neck and the wall) actually enhanced the surreal absurdity. This practice made me realize that a good composition does not lie in absolute imperceptibility, but in the logical fiction: for instance, adjusting the skin tone to match the color temperature of the building, or establishing a unified light source narrative for the projection angle. If I make improvements next time, I will try to add environmental reflected light to make the body truly "grow" in the building rather than "stick" to the surface.

2.PROJECT 1B: PART 2 A

                                                                     Fig 2.1 Original Black & White Portrait          

               

                                                                               Fig 2.2 After Recolouring 

PROJECT 1B: PART 2 B

Fig 2.3 Recolouring Exercise 2 Before

                                                            Fig 2.4 Recolouring Exercise 2 Before

REFLECTIONS

Through this practice, I have mastered the skills of precise coloring using the quick selection tool and layer masks, and have learned how to restore the natural tones of skin and hair by referring to sample colors. The application of the Soft Light blending mode makes the color transitions more gentle, but there is still room for improvement in details such as the edges of hair and the skin tones. This practice has made me realize that successful coloring requires not only precise techniques but also the ability to observe the relationship between light, shadow and color with great sensitivity.