Picture Worth A Thousand Words

This one was a lot of work! I had to start over a couple times, but I think it turned out pretty good. To start, I opened the original picture in a PhotoShop document and color corrected it using levels and curves. Next, I created tons of custom brushes of my name in another blank document using text, then define brush preset. After my brushes were created I selected the shadows and midtones of my image respectively and copied them each into their own layer, then made my midtones gray and my shadows black by going to edit, then fill. Then I combined them both into one layer, making a black and gray portrait. I created a new layer and made it white, then stamped my name brushes all over it. Then, I created another new layer, made it white, and moved it above the portraite layer so it could act as the white background. I selected all of the portraite layer and hit ctrl + C to copy it. Then I clicked on the name stamped layer and added a layer mask, then selected the mask and hit ctrl + V to paste the portrait onto it. I deselected it and inverted it (ctrl + I). I activated the name stamped layer so it showed through the portrait mask and my name showed through all over! I stamped some more where I didn't like how it looked, and used a soft brush to fill in some areas. I also created another layer above the masked layer and stamped a couple name brushes in random places to make it look different. For the colors, I selected the masked layer and gave it a gradient overlay in layer effects. I selected the screen blending mode and the rainbow color pattern. I had to try a couple times to get the overlay to work. For some reason the first time I tried it, the whole portrait layer just disappeared. Up to this point I'd followed the instruction on my own, but now I called Ms. Minkel for help. She didn't know what the problem was either, so I just started over. It worked like a charm the second time! I like how it turned out, but I think I could have taken a better picture to start with. I am glad that I got the color overlay to work, though, because I really like how that part looks. I had a lot of fun messing around with this project! It's a cool trick to learn.

Creation of Choice

I was really excited to do this project! It was very fun to be given pretty much a free reign and do whatever I wanted. I decided to make my creation of choice a graduation announcement. To get started, I created a blank document and set the dimensions to 4” by 6”. Next, I placed one of my pictures in it by opening it in another PhotoShop document and splitting the screen so I could drag it on to my blank workspace. I corrected the picture using the curves, levels, and color balance menus. Next, I created a border around the image by right clicking on the layer icon and clicking ‘select pixels’, and then going to edit -> stroke. After this I created a gradient over the picture using the gradient tool (quick command- G) and making the right side of the image black. I found an image of a small pink flower on the internet and extracted it out of its background by using the quick selection tool (quick command- W) and dragging it over to my workspace through a split screen. I transformed it (ctrl + T) to make it smaller and placed it on the bottom right corner of my image. After duplicating the flower (ctrl + J), I created a light pink satin layer style over it. Online again, I found the mortar board ‘class of 2011’ image and turned it into a brush by selecting it in another PhotoShop document and going to edit -> define brush preset. I stamped this new brush in the bottom left corner of my image and created a textured clipping mask behind it. To do this I created a blank layer and painted it pink using the paint bucket tool (W) and adding a textured filter. Next, I right clicked on the layer icon for the pink textured layer and clicked ‘create clipping mask’. I added the text (T), and changed my lips to a slightly darker pink by selecting them and going to image-> replace color. Also online, I found a picture of a swirly vine type thing with flowers. I turned this into a custom brush using the same methods as with the ‘class of 2011’ brush, and stamped it in the upper right corner. I really like how it turned out! It was more work than I expected, but I think it looks great. I don’t think I’ll use it as my actual announcement because that’s not one of my real senior pictures, but I think it looks nice anyway. And it was fun to practice and mess around with styles!