Week 2 - Left and Right, Before and After
First Pair
In Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, I begin with the Ellipse Tool. There, I change the fill color by clicking the filled box by Color, then selecting green. Then I create the shape by holding down Shift and dragging on my mousepad while aleady holding down the left mouse button. Releasing the left button first results in a perfect circle.
The next step involves the Horizontal Type Tool, or HTT. I opt to keep the font type as is. As with the fill color in the Ellipse Tool, I follow the same procedure to choose black as a font color. For this, I make the font size 30.
Next comes a step repeated four times. With the HTT, I drag to create a text box, type a plus sign, then resize the box to closely be filled with only the plus sign. The final part of this sequence is using the Move Tool to drag the plus sign to one of the four areas in the circle that resemble north, south, east, and west on a compass.
Up next is the Rectangular Marquee Tool, or RMT. I use this to create an outline that encloses the entire circle within it. When that all happens, then I go to Select, and choose All Layers, then I go to Layers, and choose Merge Layers.
The final step towards the revised image involves the Move Tool again. After choosing that, I click the checkbox next to Show Transform Controls. Then I create the same outline I previously did with the RMT before returning to the Move Tool. When I move the mouse to an area that enables a click-and-drag movement of the mouse to rotate, a curvy line with arrows at both ends appears. At that point, I click and drag to rotate the image 45 degrees. By doing all that, I have transformed an image from one with addition signs at north, south, east, and west, to one with multiplication signs at northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest.
Second Pair
In Photoshop CS3 Extended, I start with the Rectangle Tool. I click Color, and select a red color. And following the same pattern for creating a perfect circle with the Ellipse Tool, I use the Shift, the mousepad, and left button to create a perfect square.
With the Horizontal Type Tool, or HTT, I keep the font type, while changing the size to 18 and the color to a light blue. Then in a sequence of steps done twice, I create the text box, type two numbers, and resize the box. This is done with one number being 69 and the other being 00, or double-zero.
Next, I use the Move Tool to drag the 69 to the mid-top and the 00 to the mid-bottom area within the square. Then using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, or RMT, I outline the square, then do Select-All Layers, then Layer-Merge Layers.
Next, with the square still outlined by the RMT, I go to the Move Tool and make it show the transform controls. Then with the cursor in the right area, I rotate the square 180 degrees. Now, instead of 69 being on top and 00 being on the bottom, the new image shows that the numbers swapped positions. Rotating the image, and not flipping it, makes this possible because even when rotated 180 degrees, the numbers are still the same. Not all numbers work that way, though.
Third Pair
As with the second pair, I following the same steps to create a square, only this time it was a green square.
Also, with the Horizontal Type Tool, or HTT, I made the font dark blue, its size 14, and still kept intact the font type. In a sequence repeated five times, for the five words I, OH, ICE, HIDE, and DICED, I used the HTT to create the text box. Then for each word I typed it in, with each time after I then used the Move Tool to drag them into the square. From top to bottom, words were ordered from fewest letters to most letters.
Next, I outline the square with the Rectangular Marquee Tool, or RMT, then I perform Select-All Layers, then Layer-Merge Layers.
After that, I keep the square enclosed in the outline, then I do Edit-Transform-Flip Vertical.
By doing all that, I have altered the first image to look like one where this time, the words now read top to bottom from most letters to least letters. Yet they still read like normal letters. Flipping, and not rotating, makes this possible because all the letters included in the image read the same both right-side up and upside-down.
Not all letters are like that, though, so it takes some thought into coming up with words that are the same when flip-flopped vertically.
Week 3 - Left and Right, Before and After
First Pair
In Adobe Photohop CS3, with the Rectangle Tool, I create a square, with yellow as my color.
Next, I use the Horizontal Type Tool, with a font size of 48 and black as the color, to type three instances of OH.
I drag that text into the yellow square, then I merge the square and text into one single layer.
Finally, I go to Edit, and under Transform, I choose Flip Horizontal. Now the layer is shown as a yellow square with three instances of HO.
This was an idea unlike any other I've come up with so far. The original square contains a phrase I remember from a book I read as a kid: Oh, oh, oh. I can't remember which book it was from, though.
The revised square shows the popular Santa Claus phrase "Ho, ho, ho." I never would have imagined me coming up with an idea of changing one phrase into another.
Second Pair
The original image is simple enough. I created it using the Polygon Tool, with setting my option to 5 sides, and using light blue as the color.
Altering the image into the second image was just as simple. I use the Line Tool in five consecutive instances to accomplish this.
With the line drawing color as black, I clicked at one angle, then moused to another angle and clicked again.
I repeated this click-drag-and-click process five times to draw a star in the pentagon I created with the Line Tool.
Third Pair
I use the Ellipse Tool, and by Shift-click-and-dragging, I create a perfect circle with orange as the color I selected.
Next, I use the Horizontal Type Tool, and I use a font color of blue, for the IX that I input into the text box.
I then drag the IX into the circle, then merge both the circle and the text into one layer.
The image can then be transformed into the second image in two methods. I can rotate it 180 degrees, or flip it horizontally.
Either way, now the circle with the IX (Roman numeral for 9) is now a circle with an XI (Roman numeral for 11).
And looking at both images together, since 2001, 9-11 (as well as 12-07 since 1941) will be a day that may forever live in infamy.
Week 4 - Left and Right, Before and After
First Pair
In Adobe Photoshop, I start by creating a perfect orange square with the Rectangle Tool. Then I use the Horizontal Type Tool to make a single text group of three lines with 3D, HD, and CD. I drag the text into the square, then merge those layers together. Finally, to get to the second image, I flip the image vertically. The three small acronyms still read the same but in vertically reversed. Of course, with the default font I used (which I used blue for the text color), the 3 in 3D is not exactly the same right-side up and upside down when flipped.
Second Pair
I use the Ellipse Tool to create a perfect green circle. Then with the Horizontal Type Tool, I type (in red font characters) the numbers and symbol that dictate that 8 is greater than 0. I drag that text into the circle and merge the layers. Next, I flip the object horizontally (if I rotated it 180 degrees, the 8 would obviously look like it's upside down; flipping it keeps it intact). By doing that, I go from one true mathematical statement (8 is greater than 0) to another (0 is less than 8).
Third Pair
I create a perfect blue circle with the ellipse tool and the yellow lowercase letters in the word "bob" with the Horizontal Type Tool. I drag the text into the circle and merge the layers. To get to the next image, I flip the object, thus going from bob, which means, among other things, a short haircut, to pop, which means, among other things, another way to say soda.
Fourth Pair
I create a pink circle with the Ellipse Tool, and the blue letters N (on the top) and Z (on the bottom) with the Horizontal Type Tool. I drag the N and Z into the circle and merge the layers. Now here's what really interesting. To get to the next image, I simply rotate it clockwise 45 degrees, and you get an N and Z (left and right) again. What actually results is that the rotation make the Z like an N that is being stretched and the N like a Z that is being contracted.
Week 6 - Top to Bottom, Overlapped Before and Afters
Before 1 to
After 1 and Before 2 to
After 2 and Before 3 to
After 3
The original photo of the four images above was shot by my mother on January 16, 2004, at the gymnasium of the high school I attended while I was a senior in Iowa. Actually, the authentic photo didn't have the green in there: I used the Paint Bucket Tool in Adobe Photoshop to show where some unnecessary white space was in the original file when it was scanned. So simply enough to get to the second photo, I used the Crop Tool in Photoshop to crop only the picture and thus eliminate the white space (green there). To get to the third photo, I followed the first three of four steps at the link listed as Source 1. I used Photoshop to achieve this task. I have to perform three tasks under the category/subcategory "Image/Adjustments". The first time, I choose Auto Levels. The second time, I choose Auto Contrast. The third time, I choose Auto Color. That is a significant improvement im image quality, but more can still be done, and although the steps to get to the final image can be done in Photoshop, I instead did it through a program called GIMP (steps at the link named Source 2), which can also save files as JPEGs and Adobe Photoshop images. First, I opened the image, and went to Colors/Levels. There, I adjusted the black point and the mid-tone of the image to my liking. Next, I went to Colors/"Hue/Saturation", and only adjusted the saturation of the image to my liking. Then I went to Filters/Enhance/Unsharp Mask to do, simply enough, to sharpen the photo to my liking. The important thing to realize with sharpening photos is to do it in small steps, or else the photo could be oversharpened. So by performing these simple tasks, with credit to the creators of the instructions at those two sources, I have significantly improved the quality of an image that is over five years old.
Note that each of the four images is actually shown as if they were zoomed at 50% of what their actual size would be in Photoshop.
Week 7 - One to Three Different Changes
The Simple Images
To keep it simple for black and white, I created a perfect black-filled square in Adobe Photoshop with the Rectangle Tool. Next, to get to each color that resulted from the original image in three different cases, I clicked on the small colored square to bring up the range of colors to select from (where I selected black to make the originals that color). No matter what default color is used to give all the possible colors in the square with many colors, in all cases, mostly the bottom-left and top left areas have black and white colors, respectively. So for each (it didn't matter if the default color focused on was red, blue green, or whatever), I clicked on a different level of black or white to show the difference. One's mostly white, one's mostly black, and one's about a mix.
Week 8 - Shadows, Overexposure, and Red Eye: Top to Bottom
The Three Pairs of Images: Left to Right, Top to Bottom
I used Adobe Photoshop CS2 to correct flaws in the three images I used. The first two original images are of the short-lived Spalding Cross Traxxion microfiber basketball used by the NBA for one half of a season. The first image needed some lightening, and the second image needed a bit of darkening on the S in Spalding. To accomplish that task, I apply changes to particular areas of the images using the Light Effects feature (one of the rendering type features). While tweaking the six different settings to my liking, I also resize and drag the black line and circle over the image to apply my changes to certain areas where it needs fixing. In the case of lightening the shadows, the bottom right corner needed the most work. In the case of correcting overexposure, the tiny spot on the S in Spalding was the key. The third image, meanwhile, was pretty straightforward. To correct the red eye, I just simply choose the Red Eye tool, then place the center of the tool's icon on the red eye area, click it, and the redness is thus removed.
Week 9 - Faces - 5 steps of evolution from before to after
This is the original image I snipped out of a picture from 5 years ago.
The first change I made to the photo was pretty straightforward: removing the red eye look. In Adobe Photoshop, I selected the Red Eye Tool, placed the center of the tool's icon over the redness, clicked it, and the redness was removed.
Next, I manually decreased the brightness and increased the contrast so the picture wasn't too bright.
If you notice the previous extremely carefully, you'll see there is a little tiny red spot on the top-left part of the person's lips. That red should be pink. To fix that problem, I select the Clone Stamp Tool, then Alt-click a normal pink area of the lips, then do a normal click on the red spot to correct the tiny odd color on the lips.
But there's more with the Clone Stamp Tool. There is some slight white brightness also on the person's lips, and I want that to be the normal pink color again. So this time, actually a process repeated several times, I alt-clicked with the Clone Stamp Tool on a normal pink lip area and normal-clicked each affecting white area on the lip.
Before this final image, in the one before, there are several areas on the person's face not her normal face color. So for the final time, in multiple times of doing it, I use the Clone Stamp Tool to alt-click normal white spots and apply them over the irregular colors on the face. But keep in mind, all those spots were scattered, and that wouldn't look real professional. So I used three more tools to get to this image, starting with the Eyedropper Tool. I click on the normal color of the face I want to make most of it so I select that random color to use. Next, I use the Paint Bucket Tool to cover properly affected areas with the color of the face I selected with the Eyedropper Tool. But not all of it can be done without the color affecting something other than the face, so the final tool I used was the Smudge Tool. Through a constant series of single mouse movement directions after mouse clicks, I push all the unnecessary remnant colors to the side, making sure not to affect anything outside the face. When I cleared it all, this image is where I ended up.
Week 10 - Removing Things from Photos - 3 Befores and Afters
In Adobe Photoshop, I used the Eyedropper Tool to change the foreground color for the Brush Tool to a white area on the baseball. My plan was to remove all the blue marks from the image. Then I select the Brush Tool, and change the radius size of it to 13. I perform a series of strokes to cover the blue marks. After that, there are many remnants of uneven white and gray areas remaining. So I again use the Eyedropper Tool, this time to select one of the gray areas on the baseball, then use the Brush Tool to cover the entire baseball not covered or surrounded by the red marks with gray.
This is a sketch of what the new Yankee Stadium would look like before it even started being built. My plan was to focus only on the sky, and cover anything only in that rectangular area with the lightest light blue in the sky in that image. I choose the light blue in the top left corner of the image with the Eyedropper Tool, then with the Brush Tool, carefully stroke around the edges of that rectangle, just to not cover any of the other colors below the sky in the image, then after covering it all, stroke some more to clean up the uneven remnants in the bluish look to make it smooth.
This image has football goal line markers with a G meaning goal line. There are two of them, one at a closer view, and one at a farther view. In two different series of steps, I select the shade of orange on each goal line marker with the Eyedropper Tool (my plan was to remove the G in each), then use the Brush Tool to cover the G with the proper shade of orange. I used a slightly bigger radius for the Brush Tool for the marker that was at a closer view since that marker looked bigger in the image.
Week 11 - Sharpening Photos - The same Approach to each of these three Before and Afters
With these images, I needed an emergency replacement to adjust the before images to the after images. This semester, I've used up trials on both Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3. CS4 was my next intention to finish out the semester, but it won't work for me for reason. So I looked for Adobe Photoshop CS, but it was hard to find. Even though I recently found one of the CS trials, it wasn't until after I did my task on the free online version of Adobe Photoshop. After registering for a free account, I could then upload photos and edit them, in several ways like in the standalone Photoshop program. When it came to this assignment, I realized that the online version of Photoshop actually lowers the barrier, if you will, in that it makes it easier to go through the process of sharpening images. All I did was upload each of those before images here, asked the program to edit the photo, then I chose from a range of features also in the standalone Photoshop, to sharpen the image. I clicked the sharpening option, then immediately at the bottom of the page, it brings up different looks of a selected square area of the original image, though the entire image itself will actually be impacted. That depends on which of those small squares is chosen. From left to right, the squares are from the least sharpened to the most sharpened, based on what seems just right. Remember, the site does the work for you: you don't need to alter any sharpening type settings like you would in the standalone Photoshop. To get to each of the after images, I simply clicked the rightmost square for each image, thereby sharpening each of the original photos to that extent (the maximum sharpness possible suggested by the different squares).
Week 12 - Watermarks and those Watermarks on other Images - Befores and Afters of Each
Before
After
For all three examples, I used the original Adobe Photoshop CS. In this first example, the original watermark is the color-based logo of my high school in Iowa. To get to the second image, initially I opened that image, then opened a new document in which the background was white and the color settings set to grayscale. Next, I select the original colored image, then drag it to the new document, thus changing the image's color settings from 8-bit RGB to 8-bit grayscale. After that, I select the entire canvas, go up to the menu bar, and under Select, I choose Color Range... In the box that pops up, I choose Shadows from the drop-down box next to Select:, then I select the radio button next to Selection, then click OK. By doing that, the area selected changes from the entire canvas to just the area only surrounding the logo.
Before
After
Next, I open the original image seen here from this pair of photos, then I go back to the revised watermark logo, which is still selected, then drag it over and align it to the top left corner of the larger image.
Before
After
For this second example, this is how I altered my watermark, which in this case is the world-record 18-leaf clover. First, I went to Image, then Adjutments, then Brightness and Contrast. I decreased the value of both those categories, then hit OK. Next, I only want the clover itself, and not the rest of the background, to be my watermark, so this is how I do that. I use the Magic Wand Tool by clicking on a few areas of the green parts of the clover. After most of it is selected, I hold down the Shift key and click on the selections that are on the inner areas of the clover. Doing that removes those selections, so that in the end only the outermost edges of the clover are selected. If I were to drag the entire clover without removing those inner selections, the remnants of the image in those tiny selections would not be dragged along with it if I tried to drag the entire clover.
Before
After
Next, following the guidelines I just mentioned with the clover, I then drag the properly selected image into the original photo of this pair of photos, then align it in the top-leftmost corner.
Before
After
For the third and final example, my watermark is a logo to represent the 26 world champsionships of the Yankees, my favorite baseball team. To get to the revised image, I give the photo the Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, and Auto Colors treatment by going to Image, Adjustments, then selecting each of those options on three different occasions. Next, in the same area, Image and then Adjustments, this time I choose Brightness and Contrast. I decrease the values of both, in which I actually decreased the brightness value twice as much as I decreased the contrast value.
Before
After
Next, I open the original image from this pair, then I go back and select the newly revised watermark, and drag it into the larger image. Then I align that image in the top-rightmost corner.
Week 13 - Workflows
Before 1
After 1
This method is cascading windows in Adobe Photoshop. To do that, with the windows open in the first image like they are shown, I go to Window, then under Arrange, I select to cascade the windows. Thus they now show up like they do in the second image.
Before 2
After 2
This method is tiling windows in Adobe Photoshop. To do that, again I go to Window and then Arrange, but this time I select to tile the windows.
Before 3
After 3
For this method, it's just some simple dragging of all windows that are relatively small. I just open the three images, then drag them to look like the second photo.
Week 14 - Random Image Manipulation
For my three examples, I used the Rectangle Tool, with the foreground color as a shade of red, and drew a perfect square for each Before image.
In the first example, to get to the After image, I changed the foreground color of choice to a shade of green by clicking on the red square in the Application Bar, selecting a light green from the color range, then made the change by clicking OK to close the Color Picker window. Then while using the Paint Bucket Tool, I just simply clicked the red in the square, and it changed to green.
In the second example, to get to the After image, I drew an improvised outline of the number 7 with the Polygonal Lasso Tool. After that selection is completed, I use the Paint Bucket Tool again, only this time clicking within the area of the outlined section, so now a section of the square that looks like a number 7 is now green.
In the third example, to get to the After image, I used the Brush Tool, and just drew a number 8 in the square.