Photoshop Workshop

Like with the illustrator workshop we had a photoshop one which we have a small brief for, this is to use the photographs taken in the colour theory workshops to produce 5 double sided postcards.

Before we started this we had a workshop on Photoshop where we were shown tools we could use to do this brief.

Firstly we were shown how to use Levels. This tool is used if a photo looks dark and needs to be lightened. You can change the levels in 3 different areas, blacks, mid tones, whites.

This was the original images, as you can see it is very dark and can hardly see any detail in the top and wall areas of the photo.

After using the levels tool this is the image after i edited it. We were also shown how to use a layer mask too, this is where you can select a certain part of the image to apply the adjustment layer to. On this i used a layer mask on the windows, because they are already light enough, it was just the detail on the ceiling and walls that wanted bringing out more.

Next we were shown how to use shadows/highlights. Again this is done by using the levels tool.

This is the orignal image, as you can see the statue in the middle is very dark and no detail can be seen at all. To change this i used the magic wand tool to select the statue, increasing the px size till all the statue is selected, then creating a layer mask to only select the statue.

After using the levels tool, i made the statue alot lighter and now the detail in it can be seen alot better.

From this i experimented with adding text to the image

Here is the final image i created. Changing the statue so its brighter and in more detail. Darkening the sky slightly. Then adding text to the image, the text is on overlay so the clouds come through the text and make it look part of the image.

Hue/Saturation

For this we again worked with levels and hue/saturation adjustment layers.

The orignal image, very dark throughout, especially at the bottom.

Using the levels to lighten the image.

Using the hue/saturation to bring out the colours in the top glass section.

In the second session we looked at how to double side print a photo and set up a contact sheet.

We also looked at how to use RGB and CMYK in photoshop. To work in photoshop you should always use RGB as this is the colours that a screen works in, to print the document needs to be in CMYK, there is a way to view this without changing the image to CMYK.

If you adjust the image to CMYK to will see that it turns it dull and adjusting the image/colour will be hard to get the vibrant colours needed. 

Instead you can use proof colour to view what the document will look like in CMYK and how it will look when printed. You can keep going into this view throughout designing the document to see how it will look when printed. 

Another option is Gamut. This again is a view on the document, it doesn't change it from RGB, its just a view of the document, it will bring up grey areas which are colours that cannot be printed in the range of printer, you can then adjust these colours by using hue/saturation to bring it back into the range (the grey area will disappear).