Adding Colors to Black and White Photos and Adding Frames

We have been working with Photoshop in computer class for quite a while now. So this week when our teacher told us that we would be making our own tutorials for Photoshop, it did not seem like an impossible task. We worked in groups for this assignment and my partner and I chose a photograph from our Walk-a-Thon. This picture has a dominant color of yellow because that is our class color and everyone wears it on this day. We thought it would be a great idea to put this picture in black and white and then only bring back some of our yellow accents. Then we wanted to do more to the photo so we put it on a cork board and added a frame. This blog entry is dedicated to our tutorial with Photoshop.

                       BEFORE                                                                         AFTER

To add original color to a black and white image:

Step 1: Open Image.

Step 2: Make image black and white by opening Adjustments panel and clicking the Black and White button.

Step 3: Select the History Brush from the Tool Palette.

Step 4: Start coloring the items that you want to add the original color to.

To make a cork board background:

Step 1: Open a new blank document.

Step 2: Make a new layer and name it "Cork".

Step 3: Fill the layer with a tan color.

Step 4: Add Noise by going to Filter, Noise, Add Noise, and check the Monochromatic Box.

Step 5: Go to Filter, Pixelate, and Crystallize.

Step 6: Duplicate the "Cork" layer and name it "Edges".

Step 7: Add texture by going to Filter, Stylize, and Find Edges.

Step 8: Duplicate the "Edges" layer and name it "Reticulation".

Step 9: Filter, Sketch, Reticulation, and make the Opacity 25%. (May use Hue and Saturation to color the cork).

Step 10: Add a Merged Visible Layer by holding Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N+E keys.

Step 11: Go to Filter, Noise, Add Noise, and make it 6%.

Making the frame around cork:

Step 1: Add new layer and name it "Frame".

Step 2: Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to make a smaller section for the cut out of the frame.

Step 3: Press the Delete key to delete the cork from the frame.

Step 4: Go to Filter, Noise, Add Noise, and make it 20%.

Step 5: Select the Polygonal Lasso tool. Then click at the inner top left corner, then inner right corner, then double click to the outer left corner. Hold down the Shift button and do the same to the bottom corner.

Step 6: Go to Filter, Blur, Motion Blur, make the angle 0 degrees, and the distance 30.

Now your photograph is better than before. Enjoy!

For further help, here are the websites we used to help us learn how to do these amazing things on Photoshop:

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/mono-with-a-dash-of-colour-photoshop-cs2-tutorial

http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/bullbd/bullbd1.htm

Ad Design

My original logo was for the Mercy Trick Club. This week I made an advertisement flyer that goes along with my logo. For my ad, I chose to promote an upcoming event for the Trick Club. This event is the magic show and I made a flyer advertising this event. The ad is shown below. The target audience for this ad is the students, faculty, and staff of Mercy Academy and the families of members of the club.

To make this ad I used the many tools of Adobe Photoshop. I used the gray scale tool to make the picture of playing cards black and white. I then used the paintbrush tool to color some parts if the cards blue to match the blue of my original logo. I used the text tool to write information about the event on my flyer. Next I used the paint bucket tool to fill the background with a color that would make the text stand out. I used the shape tool to add jaguar prints in the background to compliment the ones used on my original logo. I used the move tool to transfer my logo at the bottom of the flyer without having to recreate it. To match the colors of my original logo perfectly, I used the eyedropper tool. I used the crop tool to to crop off extra space not needed from the picture of cards I used in the center of my flyer. I used the rectangular marquee tool to select the part of my logo that I wanted to use in my flyer. I also used tools that helped make my writing stick out more. Finally since I made many mistakes, I used the eraser to get rid of the mistakes.

Learning to Make Logos

An important part of advertising for many companies is the use of logos. Logos are just pictures that represent that particular business, club, etc. A way to make sure that logos go along well with the companies purpose is to personalize the writing with something that relates to what that business does. An example of this is in Chilis' logo where the apostrophe is a chili pepper. The logo communicates its purpose by revealing something relating to the business or company that it represents.

For computer class this week we got to design our own logo. I chose to design a logo for my school's trick club. This is just a club that will learn magic and card tricks. My logo, shown below, communicates this purpose because the "i" in trick is a playing card. The colors I used represent Mercy, my school, because they are our school colors. I used a gray backdrop so the blue writing would stand out more. I used lines in my logo with the edges of the card. I used shape with the paw prints on the card. I used emphasis by using the playing card instead of an "i" putting emphasis on the fact that we do card tricks.

The "Perfect Body Image"

Today in the media, we are bombarded with images of our role models and celebrities. But most of the time, these photos are enhanced using Photoshop or other programs. I got the chance to use Photoshop to change a photo of me without makeup and put my face on a celebrities body. For my photo I used Jessica Alba's face for my background.

The finished product as seen above looks extremely better than the original which is below. But the fact that those kind of changes would have to happen in order for me to be on a magazine cover is hurtful. People on magazine covers are changed so much that sometimes they are unrecognizable and that is not truthful.

Now that I know what happens when pictures are used for magazine covers, I will understand that no one is perfect. These people are not this beautiful in real life even though they are portrayed that way. The fact that already beautiful people need to be enhanced with tools like Photoshop portrays our society in a negative light. We like our celebrities to be skinny, tan, and perfect. But that is not realistic and it leaves people disappointed when they see the real people.

When enhancing my photo, I think i did really well on making my skin tone one even color, and matching my skin tone with Jessica Alba's skin tone. This is because my skin is one color all over, and you can barely tell where her face stops and mine begins. I think i could improve on applying eye makeup because I think mine looks a little fake. I could also work on the teeth whitening because my teeth look fake.

A Day in the Life of a Mercy Student

An important part of our lives these days is capturing moments so we can cherish them forever. But in order for them to be even more memorable, we must make sure they are clearly taken. Another way to improve these memories is by using Photoshop to enhance them. This week in computer class we made collages using Photoshop to depict the life of a Mercy student. Below I shared my collage and I explained what effects I added to the photos.

This is my collage. There are ten photos in this picture and I will explain what I did to modify each. First off, I took a picture of the jaguar some of our art students drew. I decided that I wanted to make this the background of the collage so I selected that layer and changed the opacity to make it faded out. For the picture at the top left, I used the magnetic lasso tool to select only my friend and me. Then I changed the saturation of only us. For the blue and yellow picture, I added a gradient layer. The picture of the chicken sandwich was changed by using the channel mixer. The picture of girls playing volleyball in the middle was warped. My dog is an important part of my life, so I had to put a picture of him on here. For this picture, I just changed it to a black and white setting. In the picture of my friends at lunch, there were a few girls with red eyes. I used the red eye tool to solve these problems. I used the magic wand tool to change the color of my toothbrush from white to blue. I did not change our school's crest because I did not see the need to. This is an example of simplicity when taking pictures. Finally, I cropped the picture of my cereal bowl so all you see is the cereal and no blank space behind it.

Elements of Photography

In order for a picture to look perfect, there are some guidelines you should follow. We learned these elements in computer class the other day. These elements are the rule of thirds, simplicity, lines, balance, framing, and avoiding mergers. Some other things to think about when taking pictures is the motion of the action, and the angle of the shot. I took three pictures to demonstrate three of the elements of photography.

This is a picture of a soccer ball I made in geometry class last year. The element I used in this photo is simplicity. The ball is the only object in the shot and it is the main focus. Even though it is the only object, it is still an interesting picture since the ball takes up most of the space.

This photo was taken in my kitchen. It is three different types of vegetables. The largest and main focus of the photo is the green pepper, then the small tomato, and the grape tomatoes and yellow tomato. The element used in this picture is the rule of thirds. If you were to draw a grid on the screen, then you would see that the green pepper lies on an intersection of two of the lines. With this element, you can add other objects into your photos without it being in the way of the main focus.

In this final photo, i placed a bandanna on my stairs and took a picture. But I angles the camera so the lines of the stairs were not straight across. This element is known as lines. A picture is much more appealing to the eye if the lines are not straight across. Having the camera slanted allowed for a more interesting picture.

Piracy Podcasts

In our piracy podcast, we did not pirate anything. However, if we did, there would be certain steps to follow in order to make sure we are not doing anything illegal. First of all, if we added a song that was not from the list in Garage Band, we could only use about thirty seconds of this song. At the end of your podcast you would have to give credit to the artist since it is a copyrighted song. The reason you would have to give credits to the artist is because it is their original thought and using it without their permission is illegal. We follow copyright laws because if we do not, we can be fined up to $250,000 in fines and up to five years in jail.

In my opinion, downloading music is completely wrong. It is disrespectful to the artist and the people working for him or her. It can also cost lots of money that will be taken out of workers paychecks. I think copyright laws should exist because they help to punish people who steal music. Without copyright laws, there would be no way to enforce non-pirating and people would continue to steal music. If you take a look at out society, you will see examples of pirating every where. People always listen to music on their iPods and iPhones and many of these people acquire these songs illegally. Right now, few out of the many people who pirate music are caught for their crimes. Pirating is a crime and it should be stopped.

This week in computer class, we have been experimenting with Garage Band on iMac computers. We have been creating our own audio podcasts explaining the importance of copyright laws. If someone were to steal this podcast without my permission, I would be extremely upset. I know that my group and I worked hard to make this podcast entertaining and helpful and if someone stole it, we would not get anything in return for our hard work. We also made cover art for our podcast. We spent a long time making sure this artwork was perfect and I would not appreciate if someone stole it to use for their own personal needs. If you are interested in learning more about copyright laws and pirating, here is our piracy podcast.

Copyright Thoughts

Over the past couple of computer classes, we have been looking into copyright and piracy laws. We looked into the penalties and punishments, along with some examples of real life cases where people copyrighted. I learned a lot of information that I did not already know. This has changed my view about copyright infringement  and piracy laws. I used to think that these were not as important as stealing from a store but they are equally important. Stealing is illegal, and can be punished like stealing from a store. The maximum punishment for stealing music is up to 5 years in jail and $250,000 in fines. I now understand that piracy is a serious subject, and is not something that can just be overlooked.

An example of copyright infringement is the Michael Bolton vs the Isley Brothers. The Isley Brothers wrote a song in 1966. Then a few years later, Michael Bolton copied the name of the song and some lyrics. They went to court and Bolton was charged with copyright infringement. Click here for more details on the case.I think it was fair the way that Bolton was charged because he stole someone else's work and made money off of it.

Technology Autobiography

I have been around technology for most of my life. It's hard to avoid it in the twenty first century because its all around us. There has been a computer in my house ever since I remember and it's hard to imagine life without one. So my computer history, as you can imagine, is not difficult to write about. The earliest computer I remember using is our family iMac. It was extremely large and was probably made in about 1999. The only time I used it as a child was to play games, but that computer was very important to me.

The next computer I used was the one our family got for Christmas when I was about 8 years old. It was a new Windows computer and I thought it was the coolest thing that ever happened to me. At this age I started to use the computer for other activities besides playing games. I used it for school work, and it was also my first experience with the Internet. We had that computer until my freshman year of high school. Our new computer was an Apple. I still have this computer and it is where I spend most of my time. I am on it constantly typing papers and researching on the Internet. I also use my computer to get on Facebook and to play Freecell every day.

Besides my home life, I've had experience with computers in school. At my grade school, we took computer classes every year. In these classes we learned how to safely use the Internet, write papers, make Power Points, and pamphlets on Publisher. This helped me know how to operate a computer so when I took computer freshman year, I did not have a hard time. At Mercy Academy, we are required to take computer classes freshman year. In this class, we learned how to write formal letters, make effective presentations, and how to use computers properly. So in my future, I will be well adapted to technology because of the experience I have had with computers in my past.

In the future, I think that technology will be very advanced. Computers will be used instead of books and I think that paper will not even be used because everything will be on computers and phones. Computers are going to be made smaller so they can be easily carried around and used at all times. Our society is going to be very advanced one day and it is important to have a computer background so we can stay updated.