A4+Texture+Wannow

=Texture Assignment=



List of Photoshop Changes

 * 1) First, I **cropped** my original woods scene picture because the bottom portion of it was out of focus. This happened because the camera was positioned right on the ground in a pile of woodchips that were too close to the lens therefore making that extremely close-up section blurry. Cropping out that portion not only made the picture look more "professional" but it also gave it a unique perspective (not quite eye-level, not quite floor-level).
 * 2) Second, I decided to **change the brightness** of the woods scene photograph. In photography, **exposure** is defined as the amount of light collected by the sensor in the camera during a single shot. For example, if the shot was exposed too long the picture would be too bright and vice versa. Because I manually changed the exposure on the computer, I decided to lower the exposure to make the shadows darker.
 * 3) Next in Photoshop I **increased the highlights** in the woods scene photo to contrast nicely with the lowered exposure. I believe this made everything pop, especially the green in the trees. Because there were so many shadows and textures in the forest scene from the sun overhead and these trees blanketing the scene the highlights made where the sunlight touched burst a little more, making the colors brighter while the shadows outlined it. I decided not to increase the contrast because I did not want the eye being drawn towards one thing, I wanted people to look at all the little details of the woodchips, the branches, the leaves, etc.
 * 4) Next, I **cut out the material behind the fence** in the fence photograph so that I could use just the fence as another layer to my project. I used the "lasso" tool in Photoshop to do this. After this, I used the "eraser" tool with a very small tip to go around the links to remove any little extra parts of unwanted scene still appearing.
 * 5) After cutting out, erasing, and deleting each part of the fabric and the tennis court scene it was in front of I decided to keep the shadows that fabric cast onto the fence links and I **merged** that layer down into the background layer with the edited woods scene photograph. I decided to keep the shadows on the links because it looked realistic with the shadows the leaves were casting off from the sun in the woods scene--when merged together it made it look more realistic.
 * 6) Because the fence links were very choppy and did not have smooth layers after using the eraser tool in step four, I used the **clone stamp** to touch up any of these noticeable areas. First I stamped an area that had the same gray shade as the one I wanted to touch up. Next I held down the "option" button to clone stamp that area and then filled in and touched up the choppy area I wanted to fix. I also shrunk the fence by clicking on the mouse tool and going to the edge of the fence and decreasing it. This made it look more realistic to the angle at which the background woods scene was photographed.
 * 7) Next, to make the photo look even more realistic, I used the **blur tool** to blur the edges of most parts of the fence so the fence blended into the picture and did not look "photoshopped". The story behind this photo is that I wanted the person looking at it to feel as if they were on the outside looking in behind this bleak gray fence and into a beautifully green forest.
 * 8) For my third photo I decided to use the caterpillar I photographed the first time we went outside on the track close up. For this photo too I used the **"lasso" tool** to cut out the caterpillar. However, that did not work at first because it made its edges look sharp and jagged so after that I went in with the **eraser tool** and smoothed the edges until the bug looked more round than spiky. However, after all of this, I still wanted the hair on the caterpillar to stand out because it demonstrated a completely different texture that was very unique to its original photograph. I then decreased the size of the caterpillar so it would be in proportion to the rest of the photograph.
 * 9) Next, I realized the caterpillar was much lighter than the rest of the photograph that I constructed (which is much more shadowy with brighter colors). So I could bring out the brightness of the unique orange color of the caterpillar, I used the **contrast tool** and increased the contrast so it would stand out more against the rest of the photograph. I also increased the brightness of the color of the caterpillar to do the same thing. I then **merged** the photograph down into the background woods scene (that's already merged and locked with the fence) and turned the caterpillar so it would look like it was climbing the fence. I positioned it in the middle of the picture so that it would draw the eye straight too it.
 * 10) Lastly, to make the photo look even more realistic, I used the **burn tool** under the caterpillar on the fence to add a shadow where the caterpillar was positioned. I also altered the **color balance** of the entire photograph as one (not separately anymore because they are all merged now) so it would not be too bright or surreal by making the colors fade a little more (more "black and white" effect). This made it look like it was shot entirely from one camera.

Compositional Techniques
The compositional technique I used in the photograph I composed was fill the frame. I used this technique because I wanted the angles and the viewpoint to be as if the viewer was kneeling up close to the fence and the caterpillar. Obviously, because I wanted this effect on the viewer, it would be fill the frame because the they would not be able to see the entire fence or woods at that angle. Fill the frame is demonstrated by the fence and trees extending past the boundaries of the photographed section. I also used the technique framing by having the side of the trees on the wood path frame the caterpillar that's positioned in the middle of the photograph. Not only does the framing draw the eye into the center of the photograph to the caterpillar but the color of the caterpillar that I edited in Photoshop helps the technique.

Texture
I emphasized the texture the caterpillar the most because it has a unique "fuzzy" look to it. However, the texture I wanted to highlight most in this assignment, was the background woods scene. I wanted it to look as if the viewer could reach out and touch the woodchips on the ground. I think I was able to succeed in doing so. The floor of the woods looks very lifelike. To make it look this way I added different effects and used different tools in Photoshop, as listed.

Feelings
Being the first time I have ever used the program Photoshop, I feel like I was very successful in this assignment. I was able to highlight the texture of the woods and the caterpillar really well and I combined the three photos together into one believable photograph. Though the photo looked like it could be taken as one, the effects weren't as clear and lifelike as I wanted them to be. For example, the fence. Cutting out the fabric behind the fence was a long and tedious process so the fence looked choppy, even after I tried blurring and using the eraser tool. I definitely would be a lot more careful using the lasso tool and eraser tool when cutting out an image. Also, I really wanted to use the caterpillar because of its bright color and fuzzy texture. However, the selection tool could not cut out the hair of the caterpillar so I could not depict what I initially wanted to when merging the photograph with the caterpillar. Overall I like Photoshop and I believe I did a good job on the assignment.