JohnsonMorgan-Texture

Morgan Johnson Combine 3/Texture

Original Images



Final Image



My concept for this photograph was the idea of what makes us human? To show this through my piece I used four images and lots of editing techniques on photoshop. My original images were of a skull, tree branches, a red, berry-like plant, and my hand. To me, all of these pictures had interesting textures, especially the texture of my flesh and the texture of the red plant. They also represent what makes us human, as the skull was obviously representing how we all have a face, the plant was symbolizing our heart because of it’s color and shape, the branches symbolize our backbone and how we all have one and it protects us, hence why the heart is underneath the branches, and lastly the flesh texture from my hand shows the way we all have some kind of skin that keeps us all together.

These images were then edited and put together to create my final image. To begin with, I made the skull my background layer in photoshop. Then I opened the picture of the red, berry-like plant and cut it out using the magnetic lasso so it was just the red plant and pasted it on top of the skull. Then, I used the eraser tool with a faded brush to fade away the edges. Next, I opened the photo of the trees and used the magic wand to get just the tree branches from the picture. I added just those branches then, as a new layer on top of the skull. Then I changed the opacity of the tree branches to 39% and also added an outer glow to emphasize the leading lines in the photograph. Next I opened the picture of my hand and used the magnetic lasso to cut out just my hand. Then I pasted it as the top layer over the skull, plant, and trees. I then used the transformation controls and enlarged it so that the flesh of my hand covered the entire image. Next, I set the opacity of the skin to 75% so the texture was still notable, but see through enough that the other elements of the photo were visible. I also added a gradient overlay at 54% onto the skin layer to light it up a bit. Once I saved the final image as a jpeg, I adjusted the curves a little bit to just make sure all elements of my piece were visible and contrasted the way I wanted.

Overall, I think my piece was extremely successful. My concept was really strong, and the images I chose went well with that concept. I think that my final image shows a nice, complex composition with three large objects which are appealing to the eye. I also think I met the ideas of leading lines with the tree branches and the rule of third because there’s some kind of movement or object in the points of intersection. I think I also did a good job with filling the frame as some of the image extends off the page. I wouldn’t change anything about my piece because I am really proud of how it turned out and I think it’s a really strong concept.