Mertens+Madelyn+Texture

= Original Photos = = Final Photo =




 * To create my design, I used the pictures I took in the art room, cemetery, and prairie. First I choose the background photo, which was a path in the woods leading to Horizon from PHS. I had to change the level, and curves to make the image brighter. Then I cropped the cross from its original photo and pasted to to the background. I had to change the amount of exposure since the cross was very brightened by the changes I made before. Also I changed the amount of brightness and contrast to the snow and the woods, so that there was a clear difference between the two. Next I cropped and pasted the pot of flowers, butterfly, bouquet of whitish yellow flowers, and the toy cars. Once again, I had to spend time changing the levels and curves since some of my images were very bright or a little too dim for my liking. Due to a lot of empty space, I cropped and pasted in a gravestone, and then used the same gravestone again, to compliment my main memorial. Since the gravestones were a bit dark, I had to change the levels on them. I also had to use the eraser to help blend my gravestones’ shadows to match the background. With the magic wand tool, I was able to remove any lines that I missed when I was cropping my images. Finally I changed the vibrance to help bring out or advance my colors. **

===In my design, there were two compositional techniques I used; leading lines, and horizon line. The horizon line separates the light foreground from the dark background. The outline of the path leads your eyes to the graves and the path in the woods, which made my photo looks very interesting.  ===


 * In my design, I really wanted to emphasize the rough look of the trees and the soft fluffiness of the snow. I made sure to not use any tools that could make the trees get a softer or smoother look. When I took the background photo, there were a lot of footprints, making the snow have a rough look. So I changed the amount of the brightness, curves, and levels so the snow could get an even softer look to it. **


 * When deciding my concept for this project, I was inspired by a story about a young girl who died due to leukemia. I added two more graves to represent her parents. The young girl loved the colors pink and yellow, which I represented with the butterfly, flowers, and the ribbon. She was a bit of a tomboy, so the picture I took of toy cars made sense with this concept. Instead of having another gravestone, I choose to use a cross, because it was small, just like the young girl. The woods was dark because I felt like the graves have a peaceful aura compared to the somewhat scary aura. **


 * For my first project using Photoshop, I think I did really good. My craftsmanship is clean and the pictures that I added together fit the theme of my photo. There is an nice contrast between the lightness (foreground) and darkness (background), which fits with my theme. I know there are some things I would have changed like the snow path in front of the graves, there is a lot of extra space. I should have cropped it out so that there was not as much as open space. So next time, if I see unnecessary open space, I will either fill it or crop it out. **