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Photography and Digital Manipulation

Rebecca Coughlin

Image Processing and Techniques

Pixelation

Why would an image be cropped?A photographer may want to crop to recompose or get closer to a certain part of the image or the subject which can be used through pressing the hotkey (C). You could also crop a photo to reduce the file size.

What causes pixelation to occur?It occurs when the image resolution wasn’t high enough to begin with or that there is excessive cropping.

What preventable measures are there?Ensure it is in its highest resolution and have a large SD card to store the large image.

How could the image be fixed?You can enlarge the image through Photoshop using the bicubic smoother option which is best for enlargement as it makes it a higher resolution. Go into Edit > Preferences > General... and make sure that "Image Interpolation" is set to one of the Bicubic options.

Colour Casts

What could cause a colour cast to occur?If there is difficult lighting such as in a room, it could cause colour cast, this could also occur through simultaneous lights in the same location e.g. tungsten and daylight. There is also the wrong white balance setting on a digital camera.

What preventable measures are there?To shoot raw or in the correct camera setting so it has the right white balance.

How could the image be fixed?

It can be fixed through Photoshop by using a photo filter by going to image>adjustment>photo filter. You can select either a pre-set or a custom colour such as orange or blue. By changing the density of the colour in Photoshop through photo filter you can neutralise the colour temperature to make it white. Simply head to the layers panel, click the adjustment button and add a “photo filter” If an image was cool, then add orange. If an image was warm, add a blue filter.

Picture Damage

Picture Damage

Picture Damage

How can picture damage occur?Through a dirty/scratched/cracked lens or a dusty sensor. A printed image being torn from inside a wallet etc or damaged from being an old photo print. Chemical deterioration occurs when the chemicals in the photograph or negative undergo reactions (either through contact with outside catalysts, or because the chemicals are inherently unstable) that damage the material. Physical or structural deterioration occurs when chemical reactions are not involved, and include abrasion and tearing. Temperature and Humidity interact with one another and cause chemical and physical deterioration. High temperature and relative humidity, along with pollution, can cause fading and discoloration of silver images and color dyes. Higher temperatures cause faster deterioration

How could the image be fixed?Through Photoshop using the ‘Healing Brush (J)’, ‘Clone Stamp Tool (S) or the content aware button used over the damaged area which helps to fix it.Through Photoshop I can fix the images in many ways, such as;Healing Brush- This fixes any blemishes by using an algorithm that analyses the surrounding area, and generates a sample to be used on the painted location. Clone Stamp-The clone stamp tool works through the user selecting an area to sample from. This can be done by holding ‘Alt’ and clicking.Content aware- Using this you are able to make your own selection using the marquee or lasso tools. To use content aware, simply right click on a selected area and choose the ‘Fill’ option.

What could be done to preserve images?A digital image could be preserved through saving them onto a hard-drive, memory stick or using cloud storage which keeps them safe. There are also more complicated ways such as burning the images onto a DVD or CD rom. A printed image could be protected in photo albums, laminated and to keep it away from the sun so the UV rays doesn’t damage or fade it.

Over or Underexposed Images

What could have caused this to occur?The wrong camera setting could cause under or over exposed images which could mean detail may be lost in the black/white areas of the image. Also, by changing the aperture to suit the amount of light in the place the image is taken at, the camera will be able to focus better and capture more detail instead of having the light blur out important detail to make the image look as crisp as it can. You could also make sure that the camera is on the right settings such as the shutter speed being set too fast so the image comes out blurred.

How could the image be fixed?It can be fixed through using levels, levels can be used by using Image > Adjustments > Levels (Cmd/Ctrl + L). The black tones in Photoshop lets you adjust the exposure in the image to show more or less detail.

Panorama

How was the panorama created?Recent digitization of the photographic processes has allowed ease of capturing panoramas. It is created by standing in one place and turning the camera to capture the object you would like to capture. The camera needs to stay steady and at the same height so that the panorama can come out as best as it can.To create the panorama I used the camera on manual mode to keep a consistent exposure. I used a shutter speed of 1/50th and ensured that the camera was in portrait mode at the widest focal length. I also ensured to overlap the images by 20%. Finally, I brought the images into Photoshop and put them into file, automate and photomerge.

What would you do to improve the panorama next time?I would use a tri-pod to ensure the camera stays in the same place and so that it is steady. This will also ensure that the panorama is made to the best standard. I will also pick a day where it is clear, no fog, to create a clearer cut image. You could also use different tools on Photoshop.

Panoplanet

How did you create your image?This panoplanet was made very much like how the the panorama was made. This was done through setting the camera in manual mode with the fast shutter on as well as adjusting the aperture setting to fit the place I was taking the picture. The picture was taken through me standing in a field, staying in one place and the doing a 360 turn while taking pictures so each picture overlaps. This is then merged into one image on Photoshop which creates the panorama effect. The images then need to be realised to adjust to a square height the same on the image, once this is done it is then flipped and altered to appear as the panoplanet.

What would you do to improve the panoplanet next time?I will try and make sure the images captured are overlapping the same distance, as well as staying as still and as level as I can to make it look better. I could do this by have a tri-pod, which would keep the camera still and in the same place and height.

Photo Montage

Photo Montage

Photo Montage

How did you create your montage?I created my montages by saving some pictures I liked, then opened the background image in Photoshop. I then did a basic sky replacement by placing a new sky on the above layer. Using the quick selection tool (W) and creating a selection of the sky. I then refined the edges to make it more accurate. I then selected the new sky layer and inverted it (select>inverse) and then deleted the original which replaced it with the new sky. After getting my background landscape, I then cut a random image out and placed it wherever on the current image which creates my montage.

What would you do to improve the montage next time?I would spend more time trying to get rid of as much as the white background from the image so it looks better, as well as adding more things in that are more complicated. I would also like to create a reflection of the image I added on to make it look more realistic and professional. Choose File > Open, and open the first image > Select the Move tool > Click anywhere within Image > drag from the Image 1 window to the collage image window, and release the mouse button > Close the Image 1 window so that only the collage image is open. Your Layers panel now contains a Background layer and the new layer that you renamed.

Hockney Joiner

Hockney Joiner

How did you create your joiner?You take many close up images of the same object/subject in a type of ‘S’ shape, making sure you capture the image in many angles. After this, the image is uploaded onto Photoshop using the option to blend the images together. Therefore creating the hockney joiner, you do this through going to file > automate > Photomerge to put it together automatically. The best way to make this is to use a medium focal length lens 50-100 mm, stand in one place, lock the exposure if possible or set the camera to manual so the exposure does not change and photograph the scene. You might start at the bottom left - sweep right then move up and sweep left - and continue until the entire object is captured. Be sure to overlap your images.

What would you do to improve the joiner next time?I would pick another photo that is more complicated to show how the joiner works as well as making sure the subject was clearer and more interesting. I would also look at different locations to enhance the quality of the hockney joiner, I may also use Photoshop to edit the images which could improve how it would look.

Colourised Image

Colourised Image

Colourised Image

Discuss your workflow:The first step is to ensure the image is set to the correct mode. To do this, go to “Image > Mode > RGB Color’. This will ensure colour can be added to a B&W image. I would make the selection through using the ‘lasso’ tool. I then went to image>adjustments>hue/saturation and ticked the ‘colourise’ box to change the saturation etc.

What would you improve if you did it again?I would improve the colour to be more natural as well as take more time to be more precise.

Could there be any ethical issues when colourising images?Some people may say that a colourised image is not giving an accurate representation of the world. This could lead to miscolour of something e.g. a flag or uniform. Although if the colours are similar enough to the original, then it is generally accepted.

What file formats were utilised during the tasks?JPEG- It is the most common picture format, you can use it anywhere so you have more access. It offers compression which means you can keep the size small. They are flat pictures which means they have no layers so they are best used for photography.

TIFF- It’s used to store graphic images as a TIFF drive offers lossless compression and retain information about layers, but are only used in certain software.

PSD- They are native to Adobe Photoshop. They are lossless and retain layer information but they can only be used on Adobe.

What legal requirements would you abide by in the industry?While manipulating an image that is pre-existing as a student, it consists as ‘fair use’ which allows limited use to copyright material although there is no clear cut rules.

Non-commercial- The work can be copied, distributed and displayed etc, but must not be profited.

Public Domain- Others can exploit our work freely without restriction.

Attribution- Any copied, distributed, displayed, or derivative work must be credited to the original author.

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What legal requirements would you abide by in the industry?

• IP: You must also respect intellectual property, which constitute as original ideas, inventions, creations, designs, and artistic work used in a commercial method.

• Software Licensing: When producing or manipulating any work using Adobe products, it is imperative that the correct software licensing is used. Licensing is a legal instrument that gives you permission to use the software. If a company has sufficient evidence that a user has been using pirated or any form of software that contradicts the terms and conditions, then legal intervention could occur.

• Libel: Any manipulation that takes place should not falsely accuse or stipulate a damaging statement or piece of defamation regarding an individual. Both parody and satire can be used to create fun, but not regarding an individual. Work must also ensure not to invade privacy (personal affairs).