Photo Shoot and Photoshop I've wanted to sit down and do a photoshoot for some time, taking some fun pictures and just play around with them. Well, I did have better things to do but I decided to just go with it. I wanted to take pictures of me outside my comfort zone, get all dressed up and funked out and do something with the hair and makeup and all that jazz. My sister has a talent for it so she asked if I wanted to get some pictures and I was all 'heck yeah!' But half of the fun after the photoshoot is manipulating the pictures later. I decided to do something a little different with each one. All of these pictures are taken with a simple snap and shoot camera. Photoshop is a beautiful, beautiful thing. This was actually the last picture we took, but it's one of my favorites. I like the punk rocker feel to it. Manipulation was simple. Wiped out all color by desaturizing the pic, then messed with the levels to bring the whites and the blacks out. For this pic, I made an exact replica of it over the original and gave that a soft light tag. Then between the two layers I placed another that was a dark purple to give it the purple hue cast to it. This is the punk rocker chick with to much eye makeup look, but I really think this was the only picture to come out without me looking like a crack whore. Two layers, like the previous file, the top file is in cutout and put on Multiply so the bottom layer comes through to give it its color. I really liked this image and just wanted it to look really bright. I auto-colored it to take the blue cast given by the camera out and then went to the Match Color windo and put everything at maxed out. It's helpful to have a lot of color in the picture to begin with to let this pop out. I can't for the life of me remember what I did to get this affect. But it wasn't hard and with plenty of playing around in the gloriousness that is photoshop, it isn't that hard to produce. It had some filters involved though, this I know. I just wanted to whitewash this one out to bring out my very angsty eyeballs that I'm quite known for. Two identicle layers, the top one is on Overlay and using the curve tool, I tweeked it until I got the look I wanted. The punk rocker outfit, in an action pose that I really liked so I took it and played a bunch until I got it to look like this. There are actually four layers involved, the bottom layer is the original untouched picture, there is a grayscale pic in the layer on top of that that is set at 30% opacity, a color fill filtered in with color dodge at 70% opacity, and the top image is me messing with the selective color, and then putting it at a soft light filter at 80% opacity. It just sounds a lot more difficult then it really is. I love those boots. That top isn't as flattering as I originally thought however, its actually to big for me. Another visit to that punk rocker chick, I wanted the look that it was a black and white image with color added as an afterthought, or rather the color was really toned down. I took a double layer and made the top gray scale with a Multiply filter and took the bottom layer through the hue/saturation and desaturated the color a little bit. I also messed around with teh levels, to bring out the blacks and the whites. This effect is actually quite simple. Take it through gradient map and pick your colors. Viola, this is what comes out. It helps to have very pronounced lights, darks, and minimum midrange for this to really be effective with the pic. I really like working with multiple levels, the top level is done with an artistic filter of sketch pencil and put on color burn over an untouched picture. It helps to auto color both before you begin. This picture looked zen to me, and I wanted to put it to some nice bright cheerful colors. Yes, I took the picture, desaturated teh color out of it so it was in grayscale, messed with the levels to bring out the blacks and whites, and then put a gradient under it. You could have done a hundred and one things with the image under it, but this was a default gradient and if I wanted to, I could have messed with it a little more to get a better color combination. Hmm, maybe I'll try something else another time. I've got a gob more pictures, and I think I'll try some different things with them. But the one thing I've discovered about Photoshop is that you just have to mess with it, try things and see if they work or if they don't. Sometimes they do, sometimes its a disaster, but that's why you back up your files and just go to town. I loveloveloveloveLOVE this software because there is so much you can do with it. I hope you enjoyed my loony pictures, and if you don't understand what I said to get the affects, I guess ignore my little commentary. I'll probably put up some more later. Labels: Photomanipulation, Photoshop, Pictures -Risawn: # 8:15 PM - |

4.23.2007

Homework Update So, remember the post of me with the bigass gun that I did in illustrator a few days back? Well, let me finish the assignment for you. See, we had to take a picture of us and convert it into a super hero pose, and I decided to do a girl in a post apacolyptic world. So I stripped her down to just grey BDU bottoms and a tank top, and gave her a scar and some tattoos (that's to seperate this fictional alter ego from myself) and then I slapped a horrible background onto it because I suck at backgrounds and this popped out. I had to give it a comic title name, so its a comic called "Girls with Guns", until I could think of something more clever, which I didn't by the time the assignment needed to be turned in. I've grown a little attached to Illustrator now. Excuse the abnormally long neck and the strange shape of the left pantleg, I took the bottoms directly off the other picture and I'm actually not this skinny so it looks a little. . . weird. Eh, but not bad for a person just learning how to use Illustrator, eh? Labels: Art, Photomanipulation, School -Risawn: # 12:22 AM - |

4.18.2007

Super Hero - HAH! (work in progress) So, for my current homework assignment, I have to take a picture of myself or somebody I know and convert it into a digital illustration, or more specifically, a super hero. Huh? Well, I got the converting part down at least, and so I've been playing with the illustrator software and I must admit, I'm not in love with it. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm kind of getting the gist of it. So, back to the 'super hero' assignment, which had me scratching my head. When I first heard the assignment, I wasn't aware of it being an assignment converting a picture into a super hero, and I was thinking of doing something with a ferret (I have plans to do a spoof comic with ferrets, its not a long term thing by any means) but alas, I got the memo that I was to use a picture for this assignment. Well, I need a lot of work, but after fiddling with it, I got, something? What picture did I use you might ask? Why, the one that I ran into the ground about two years ago. It's still a work in progress. I've got to find a way to make this all super hero-y. But I just converted the bare basics. I even thought about giving myself long hair with it down, but, well, that would feel weird because I'm in uniform, so in order to make that a go, I have to ditch the uniform. And its so baggy that I'm having trouble trying to figure out where my limbs are underneath. Maybe I should get another picture instead? Ah, but it's so much fun! Labels: Art, Photomanipulation, School -Risawn: # 5:43 PM - |

12.03.2006

Undue Flattery Am I heartless? I don't get the reason to flatter somebody over a job that is subpar. Being an artist, I am a firm believer that if you see something you don't like about a piece, you tell the artist what it is (constructive criticism here). They can then use your criticism to either fix the piece, take it into heart the next time they do a piece, or tell you to go to hell and ignore what you said. I don't believe in being rude about it or anything, you can just say "hey, I really think that this color doesn't go well with this other color in the way you put them here, try a different shade, like a darker red perhaps.) I've been getting this from my Image Editing class. There are some people who are awesome in the class, and then there are others who are still learning the software and therefore because of their experience, they are prone to having work that is not as clean as the others. Often times, I get the impression that other students in the class are catering to these students by telling them "this looks great!" when it is obvious that there is plenty of room for improvement. I won't cater to your feelings by telling you a piece looks great if it doesn't, however I will acknowledge improvement and encourage them to keep working at it. Undue flattery doesn't help anybody, and I have found that you learn greatly from your mistakes. In fact, I learn more from my mistakes then my successes. As long as my mistakes aren't fatal, I generally only make them once because I learned from them the first time. I like to be told what I'm doing right and not have every mistake pointed out to me, granted, but please give me constructive criticism and tell me how I'm doing. Let me know if I totally messed something up or if it doesn't work. I'm a big girl, I can take it. Labels: Art, Photomanipulation, School -Risawn: # 11:10 PM - |

10.27.2006

Image Editing So far my image editing class has been interesting. A lot of this stuff is repeat of things I already knew but I'm also reinforcing techniques and picking up on some stuff I didn't know. I've been enjoying the class immensely. My first assingment I was given three black and white photos of butterflies and was told to put them into a collage in some manner. This was in essense a practice of the Marquee, Lasso and Magic Wand Tools. This is what I came up with. Nothing fancy really, me mostly playing around and messing with the color. The second project was reinforcing the ideas of the first, except for we had to find a full body image of a human either online or a picture of ourselves and at least five additions to it, whether it be articles of clothing, background or what not. I didn't feel like searching for an already made image, so I used myself. I mean, i have Photoshopped myself before. And then I looked for the strangest outfit I could find. It was really tough finding a pair of shoes that would work. But overall, I had a lot of fun. I actually bought a hat like that in Bulgaria. More for the novelty of it then anything. This week's assignment was a practice with the Gradient Tools and an enforcement of colors. We had to create a 'still life' using geometric shapes. Well, I wouldn't really call this a Still Life so much, more of me goofing around (which a lot of these assignments seem to be) and for a bit I was thinking that this wasn't going to work. And then I messed around with it a bit more and then discovered that I actually really liked it! I'm not much of a color person, I'm more into subtle tones, monochromatics and neutrals. This is bright and cheerful, and it looks sweet! I see one thing I should probably go back and fix but overall, cool! I do one to two images a week like this, one major assignment for that week. The fact that I have prior experience with Photoshop (and a lot at that) has really helped, and so does the ownership of a Wacom Drawing Tablet. Don't do Graphic Arts without it! Labels: Art, Photomanipulation, School -Risawn: # 3:46 PM - |

8.14.2006

DI In training I sincerely hope I don't look this psychotic when I finally make Drill Sergeant (some day. . .) Labels: Army, Drill Sergeant, Photomanipulation -Risawn: # 10:26 PM - |

6.24.2006

Photoshop Goodness My 'Not Sorry' days have come back to bite me. And not being in the capacity to go online daily, I miss some things. Such as this little number via my good friend over at Mountaineer Musing. Be vewwwwy qwuiet. . . . . . I'm hunting Buffawoe. . . Of course, when you bring up anything that has to do with Brokeback mountain, somebody's going to get you involved in it someway or somehow. Hey, Jessica Alba is a hotty! I'll admit it. Note: I am not the creator of these images. I merely post them for blogging sake. Labels: Photomanipulation, Yellowstone -Risawn: # 9:56 PM - |

10.12.2005

Ugly Americans Cadet Happy is Photoshopping me again. This time, mom is another one of my accomplices. I need to get a picture of me in the Black Forest. I got France in the background. It's the mountains in the background, you can see them over the mist. Now that's something to Photoshop! Ok, I don't hate France THAT much. I just don't agree with their politics. But apparently there are a lot of Europeans that don't like France either. Labels: Europe, Photomanipulation -Risawn: # 12:50 AM - |

8.22.2005

Trouble In Deed Been a while since I posted to other blogs, but since I've been out of the loop, I don't tend to cross link unless its about me. Dang that makes me sound vain. When I get back home, maybe I'll start ranting about things other then myself. Hmm. . . I was wondering when Cadet Happy would use his photoshopping skills again. Apparently it was enough to make IMAO. Labels: Blogging, Link, Photomanipulation, Vanity -Risawn: # 12:02 AM - |

7.27.2005

Meet the Family Being here in Kosovo, one of the toughest things I've had to endure is being away from my family, as I am privileged with having a very close one. I'm the youngest of six kids in a tight nit group, my oldest sister is only 8 and a half years older then I, so we have a special bond in being so close. Really, we are a family that enjoys being together and it is one of my greatest blessings that I have realised since I've been here. This is the last picture taken of my entire family, it was taken two days before I shipped out to Fort Lewis on this deployment, back in November. Since our entire family was there, we decided to take advantage of having one of those rare family portraits done, as now that every one is an adult, sometimes its hard to round us all up. Of course, I'm the only one with a major presence on the internet, but still, I don't want to give my siblings or my parents any unwanted attention, that and they have expressed worry in the past (before my fifteen minutes of fame) of having pictures of myself on the internet. Well, that's come and gone for me, unfortunately, so I don't see any problem in showing other pictures to interested passerbys. However, because I don't have the immediate approval of my family to post their mugs on the internet, I had to do a little alteration to the picture. Shiny happy people. Labels: family, Photomanipulation, Pictures -Risawn: # 10:28 AM - |

5.23.2005

More Fun With Photoshopping I should have seen this one coming. . . I just knew somebody would take the bait on that one, I just knew it! And I posted the picture anyway! Courtesy of Gadfly :) Labels: Greece, Photomanipulation -Risawn: # 3:34 AM - |

5.15.2005

Meanwhile. . . Photoshopping at Mountaineer Musing is still going on. Apparently I am now using my literally kickass white belt maneuvers to kick Frank J's butt (er, or rather his gut) for a Telethon. I should just post pictures in weird poses just to see what Cadet Happy will think of next. Labels: Minions, Photomanipulation -Risawn: # 9:23 AM - |

12.06.2004

More on Badass Championship Personally, I like Aaron's version of how it will go. Meanwhile, 'not' SarahK has a poll up on which one of us is going to win. It looks deadlocked. *prods readership ever so subtly* Labels: Badass, Blogging, Photomanipulation, zzz -Risawn: # 10:55 AM - |

11.12.2004

merchandising? I've had several people come to my site asking for my Poster. I don't have a poster. Somebody mentioned that I should make one. Besides, the air hose attached to the M203 needs to come off, I'd have to get on photoshop and do something about that. Otherwise, well, hmm. . . maybe I should look into that? UPDATE Ok, so I'm trying to work out this poster idea, but I've run into two problems. First, I took a picture with an M203 that is specifically used for similation purposes and has a big fat hose hanging off of it. You can't ignore that. So I photoshopped it off. Ok, that works alright. But secondly, well, the photo is taken in a middle of a classroom! There's a table and some chairs in the background (well, the grenade display is pretty hoorah), but still, when you're thinking of army and bad ass rifles with grenade launchers attached to them, you're thinking of wide open spaces and charlie in the distance, not a bloody classroom! That left the options fairly open. How about smack dab in the middle of the desert? Or plant myself in the middle of a Washington Rainforest? (well, fort lewis really does kind of look like this) Or maybe post in front of one of my beloved Hummers. Or, perhaps at a Gun Show? HOw about a field of poppies? or I could be cliche' and superimpose myself in front of a flag. Eh, the options are a bit endless. I guess I could go about trying to perfect my photo shopping skills and make one that is pretty high-speed, but I'm not sure if I'm up to it. I guess my best option is to just blanket the background and post obscene messages. Hehe, requests are open! The following are rather tame. And of course. ***the quote, "Good, Bad, I'm the Guy with the gun," is off of Army of Darkness, in case you were wondering, I slightly altered it becuase I'm not a guy.*** Eh, maybe I should just quit while I'm ahead and the idea is still fresh? Last thing I wanna do is grind it into everybody's head. I personally like my LJ icon. Meanwhile, more chicks in uniform (being me) and weapons. . . Private E in the middle of Basic Training. I was a color guard, and therefore, I had a 'rifle'. This picture is kind of funny. Same place as aboves only in Class A's. Color Guard, during the brief period I was a ROTC Nazi. On the Range, still a private. Still in Uniform, different kind of projectile. Full Battle Rattle Itz a hummer, but I was a private so I didn't know better. Anti Tank, much different in projectile. And this picture was taken at the same time as my now infamous one. I'm making roughly the same 'face', but at a different angle and I look on the verge of cracking into a laugh. I still like the SAW. The SAW in Simulation was very very fun. Whoops. No weapons, but rather funny regardless. There you go. Enjoy. Update - More superimposing ideas from my brother. This should be fun. Me in front of a Mushroom Cloud. Me on a swiftboat! Me playing Halo! (if I don't watch it, I'll run this into the ground!) Update Some of my Readers are doing their own photoshopping. Courtesy of Aaron Labels: instalaunched, Not Sorry, Photomanipulation -Risawn: # 10:12 PM - |