SplAshiNg COloR 101

We have been working with Photoshop in computer class for quite a while now. So this week when our teacher told us that we would be making our own tutorials for Photoshop, it did not seem like an impossible task. We worked in groups for this assignment and my partner and I chose a photograph from our Walk-a-Thon. This picture has a dominant color of yellow because that is our class color and everyone wears it on this day. We thought it would be a great idea to put this picture in black and white and then only bring back some of our yellow accents. Then we wanted to do more to the photo so we put it on a cork board and added a frame. This blog entry is dedicated to our tutorial with Photoshop.
Before                                                                          After

To add original color to a black and white image:

Step 1: Open Image.

Step 2: Make image black and white by opening Adjustments panel and clicking the Black and White button.

Step 3: Select the History Brush from the Tool Palette.

Step 4: Start coloring the items that you want to add the original color to.

To make a cork board background:

Step 1: Open a new blank document.

Step 2: Make a new layer and name it "Cork".

Step 3: Fill the layer with a tan color.

Step 4: Add Noise by going to Filter, Noise, Add Noise, and check the Monochromatic Box.

Step 5: Go to Filter, Pixelate, and Crystallize.

Step 6: Duplicate the "Cork" layer and name it "Edges".

Step 7: Add texture by going to Filter, Stylize, and Find Edges.

Step 8: Duplicate the "Edges" layer and name it "Reticulation".

Step 9: Filter, Sketch, Reticulation, and make the Opacity 25%. (May use Hue and Saturation to color the cork).

Step 10: Add a Merged Visible Layer by holding Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N+E keys.

Step 11: Go to Filter, Noise, Add Noise, and make it 6%.

Making the frame around cork:

Step 1: Add new layer and name it "Frame".

Step 2: Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to make a smaller section for the cut out of the frame.

Step 3: Press the Delete key to delete the cork from the frame.

Step 4: Go to Filter, Noise, Add Noise, and make it 20%.

Step 5: Select the Polygonal Lasso tool. Then click at the inner top left corner, then inner right corner, then double click to the outer left corner. Hold down the Shift button and do the same to the bottom corner.

Step 6: Go to Filter, Blur, Motion Blur, make the angle 0 degrees, and the distance 30.



Hope this was helpful!

Here are other websites to help you:

www.digital-photography-school.com/mono-with-a-dash-of-colour-photoshop-cs2-tutorial

www.myjanee.com/tuts/bullbd/bullbd1.htm



Every Logo Needs An Ad

You may have seen my previous blog with a logo on it for my family. I have recently created an advertisement based off of my logo. The ad is for a family reunion. On the ad, I put when and where the reunion would take place. I tried to keep the ad short and concise that way it is easier to read. I used multiple tools such as the shape tool for the pointed objects on the background. I also used the dragging tool to get the logo straight from my other blog picture that way the logo would be identical. Before I used the dragging tool, I first used the lasso tool to grab all of the text that I wanted to use. I used the paint bucket tool to fill in the colors on the background, the distort tool to wave the title, and the text tool to apply all of the text, of course. I made many mistakes from experiencing with the paint brush to draw different pictures, so the eraser tool came in handy and was very helpful. I used the eye dropper tool to get the colors to match perfectly. For my picture of the group of people I used the crop tool several times to make the picture fit correctly. Below is my finished advertisement. 

Family Logo

Throughout the last couple class periods I have been creating a logo. Now, due to the fact that I am not very creative I could not think of any type of organizations or clubs to make a logo for, so as a result, I made a logo for my family. Below you will see my final product.

This logo represents my family of five. Each family member is represented with blue or brown eyes, dark or light hair, and to help decipher which girl is which in my family, the dresses are that girl's favorite color. By using the shape tool, I put a Fleur de Lis in the middle of my family's nickname. I used this shape because we live in Louisville and that is our city symbol. I made the text red and the shape black because we are die hard Louisville Cardinal fans. Also using the shape tool, I added the background shapes because I thought that the shape just sort of said "BOOM!" this is the Ratterman family. I decided to go with the gray background because even though we are an extremely loud family, we still have our calm and quiet days, and the gray just says "Hi, it's time to relax and have a lazy day."

Thanks for reading! Check back for more(:

Media-Shop

Have you ever wondered how celebrities look beautiful in every magazine ad? All i have to say is one word: Photoshop. After working on a project for a week, I have finally come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as the perfect body image because it is all fake thanks to this program. I used my personal picture and transformed myself to look like Jennifer Aniston. Here is my before picture:

After using many tools on Photoshop, I merged my face onto Jennifer Aniston's. Here is my after picture:

I feel as if the picture came out much better than I thought it would. It just goes to show people that anyone can transform images and make them look perfect. Everyone tries to look like celebrities, but in all reality, celebrities don't even look like that! No one does.

I think that I applied the eye shadow and mascara very well, but I believe I could improve on the actual color of my face and the matching of my color to Aniston's color because parts of the face are not blended well together. Other than a few minor changes that could have been made after a little practice, I think this picture resembles something that would be shown in the media because of all the touch-ups.

Thanks for reading! Keep checking in for more blogs(:

A Day in the Life of Me





Throughout two class periods, I worked on making a collage that depicts a day in the life of a Mercy student. I wanted the collage to be bright and colorful because each day is full of happiness and joy. I used a number of tools on Photoshop such as the cropping tool, the hue/ saturation tool, black and white, gradient map, selective color, and the magic wand. Those are just some of the main tools that I used while making this project. I wanted to create the collage centered around the Mercy crest because I believe that it helps Mercy students remember how fortunate we are that we are able to receive a Catholic education. When I was taking the pictures to use in the collage, I kept in mind to avoid mergers. One element of photography that I used was simplicity in which I took the picture of the Crucifix.  

Photoshop is a great program to use when dealing with pictures and it is fun to mess around with all the different tools. It is an exploration of technology that opens your imagination above and beyond regular editing.



Do You Know the Elements?

When most people take pictures, they don't take into consideration the different elements that a picture can have. Three elements that I use are simplicity, the rule of thirds, and avoiding mergers. Below are examples of these three elements.

In this picture of my almost-3-year old maltese named Mercy, I use the element of simplicity because all you can mainly see are her eyes and nose. The picture is a close up that allows you to only see parts of her cute little face. This picture is simple yet still has character.



This picture may seem odd, but I used the rule of thirds to take this. The element allows you to focus the attention to a few certain areas. These shoes symbolize my everyday life. The shoes that are bigger and closer to the front show the biggest parts of my life which are school and work. The pair of shoes that are in the very back symbolize my most time-consuming part of life which is sports. Using a grid to take a picture helps to focus the attention which is what I had hoped to accomplish in this picture.



The last but certainly not least of the elements that I used is avoiding mergers. By making sure that your background is mainly a solid background, you can easily avoid mergers. The picture on the left shows how to not avoid mergers. My dog looks as if she has cords and part of a table growing off of her. Now in the picture on the right, I placed my dog in front of a chair that is one pattern instead of a bunch of different backgrounds.

 I hope that I have answered any questions about elements of a picture! Enjoy the art of picture taking!

Gmail Studios Podcast

For a total of three class periods, three of my classmates and I worked on making an audio podcast all about piracy and copyright infringement which you can find here. We made everything legally, but if we had used songs or other pieces that were not our own work, we would need to cite our sources. Anything that is in the public domain or is fair game would not need to be cited, but it would need to be given credit.

I personally believe that downloading music without permission from the copyright holder is wrong. That is why I think in this day in age, we should have copyright laws. Today's society revoloves around getting away with using as little money as possible. Teens, and even adults, are now downloading more and more music illegally. Copyright laws will help protect against people stealing music.

Pirating videos, pictures, or music can make people who own that piece of work lose money. If my podcast was illegally downloaded and used for something that I do not approve of, I would feel as if I were betrayed. Whether or not I know the person, I would still not tolerate the fact that he or she stole from me. Please did not pirate other people's work! Companies work hard for your entertainment, and you should just simply thank them by not stealing.

Copyright Is a Big Deal!

After some research, I found out that  the punishment for copyright infringement can be a little extensive. For instance, I was not aware that if you were caught illegally downloading, the maximum fine is $250,000 and 5 years in prison. Now, you may be thinking why on earth is the punishment so harsh? I asked the same question. In my research I found that it is because people make a living off of the money that is used to purchase songs online. If you illegally download a song, someone is not getting paid for their job.

An article that I found here talks about a 15-year-old boy from Sweden who was turned in to police by the principal of his school for putting downloaded movies on filesharing websites. The boy was taken to court but was found innocent. Keep in mind this took place in Sweden. If it had taken place in the U.S., the boy, or his parents rather, may have had to pay some type of fine. The boy in Sweden had no punishment which I do not think is entirely fair because he committed Copyright Infringement which is still a crime, and he should have some sort of consequence.

Computer's a Womans' Bestfriend

My obsession with computers and pushing buttons started in about 3rd grade in a little accessory called Paint. Every little kid loves playing on this accessory, and if a poll was taken in an elementary school, the most accessed program on a computer would probably be Paint. Inside and outside the classroom I loved playing games on the computer. One of my favorite places to play games was Disney Channel. However, most of the games are not the same anymore, but I still recommend it to any young children if they are bored.

Once I grew up and entered 7th grade, I stumbled upon other fun websites such as Facebook. Now although I knew about this great website in the 7th grade, I didn't get  one until the middle of 8th grade after my sister got one. This network grows bigger everyday, but so does another website that might spark your interest; Twitter. The Twitter family is gaining more users daily just like Facebook. The fun in these websites isn't about the people you meet, but rather the fact that you can check up on old friends and relatives.

Although I get on the computer most of the time to check my Facebook and Twitter accounts, I also love to create and edit videos. I sometimes post funny videos of my friends and me on Youtube where I can also find other videos that make me laugh. My favorite part about this website is that you can always find new creative videos of people who might be the next big thing. Take Justin Bieber for instance; everyone knows that he was discovered on Youtube and many people brag about how they have been a fan since his first videos that were posted of him singing in his bathroom. I believe that because of him, Youtube has grown in the number of users in hope of becoming like a Justin Bieber and magically being discovered by an agent that sees their video.




Future computer genius.

 These are just a few of my favorite websites and things that I like to do when I open up my laptop. I strongly believe that the future of our technology will grow and soon we will have many more "cool" websites and other features on computers that will allow us to go above and beyond our imagination when doing things such as editing videos. As a matter of fact, I believe that computer geniuses are working on the newest program for computers that will excel past all other programs and allow us to do many more things on computers.


-Lexie