Introduction to Photoshop

Having spent a lot of time on Photoshop previously, I was looking forward to being reminded of some of the features I had forgotten about and possibly learn something new about the software. The morning session was quite straight forward and we were shown the basic tools of Photoshop and how to navigate around. After being introduced to mask layers and how to use them we were given a selection of images to use and compile in order to utilise the 'mask layer' feature. The image on the left was created by taking an image of a helmet and an image of a man's face and overlaying them in order to create the idea that he's wearing it. Quite straight forward up to this point, but fun nonetheless. One of the biggest things I got out of the morning session was the idea that I should use keyboard short cuts in order to make my work flow quicker and the general navigation around Photoshop more efficient, so this is definitely something I will be trying to practice and use in the future.



The second half of the Photoshop introduction included showing us some of the more intermediate features of Photoshop. We were also given the opportunity to use the Wacom tablets which was something I hadn't done before, but got used to quite easily. After around half an hour of using the tablet you begin to use it more instinctively than before and it becomes less of a new feeling. The tablet gave me more control when using the eraser and brush tools for example than controlling them with a mouse, so I felt I had more freedom to experiment and create the image I wanted. The image of the right was a masking/blending experiment where we had to collect four or five images from the album and over lay them to create an interesting composition. I tried to mix up the type of image I used and gather images with textures that I could overlay and create and overall interesting image. Once they had been overlayed I added sections of colour and altered the saturation and hue on certain layers to change the feel of the image.



Here is an example of something I attempted in order to get used to using the sensitivity and line weight settings on the tablet.



Nearing the end of the session, we were given the task to create a 'final piece' based on what we'd learnt throughout the day. I had the idea to create a scene featuring different altitudes, starting with the ground, then mountains, followed by clouds; and finally, an image of space. I laid the images out on the canvas, slightly over lapping them before I created the mask layers for each one. After this I altered the levels and saturation/hue so that they were slightly of a slightly more similar tone before starting to merge the images together. I also tried to remove some of the colouring and vibrance of some of the images using the mask layer technique so that they were of a much closer level.



Overall I'm quite happy with the finished image, I think if I could improve it I could have altered the levels and hue/saturation to give a more interesting or compelling feel. However it turned out quite close to how I had envisioned it and I learnt a lot from the creation of the image.