Feeling a bit more confident using Photoshop it was time to get on with my project. While I am pretty capable of using DSLR cameras I have always preferred the old cameras or polaroid ones. It might be a generational thing and, while I still consider myself young, I have been taking pictures and enjoying it for a long time. I was given my first camera when I was 12 and by the time I was 16 I was already taking pictures every day around the small town I was born in. And nothing compares with the nervous anticipation of waiting for your film to be processed and wondering whether or not you were successful in capturing what you want or anything at all to be honest. Those first years half of my photos were either not focused well or simply looked nothing like what I was going for. Then my Dad upgraded me with Praktica Pentacon MTL50, a camera I have to this day, and things started to get much better. In the last 10 years I have been the odd one out in my family. My partner and then my daughter alongside him are really into photography. Nature and city life photography was their thing and we have spent hours to no end wandering around some hike routes in search of a rare bird they really wanted to see and take pictures of, or in big cities around Europe where most of their sightseeing was through the lenses of DSLR cameras. I was there for the experience and enjoying it just as much but barely compelled to take a lot of pictures of my own. Things have come a long way since I was 16. Not only now you can take pictures that on the spot you can see and decide whether to keep or not, pictures that you have instant access to, pictures that even on your phone you can start altering right away, but there is Photoshop and a lot if similar software programmes, that allow you to take that shiny version of what’s out there and change it even more. It is still capturing reality, yet I see it as a polished version of it. And life is not always that. As long as you don’t fall victim to using it in creating a distorted version of your life that you put out there for everyone to see, I have no issues with that. In terms of art photography, it is taking things to another level and I appreciate that. Yet, for me, who is behind the camera and what is their message will always be the most important thing. So, I decided that my project has to be in some way reflection of my view about photography and Photoshop. I wanted it to showcase digital photography and where I am with the software in terms of altering those digital images. But I also wanted to make a comparison with a more realistic version of things. From there it was easy to come up with the idea that I will make a series of images that will be presented in 3 ways - polaroid, digital and photoshopped version. In terms of Photoshop, I used various functions I was familiar with after hours of tutorials. I wanted to remove, select objects, change colours, make layers and then apply filters and effects, the whole lot I already knew how. While honestly rudimental, my work on these is something I am proud of at this point, considering they are the “from zero to hero something” product of me getting acquainted with Photoshop.
I tried to apply different kinds of changes to each set, so it is not only about me showing how I crop and… well crop. The two sets shown below took me the longest. The first one because I had to make different layers and apply transparency in order to achieve what I wanted, yet it proved really difficult for me to fill the space once I removed the centre object of the photo. Not only that but I wanted for the background to look at least a bit believable and not to be too obvious I have been struggling with it.
With the other one I almost forgot that by changing the colour of the boat I am also changing how it reflects on the water, so I had to go back few times and fix that.
With the last one I am going to post here I was going for not only making a statement (that cover was too good for me to pass on it) but I also wanted to show that I actually made it through the whole tutorial and all the way to one of the last buttons on the side bar 😁. I know I have a lot more to know and learn but this was a good beginning for me. While initially quite concerned about it, this first project has actually made me appreciate the practical aspect of my degree.
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